The LGA has called on the Government to end the crisis of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children being placed in hotels.
It is urging government to work more closely with councils to help develop more placements for unaccompanied children so that they can be moved directly to their long-term homes.
Latest figures show that during the three months from July to September 2022, 1,322 children were housed by the Home Office in hotels, for an average of 16 days.
As of 19 October, 222 young people who have been accommodated in hotels were missing.
Councils have significant concerns over unaccompanied children being accommodated in hotels by the Home Office – often without informing the council beforehand – and are doing all they can to find suitable placements for these children.
Councils made 597 placements in the past six months for which is data is available, compared with 136 in the same period the previous year. This follows the National Transfer Scheme – which moves children from where they are first identified to care placements around the country – becoming mandatory for councils.
The LGA has also raised concerns over councils not being consulted or informed in advance about the use of hotels for asylum-seeking adults and children.
An LGA spokesperson said: “We must have better notice and better engagement locally and nationally with the Home Office and across government and are asking the Government to fix that immediately.
“We can only fix the system by working together to ensure there is sufficient and appropriate accommodation available across the UK.
“We are working with the Government to try to help develop much better communication, engagement and coordination of arrangements in the short term and to develop longer-term improvements to end the current crisis.”
