News

There are at least six children in each local authority who are hard to place in services because they are considered to be too dangerous, professionals told a parliamentary seminar yesterday.

Renuka Jeyarajah Dent, director of the Bridge Child Care Development Service at charity NCH, said social workers were finding it difficult to place children with a history of physical or sexual violence because of a lack of resources.

She highlighted research by the service and the Nuffield Foundation that found around six children in each council were hard to place because they posed a danger to other children.

However, former MP Hilton Dawson, now chief executive of children’s provider Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa, called the figure a "gross underestimate" and said more needed to be done to recognise the problem.

The seminar, at the House of Lords, was organised by NCH.