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<p>The department completed a child rights impact assessment and an equalities impact
assessment banning the placement of under 16s in unregulated provision. Children of
this age should be placed in children’s homes or in foster care.</p><p>The department
will keep these under review as we move forward with wider reforms to introduce mandatory
national standards and Ofsted registration and inspection requirements for providers
of unregulated supported accommodation for 16 and 17-year-old looked-after children
and care leavers.</p><p>Ofsted will continue to monitor placement practice through
the inspecting local authority children’s services framework, and the department will
also continue to collect and review data on local authority placements via the annual
children looked after data return. Data from the period, since the regulations were
laid in 2021, will be submitted to the department by local authorities in 2022. This
data will be monitored and tracked by the department and will assist us to understand
the impact on outcomes for the children placed in these settings.</p>
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