Councils spent £353 million in 2024 on housing children in illegal homes

On September 1, there were 669 children living in illegal homes – down from 764 on the same day in 2024, the report from Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said.

Of these 669 children, 89 have lived in the same illegal housing for more than one year and nearly 60 per cent have complex additional needs or disabilities, according to the data.

Most children in illegal accommodation are over the age of 15 (51 per cent), while 46 per cent were aged 10 to 15 and 3.1 per cent were under 10 years old, the report said.

Dame Rachel said her findings, released on Sunday, were “indicative of wide failings across an entire system” and called for improved models of children’s social care.

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The average duration of illegal placements was more than six months, while one child was housed in a holiday camp for nearly nine months and another was in a caravan for more than four months, the research found.

A “small number” of children had been in an illegal home for more than three years, the report said.

The number of illegal placements costing more than £1 million per child has risen since last year to 36 by September 1, while the average weekly cost of the unregistered homes was around £10,500 per child, the equivalent of more than half a million pounds a year.

Dame Rachel said: “This is what failure looks like in children’s services: when a lack of good options is what dictates the quality of care given to a child with complex needs.

“It is indicative of wide failings across an entire system that there are any children at all in these unregistered homes, much less hundreds.

“I have deep concerns about how frequently these illegal placements are used, despite it already being against the law, as well as a focus of the Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, currently moving through Parliament.

“It highlights some really shocking additional details about the needs and circumstances of the children affected.

“Instead of spending such huge sums on costly crisis care, we should instead be investing in models of children’s social care that prioritise intervening earlier in their lives, keeping children closer to loved ones and ensuring they have stability and support.

“These 669 children must be the bellwether for the whole system. Getting it right for them will mean getting it right for all children in care.”