After coming under fire for its timid reporting of the Telford and Oxford grooming scandals, the BBC seems to have taken stock: this week, it successfully exposed the grooming of looked-after teenagers living on their own.
According to Newsnight thousands of vulnerable young people are being placed in unregistered, independent accommodation from the age of sixteen, leaving them open to abuse from opportunistic grooming gangs. The phrase ‘looked-after’ could hardly ring less true. But this BBC report only strikes the tip of the iceberg. Not only are looked-after children at risk of abuse, they’re also more likely to become homeless or end up behind bars.
What is surprising is the government’s tin-eared response to the BBC’s revelations. It said that children in care ‘deserve good quality accommodation’. This reduces the issue to a matter of resources and avoids the nub of the problem: the lack of a family support network. It’s far easier to provide bricks and mortar than it is to do the hard work of persuading more families to foster older children, and yet the government is letting children down on both fronts.
Children and families minister Nadhim Zahawi said in response to the BBC that he recently wrote to all Directors of Children’s Services to remind them of their obligation to provide suitable accommodation to those in care.
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