We have reviewed the care provided for children living in care homes

Our review provides an understanding of outcomes for children living in care homes, as well as some of the challenges facing the sector.

Conducted between July 2018 and March 2019, it evaluates the quality of care provided and reflects the views and experiences of children who have experienced residential care placements.

Our findings

• We found that many of the children received good quality support in the homes they were living in.
• Almost all homes provided a warm, comfortable environment for children to live in and call their home.
• We found a general commitment to ensure children had positive social and leisure experiences, improving their social skills, which was contributing positively to their overall emotional well-being.

Recommendations 

• We saw an increasing number of children are going missing from care.  We made a recommendation to review policies and practice to ensure children are not placed at unnecessary and increased risk of harm, including criminalisation.
• Providers and local authorities need to ensure there is sufficiency of placements to meet the needs of children and enable them to live close to home.
• Residential care should be considered as a positive choice for children not as the last option.

Next steps

We are committed to following up the recommendations contained in the reports, and will work with others to secure improvements in outcomes for the most vulnerable children and young people in Wales.

To view all our findings and recommendations, read the full report.