No child should be placed in an illegal children’s home. To understand how many children are being placed in these wholly inappropriate settings, the Children’s Commissioner’s office requested data from all local authorities in England about this practice. The office’s data request to all local authorities in England found 669 children in unregistered homes on 1st September 2025, This is a slight, but welcome, decrease in the number of children placed in unregistered children’s homes compared to the office’s report examining this issue published a year ago – it is down 12% from 764 on the same day last year. These placements remain unlawful and unsafe, and their continued use represents a serious failure to protect vulnerable children.
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