The North West Has a Quarter of England's Children's Homes
Children's homes are not spread evenly across England. The North West alone holds around a quarter of them, roughly 1,250 homes, while the South West has just 300. Yet the North West is home to only 18% of England's children in care. The result is a map where homes and children do not line up, and children who pay for the gap by being placed far from everything they know.
Ofsted's Children's social care in England 2026 data lays the imbalance out plainly. One region holds a quarter of the country's homes, and the spread bears little relation to where children actually come from. We mapped the full regional picture in our analysis of the Ofsted children's homes data. At Sue Solutions we build children's homes management software, and the consequences of this uneven map land squarely on the providers and teams trying to care for children a long way from home.
How Uneven The Map Really Is
The gap between the busiest and quietest regions is stark. The North West has more than four times as many homes as the South West. Even the second largest region, the West Midlands, has little more than half the North West's total.
| Region | Children's homes | Share of England |
|---|---|---|
| North West | 1,252 | 26% |
| West Midlands | 723 | 15% |
| North East, Yorks and Humber | 647 | 14% |
| East Midlands | 606 | 13% |
| South East | 486 | 10% |
| London | 346 | 7% |
| South West | 300 | 6% |
The North West has around 1,250 children's homes. The entire South West has 300.
Why The Homes Are Where They Are
The imbalance is not really about where children in care live. It is about where homes are cheapest to run. A large house suitable for a children's home costs far less to buy or rent in parts of the North West and the Midlands than in the South East or London. Providers, quite rationally, have opened where the property maths works.
Ofsted has been pointed about what this means. The regulator has described a serious mismatch between where provision sits and where children need it, and has suggested the clustering reflects property economics rather than children's needs. The North West holds 26% of homes but is home to just 18% of England's looked-after children. London and the South East, where many children come from, have far fewer homes than their populations would suggest.
This is a distribution problem, not a simple shortage. Ofsted has noted there are more registered places nationally than children who need them. The difficulty is that the places are in the wrong parts of the country, so a region can hold a surplus while another cannot find a suitable local home.
The Cost Falls On Children, And On The Teams Around Them
A map where homes and children do not line up has a human consequence. A child from a region with little local provision may be placed many miles away, far from family, school, friends and the social worker who knows them. National data has long shown a large share of children in residential care living outside their home local authority, and many placed more than 20 miles away.
That distance does not just affect the child. It reshapes the daily work of the home caring for them. When a young person is placed far from their home authority, the home becomes the hinge between a placing authority in one part of the country and everyone around the child in another. That means more people to keep informed, more handovers across distance, and more importance riding on records that a social worker two hundred miles away can rely on without a site visit.
- A placing authority in another region needs clear, current information without being able to drop in
- Family time, education and health appointments are harder to coordinate across distance
- Reviews and oversight involve professionals spread across the country, so the record has to hold the whole story
- Safeguarding depends on the home spotting and sharing concerns quickly, because the usual local network is further away
Why Records Matter More When The Distance Is Greater
When everyone around a child is local, gaps in the record can be patched by a quick call or a visit. When a child is placed far from home, that safety net is thinner, and the home's records carry more of the load. A placing social worker who cannot easily visit relies on what the home has written down. A review that draws professionals from several regions depends on a single, current account that everyone can trust.
This is where sector-specific software earns its place in an out-of-area placement. Good children's homes management software keeps the records inspectors and social workers rely on current and connected, links incidents back to plans, and lets a manager share a clear picture with a placing authority without assembling it by hand each time. For a provider running homes across more than one region, our multi home reporting tools keep that oversight consistent wherever the homes and the children happen to be.
The regional imbalance is a problem for policymakers to solve, and it will not be fixed quickly. In the meantime, the homes caring for children far from home can do one thing within their control. They can make sure the record travels with the child, so distance does not become another gap in their care.
Frequently Asked Questions
The North West, by a clear margin. As at 31 March 2026 it held around 1,250 mainstream children's homes, about 26% of the England total, according to Ofsted's Children's social care in England data. That is more than double the next largest region's share. The South West, at the other end, had roughly 300 homes, around 6% of the total.
Cost and property are the main drivers. Larger houses suitable for a children's home are cheaper to buy or rent in parts of the North West than in the South East or London, so providers have concentrated there. Ofsted has suggested this points to decisions shaped by property economics rather than by where children actually need placements, which is why the region's share of homes far outstrips its share of looked-after children.
Often, yes. When homes cluster in a few regions and are scarce in others, a child from an area with little local provision may be placed a long way from family, school and their social worker. National figures have shown a large share of children in residential care living outside their home local authority, and many more than 20 miles away. The mismatch between where homes are and where children come from is a significant part of why.
Ofsted has been clear that the issue is less about the overall number and more about location. There are more registered places nationally than there are children needing them, but they are not in the right places. So some regions have a surplus while others cannot find a suitable local home, which can push children into out-of-area or even unregistered placements. It is a distribution problem more than a pure supply one.
