Lincolnshire County Council spent nearly £1m housing children in unregistered care homes last year due to a “national shortage” in spaces.
Watchdog Ofsted says this is illegal, although many councils across the country are resorting to the measure in order to meet demand, writes Local Democracy Reporter Jamie Waller.
The authority says that the children were safe and visited weekly by social workers.
A total of £992,133 was spent in the 2024/25 financial year looking after two children, and another £10,000 right at the end of the previous financial year.
Jo Kavanagh, assistant director for children and young people, said: “In Lincolnshire, we are fortunate to have a large number of fostering families, in-house residential placements and robust commissioning arrangements in place to ensure that very few children spend time in unregistered settings, but this can occasionally happen due to a national shortage of specialist or registered places.
“In these instances, we’ll ensure that the child is safe and cared for by appropriately trained staff. They will be visited weekly by their social worker, and the suitability of their placement will also be reviewed weekly.
“In addition, we can support the home through the registration process where appropriate.”
Advice on the government website says: “Unregistered children’s homes are illegal. Anyone providing care and accommodation to a child in a setting that is not registered with Ofsted when it should be is committing an offence.”
It says there has been a “concerning rise” in councils resorting to these.
Official figures show that their use has shot up year on year, with Ofsted identifying around 900 in 2023/24, compared with around 140 three years previously.
Lincolnshire County Council said in January it was looking after 780 children, and expected the costs of looking after them to balloon to £110m over this financial year.
The situation was described as a “perfect storm” by one councillor, with tightening funding and growing demand.
