Out of town, over-budget and unregistered homes: The challenges facing children's social care
Most of Sefton's cared for children live outside the borough while unregistered homes are used elsewhere across Merseyside
Hello and welcome to the midweek edition of The Southport Lead.
This newsletter has previously focused on the difficulties for children in care which can be seen when residents oppose homes near them being used by care companies. Today’s editions looks at issues facing child social care, namely that a shortage of suitable places means that children are being either moved away to another borough or into unregistered homes.
In Sunday’s newsletter, we reported that Sefton Council is considering the introduction of dynamic pricing for its public toilets, allowing it to increase the cost during major events. Not unusually, this was picked up by nationals titles with no reference or credit to where the story originally came from. It is only with your support that we can continue breaking news so please consider taking a paid subscription - and as always, thank you to those who have already done so.
Southport briefing
👏 Sefton Council’s free employment, training and recruitment service, Sefton@Work, has retained its full Customer Service Excellence rating and achieved five new Compliance Plus ratings. The service offers confidential and impartial information, advice and guidance to Sefton residents over 16 years on all aspects of jobs, education and training including self-employment and having first achieved Customer Service Excellence in 2010 has shown year on year improvements ever since. In the most recent assessment, the team gained a further five Compliance Plus ratings, something which can only be achieved when an organisation exceeds the standard required in a particular area. Sefton@Work now has 33 Compliance Plus ratings overall putting them among the top performing organisations in the country for Customer Service. Cllr Paulette Lappin, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Skills said: “The Sefton@Work team work tirelessly across the Borough to ensure there are opportunities for everyone and help our companies grow. Congratulations to them on another year of top quality service and improvements that have led to them retaining their Customer Service Excellence status and achieving new Compliance Plus ratings.”
🗑️ New rules for Southport Household Waste and Recycling Centre could see residents required to use a booking system and face an annual limit on the number of visits. The changes, which would affect all tips across Merseyside, would also limit their use to those living in the county - potentially meaning those living closest to Southport’s tip but past the Lancashire border would no longer be admitted. Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority (MRWA) has launched a consultation on the plans which runs until September 22nd. Lesley Worswick, Chief Executive of MRWA, said: “Our Recycling Centres are used more than three million times each year and provide an important service for households across Merseyside. As we plan for the future, we want to understand what people think about the proposals, what benefits they see and what concerns they may have. This is an opportunity for residents to inform decision making, and the feedback we receive will help inform the next stage of our review.”
🚓 A man has been charged after several attempts were made to break into cars on Falkland Road. Police were called at around 1.20am on Friday when a man was seen looking in car windows and trying to open doors. Officers searched the area and found and detained a man wearing a balaclava and gloves on the driveway of a property along the street. Michael Edwardson, aged 61, of Balfour Road in Southport was later charged with going equipped for theft and three counts of vehicle interference. He was remanded to court and bailed to appear at Sefton Magistrates Court on Wednesday 30 September.
🗼 Southport MP Patrick Hurley has given his backing to Blackpool’s attempt to become UK City of Culture 2029. Blackpool’s bid was formally submitted to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) this week and Hurley joined every other Lancashire MP in supporting the effort. Blackpool was longlisted for the title earlier this year alongside eight other places from across the UK and submission follows four months of bid development. The winning bid will receive £10 million in guaranteed government funding to deliver its programme, with £125,000 resource grants awarded to each of the three runners-up. A letter jointly signed by Hurley and the 15 other Lancashire MPs states: “With tourism on the rise and world-class infrastructure in place, City of Culture status would provide the prestige to boost Blackpool’s visitor economy, create new jobs, and strengthen its identity across the town and the wider region for years to come. The benefits would ripple outward, drawing visitors who will explore further – along Lancashire’s coastline, into its towns and countryside, and giving our whole county a platform to showcase its culture, heritage and talent to the world. Blackpool has the ambition and creativity to make the most of this opportunity, and this recognition would allow the town and wider county to unlock its full potential.” The bid now goes before DCMS’s independent expert advisory panel, which will assess all nine longlisted applications against the competition’s criteria. The panel will recommend a shortlist of up to four places to DCMS ministers, who will make the final decision on which places progress.
Out of town, over-budget and unregistered homes: The challenges facing children’s social care
By Emma Morgan
Around £120m was spent by local authorities across Merseyside in the last year on private children’s homes with some of that money being paid to house children in unregistered, illegal settings.
The expenditure was revealed after Ofsted announced in July that councils that place children in unregistered homes could see their children’s services performance ratings downgraded, and after the inspectorate carried out its first successful prosecution against this type of provider.
Collectively, Sefton, Liverpool, Knowsley and Wirral Councils spent £119.6m on funding private services in 2025/6, according to responses to Freedom of Information requests. St Helens Council did not respond, but as of 2024 had 34 private homes across the borough.
Costs have risen significantly over the past couple of years, with Sefton for example spending £35.6m in the past year, compared to £23.4 in 2023/4.
Private care homes make up over 80% of the mix in England, with the remainder being run by local authorities and charities. The number of this type of home has skyrocketed in recent years, nearly doubling from 2,209 to over 4,000 since 2018, according to Ofsted.
In that same period, the number of children in care only increased by 9%. It is thought that the rise in the number of homes is the result of new providers including private equity and property investors who do not require prior experience or qualifications to set up services, according to charity Become.
Ofsted warned last year that firms were increasingly putting profit over the needs of children, partly by setting up homes in areas of the country where housing is cheaper.
The sharp rise in the number of children’s homes has also resulted in an increase in the number of unregistered providers.
All services are legally obliged to register with Ofsted, which is required to inspect them twice a year. However, when councils with a shortage of homes in their area cannot find any other way to place children in care, they sometimes have to resort to using these settings, sometimes costing up to £2m per year per child, the BBC has reported.
Firms lodging applications with Merseyside councils’ planning departments often do not show up on Ofsted records. These settings may be waiting to register with the inspectorate, or they may not have submitted an application at all.
Ofsted’s successful prosecution of an unregistered provider related to Catalyst Care Limited, whose directors were fined £92,400 after pleading guilty to managing illegal homes in Kent. The directors had been sent repeated warnings by Ofsted that they were breaking the law, while receiving over £1.7m from local authorities.
Ofsted said that children placed in unregistered homes have no assurance of safe or suitable care, adding: “There are no guaranteed checks on staff or living conditions, or accountability when things go wrong. Worryingly, many children placed in illegal homes are often those with the most complex needs.”
Sefton Council said that it knows of 65 unregistered homes within its boundaries, but none of its young people are housed in one. It added that it does interact with the providers for safeguarding processes and due diligence measures, as well as to clarify whether the home is pursuing Ofsted registration.
Sefton Cabinet member for children, schools, and families Diane Roscoe said: “It is a trend we are aware of but our position in Sefton is that children who need to come into our care are best placed within their home communities and our priority is to recruit foster carers so children live in stable, loving homes.”
