ESSEX County Council is being “forced” to place children “with extreme needs” in unregulated care homes, after rising costs and a lack of care providers, a meeting of the authority was told reports the Locall Democracy Reporter.

County councillors discussed the issue at a meeting on October 8, and a senior councillor told the meeting the authority is working on the issue. The councillors were also told how the care homes are “highly expensive” and “not very efficient.”

The matter came to after a question from Lee Scordis, Labour and co-operative county and city councillor in Colchester during discussions about the  2024/25 financial overview at the half year stage.

Mr Scordis said: “I’d be interested to know if we’re still using unregulated care homes because we were using them before, they are highly expensive and we know that obviously being unregulated they’re not actually very efficient.”

Councillor Chris Whitbread, chancellor of Essex, said: “I think members have to realised the cost and complexity of packages has increased substantially over this period of time and has been in that position now for two years and still rising.”

Councillor John Spence, cabinet member for health, adult social care and integration, said: “We still get forced to use unregulated accommodation with knowledge of the authorities, because when a child needs to be placed it is usually as an urgent matter, and quite frequently with extreme needs, which I must say has been an education to me, to understand just how profound these needs can be.

“We cannot leave them in abeyance, so we have to continue to place them, we are working out plans as to how we can move in the medium and long term to remove any reliance on this part of the market. It is a case that the more the regulatation, as indeed can seen with the renters act being brought by the Government now, the greater the tendency is for providers to move out of the market, and so the increased regulation around the regulated places did cause that affect and we are not subject to monopolistic pricing, which is one of the factors causing this price increase.”