Children in care are being moved between short-term, unstable placements far away from their families because of a ‘corporate takeover' of the sector, a study has said.

The study of more than 600,000 care records in the decade up to 2022 by a team at Oxford University said the private sector had ‘almost completely taken over children's residential care' over the last three decades as local authorities have been encouraged by successive Governments to outsource services.

It found 17,000 out-of-area placements in England could be attributed to the outsourcing of care to commercial firms and claimed growing private involvement in care provision had led to higher rates of placements breaking down within two years.