EXCLUSIVE: Scandal of care children 'exported' from home boroughs and exposed to abuse

 
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12 September 2012
WEST END FINAL

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The Standard today exposes the scandal of London children being “exported” to care homes across the country where they are at increased risk of abuse.

Almost two thirds of youngsters taken into care are sent outside their borough and evidence shows some are being maltreated and introduced to drugs.

The investigation reveals children in the capital are twice as likely to be sent “out of area” despite warnings from police and children’s charities that this places them in greater danger.

Critics today accused London boroughs of sending children as far away as Sunderland to save money and due to local shortages of foster parents.

Out of 10,390 children looked after by London boroughs last year, only 3,870 went to homes within the authority’s boundaries, official figures reveal.

Some 6,190, or 60 per cent, were placed outside the borough. For inner London, the proportion was 68 per cent, compared with a UK average of 35 per cent. Almost a fifth were sent more than 20 miles outside their home borough, again above the UK average.

A placement in a private home may cost £35,000 a year, rising to £250,000 for a child with severe needs.

Enver Solomon, director of policy at the Children’s Society, said: “Children are being moved around like chess pieces on a board, and not on the basis of their needs.

“If a child is placed a long way from home, he or she is more likely to run away [and] get into risky situations out on the street, being preyed on by dangerous individuals.

“These are often children who have suffered neglect and abuse. If they are moved to another part of the country it means them being wrenched from their school and the community where they have friends or important bonds.”

Figures obtained under Freedom of Information show London boroughs had 1,244 children in care homes in Kent — 228 to Thanet, which includes Margate on the coast. They included 16 from Newham, 12 from Lewisham and 10 each from Hounslow and Hillingdon.

Kent county council has protested about numbers “exported” to Thanet.

Andrew Somers, headteacher at Hartsdown Technology College, in Margate, said he was turning away London children. “I’m saying no — no more out-of-area placements. Legally I probably should not do that. But take me to court — I’ll win the moral high ground.”

Most of the children were living on the Cliftonville estate near the school. Mr Somers said: “It is one of the most deprived wards in the UK and I have seen a map of the area pinpricked with children’s homes set up in a square mile where there are known paedophiles and drug dealers.”

Some 110 known former offenders and registered sex offenders have been recorded as living in two wards — Cliftonville and Margate Central.

Councillor Jenny Whittle, cabinet member for specialist children’s services at Kent county council, said London authorities were choosing private homes on poor estates to save money.

She added: “It is difficult for a council to carry out its responsibility for corporate parenting if a social worker has to drive a 160-mile round trip from Newham to Thanet.”

Mayor Boris Johnson has turned down a request from Kent to call a summit of 32 London boroughs. But he wrote to the London Councils group seeking assurances they are “ensuring the protection of looked-after children placed in Kent, and that everything possible is being done to place more children in their home borough”.

Labour MP Ann Coffey, chairwoman of the all-party parliamentary group for runaway and missing children, pointed out that one of the young victims of the Rochdale sexual grooming scandal was a looked-after girl.

“Failure to take action will lead to more horrific Rochdale cases,” she said. “We would never forgive ourselves if by inaction we allowed more children to be lured into the living nightmare of sexual exploitation.”

London boroughs told the Standard they try to place children locally but do not have enough foster families.

A Hounslow spokesman said: “We have a small number in Thanet, but ... this has been falling significantly.”

Newham said: “We have been recruiting local foster families and more children than ever are placed [locally]”

Greenwich said: “In most cases [children] are placed less than 20 miles from home. Any referrals have been done with the needs of the child at the heart of the decision.”

Victim ‘failed by her protectors’

When abuse victim Josie was taken into care at the age of 11, it should have put an end to her nightmare.

She suffered serious sexual assaults for much of her childhood in the west London borough where she was raised. The authority eventually became her lawful guardian — and, supposedly, her protector.

But within months she had been moved to a private children’s home on a crime-ridden estate miles from the borough that remained legally responsible for her wellbeing and education.

Josie, whose real name cannot be disclosed, tried to run away. When she was 14, police raided a house where underage girls were being given alcohol and drugs and made to have sex with men. Among them was Josie.

“She was an innocent child who was horribly abused and taught to please adults,” said one professional.

“The scandal is she is just one of many vulnerable children sent to estates like that by London boroughs.”

Josie is now with foster parents and social workers hope she will settle down.

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