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Almost 80 looked-after children a day changed foster carer or children’s home in the 2021 festive period. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA Media
Almost 80 looked-after children a day changed foster carer or children’s home in the 2021 festive period. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA Media

England’s care crisis forces 1,200 children to move over Christmas

This article is more than 1 year old

Charity Become says ‘shocking’ numbers highlight need for stability and more funding for foster carers

More than 1,200 children in care were uprooted and had to move placements over Christmas last year, figures from councils in England show.

The “shocking and upsetting” numbers, collated by the national care charity Become, showed that an average of 79 looked-after children had to change foster carer or children’s home each day over the 2021-22 festive period.

Some had to move more than once, prompting particular upset at a time of year when children in care can feel especially lonely and unloved.

One young person told Become that Christmas “often reminds me that I don’t have a ‘normal’ family … I am reminded of how different my experience of the world is from them.”

The charity said the figures showed the need for “urgent and ambitious action to ensure children in care are able to thrive”.

Freedom of information requests revealed 1,257 children in care moved homes between 18 December 2021 and 3 January 2022.

The data covers 144 of 151 local authorities in England. While some councils said they had not moved any children over the Christmas period, Kent moved 54 (3% of the county’s looked-after children), Brent in London moved 23 (6.7%) and Oldham in Greater Manchester moved 25 (4.6%).

Moving over Christmas can present practical challenges. While local authorities have staff supporting children in care over the festive period, regular services are less likely to be available. With schools closed, children do not have the same distractions and contact with their existing network of friends may be more limited, Become said in its Home For Christmas report.

Some local authorities reported a higher number of moves than children, meaning some children had been moved more than once during the festive period.

The instability faced at Christmas reflects the picture across the year. In 2021-22, 10% of children in the care system were moved three or more times (8,030 children in total), with almost one-third of children in care (31%) moved two or more times.

While there can be valid reasons for children being moved, moves can often be due to a lack of appropriate places, poor planning or unsuitable matching or places, Become said.

Katharine Sacks-Jones, the charity’s chief executive, said: “These statistics are as shocking as they are upsetting. For children and young people in care, Christmas can already be a difficult and isolating time, without the family around them that many of us take for granted.

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“But to move young people at Christmas, when their friends are enjoying presents, family meals and the usual festive joys, delivers yet more isolation and uncertainty. Care-experienced children are being moved into unfamiliar surroundings, leaving behind relationships they have managed to build and into an environment they do not know.

“Become is calling on the government to take urgent and ambitious action to ensure children and young people in care have greater stability and the same opportunities as other children to thrive.”

She called on the government to announce a national commitment and target to reduce the number of moves children in the care system experience. Become also wants the government to fund more children’s homes in areas that need them and invest in recruiting more foster carers.

In 2021-22, there were 54,620 placement changes in England, an average of 150 per day, underscoring the instability and insecurity vulnerable young people face.

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