A council spent nearly £1m housing two children in unregistered care homes in 2024/25 due to a shortage of spaces.
The government said there is a “concerning rise” in local authorities using unregistered children’s homes, which are illegal.
Lincolnshire County Council insisted both children were safe and visited weekly by social workers.
A total of £992,133 was spent by the authority looking after the children, with another £10,000 spent at the end of the 2023/2024 financial year.
The government website states: “Unregistered children’s homes are illegal. Anyone providing care and accommodation to a child in a setting that is not registered with Ofsted when it should be is committing an offence.”
However, official figures show an increase in local authorities’ use of unregistered homes, with Ofsted identifying 931 in 2023/24, compared with 143 in 2020/21.
Jo Kavanagh, assistant director of children’s services at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “In Lincolnshire, we are fortunate to have a large number of fostering families, in-house residential placements and robust commissioning arrangements in place to ensure that very few children spend time in unregistered settings, but this can occasionally happen due to a national shortage of specialist or registered places.
“In these instances, we’ll ensure that the child is safe and cared for by appropriately trained staff. They will be visited weekly by their social worker, and the suitability of their placement will also be reviewed weekly.
“In addition, we can support the home through the registration process where appropriate.”
According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Lincolnshire County Council said in January it was looking after 780 children, and expected the costs of looking after them to rise to £110m over this financial year.
The situation was described as a “perfect storm” by one councillor, with tightening funding and growing demand.
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