A national review has called for a major overhaul of essential safeguards to protect children with disabilities from abuse at children’s homes.
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has set out recommendations to improve the care and welfare of children with disabilities and complex needs living in residential settings.
It follows a review last October into very serious abuse of a significant number of children with disabilities and complex health needs at three residential special schools registered as children’s homes in Doncaster, operated by the Hesley Group.
Cllr Lucy Nethsingha, Deputy Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said: “The treatment suffered by children in settings operated by the Hesley Group is both unacceptable and deeply distressing.
“The findings of the national panel must be an urgent call to action for the entire sector to make sure that children with disabilities and complex health needs receive the support they need in settings where they are safe and well cared for.
“There are clear opportunities through planned children’s social care and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms to implement these recommendations, if they are adequately funded.
“As this report rightly identifies, supporting these children well requires the commitment of a range of partners.
“To help ensure this happens, councils should be given additional powers to hold local partners, including health and schools, to account for their role in supporting children with SEND.”