the change children's residential care needs
This summer, children's residential care was back in the headlines, and the reporting made difficult reading.
An investigation by The Times (11 July 2026) laid bare a system under strain. The Times reports that registered providers are charging local authorities between £17,000 and £19,000 per child per week, with the most extreme individual placement reaching £28,000 a week, more than £1.4 million a year. The paper also reports that Ofsted's Chief Inspector has warned of a "shadow market" and "large profiteering", with around 900 unregistered providers now under investigation, while the local government secretary has told providers to "stop ripping off taxpayers" or be "named and shamed". The Government has confirmed it will use the new Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act to end excessive profits and clamp down on illegal, unregistered homes.
For anyone who has worked inside this system, none of it was a surprise.
We started Foundations 4 Life because we believe children and young people, and the councils responsible for them, deserve better than the choice they are too often left with: pay the highest fees on the market, or fall back on unregulated provision that puts safety at risk. Neither serves the child. Both are symptoms of a market that has drifted a long way from what it is supposed to be about.
We think the answer is not complicated to describe, even if it takes discipline to deliver.
Registered and quality-first, from day one. The scrutiny landing on the sector is aimed at unregistered and failing providers. Full registration and a genuine commitment to high-quality, well-staffed, safeguarded care are the foundation of everything else.
Fair, transparent pricing we can stand behind. We have no interest in charging what the market will currently bear. We price as demonstrably good value, clearly below the headline rates the sector has been criticised for, at a level we can justify openly to commissioners and the public. Fair pricing is not a weakness. In a market defined by mistrust, it is how trust is rebuilt.
Progression, not containment. Small homes, built around the child, with a clear focus on helping young people move forward. Our homes care for up to two young people, so relationships can be close, consistent and genuinely stabilising.
We are a new organisation, and we are honest about that. We are not claiming to have fixed anything yet. But we are choosing, deliberately and from the very start, to be on the right side of the change that is coming: great care, fair prices, a name councils can trust.
That is the standard we are setting for ourselves. We would welcome the chance to build it alongside commissioners, partners and people who want the same thing.
Get in touch: referrals@foundations4life.co.uk
