State 'fails' thousands of vulnerable children: Youngsters being placed in care miles from home while some girls are housed with sex offenders

PUBLISHED: 00:46, 18 December 2012 | UPDATED: 09:52, 18 December 2012

Thousands of damaged children are being dumped in care homes hundreds of miles from home.
Youngsters as young as 11, many of whom have been abused or neglected by their families, are then ‘forgotten’ by the care system, which leaves them stranded in residential homes, inspectors found.
Such was the level of neglect that young girls were placed in the same care homes as sex abusers.
Failure: Children as young as 11, many of whom have been abused or neglected by their families, are 'forgotten' by the care system
Failure: Children as young as 11, many of whom have been abused or neglected by their families, are 'forgotten' by the care system
In one case a 13-year-old who was taken into care because of sex abuse was raped by a 15-year-old boy in her care home. Photographs of her were found on his mobile phone.
In another, an 11-year-old sex abuse victim was put in a home with an alleged abuser.
 

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A joint inspection by HMI Probation, Ofsted and the Education and Training inspectorate found children were moved repeatedly around the country, leaving them unable to put down roots or build a new life. That included one teenager who was moved 30 times in three years.
Around one in three children was put in a care home more than 100 miles away from where they were from, and nearly two-thirds were placed 50 miles away.
Tragic: In some cases children are put in homes where they are abused (file picture)
Tragic: In some cases children are put in homes where they are abused (file picture)
Care home placements can cost up to £250,000 per year, but inspectors found many staff had ‘woefully low’ expectations for the children in their care.
Astonishingly, the inspectorate found children had been placed in homes which other local authorities had deemed ‘unsuitable’ because of the standard of care.
Inspectors estimate there are between one and three thousand children in care who have committed criminal offences.
Chief inspector of probation Liz Calderbank said their findings were ‘distressing’. She attacked councils for ‘shipping’ children more than 50 miles away from home, despite rules requiring councils to place children as near to their home as possible.
‘The lives of many of these children had been characterised by family breakdown, by neglect and by abuse.
But when placed into care, she said, ‘the system is then failing them in terms of how it trying to look after them.’
She agreed that ‘the State says it cares for them when in fact it does not’.
Worryingly, ten local authorities, including Hackney in east London, had no children’s homes in their area at all.
The report found many workers in Youth Offending Teams - who are charge with helping young criminals get their lives back together - were poorly qualified.
Many were uncaring and unaware of the impact of ‘loss, disruption, loneliness or sadness’ of care home children.