Children's care homes set to open to meet demand

Two new children's homes are set to open in Wakefield amid a "national crisis" of care placements for young people.

Wakefield Council wants to lease two additional properties to provide short-term emergency placements for up to six children.

The authority said the number of children in care across the district had risen by 7%, from 639 in March 2023 to 684 in March 2024.

A council report said: "There is a national crisis in respect of sufficient placements for our children and young people in local authority care."

It added: "The number of fostering households nationally has not kept pace with this increase. This means that other forms of placement provision are becoming increasingly important in meeting the needs of children in care."

The council's cabinet members are expected to agree to lease the two properties, as well as recruiting and training more staff to run them, at a meeting on 10 December, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

According to a report, the number of children in care nationally reached 83,840 in March 2023, compared to 82,170 in March 2022, though Wakefield still has one of the lowest levels of children in care compared to local authorities of a similar size.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.