Tulip Siddiq MP  

• CHILDREN’S homes should be a safe haven for the most vulnerable children.

However research by the Children’s Commissioner has found some children’s homes around the country are not keeping these children safe.

As Labour’s shadow children’s minister, I challenged ministers in parliament about the fact that a decade of cuts and poor regulation have left far too many children across the UK at risk of exploitation and neglect.

There were over 37,000 cases of looked after children going missing from children’s homes in 2018/19. That’s an increase of around 150 per cent from 2015, which experts attribute to rising levels of criminal and sexual exploitation.

Part of the problem is the unprecedented levels of disruption that looked after children are facing. Last year around 8,000 of these children were put in three or more different homes within just 12 months.

One in eight of the total spent time in unregulated accommodation, which isn’t even inspected, and many were not offered a place at a secure children’s home at all.

It is hard to underestimate the impact of these failings on the most vulnerable children, and that’s before all the disruption and pain of the coronavirus pandemic.

Children were always going to face greater threats in lockdown, yet the government took the misguided decision to water down their legal protections in April. This crisis should have been a catalyst for change not an excuse for inaction.

Nearly a year on from the election there is still no sign of the children’s social care review promised in the Tory manifesto. It is essential that action is taken now to safeguard vulnerable children.

TULIP SIDDIQ MP
Labour, Hampstead & Kilburn
Shadow Minister for Children & Early Years