Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the findings of the investigation by the Guardian and Bureau of Investigative Journalism, published on 8 September 2026, that local authorities spent more than £250 million on approximately 1,800 placements in unregistered children's homes over the previous two years; and whether her Department plans to collect and publish data on (a) the number, (b) duration and (c) cost of placements in unregistered children's homes by each local authority.

Unregistered settings are illegal and may pose a significant risk to children, with no assurance about children’s safety, the staff or the environment. This is why the department is taking a number of measures to eliminate the use of such placements by local authorities.

To increase the availability of safe, registered provision, we are investing £560 million between 2026/27 and 2029/30, alongside £90 million in 2025/26, to expand local authority-owned children's homes in areas where they are needed most. We are also rolling-out Regional Care Cooperatives across the country to strengthen local commissioning, improve planning and increase purchasing power.

Through the Children Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, we have strengthened Ofsted’s powers to crack down on unregistered providers by introducing uncapped financial penalties alongside exiting prosecution powers.

We are also improving transparency and oversight by introducing a dedicated category for unregistered placements within the 2026 children looked after annual return (SSDA903) completed by local authorities. This will provide the first national dataset on the use of unregistered placements, helping the department identify where and how often they are being used.