England's children's homes are multiplying, getting smaller on average, and are owned by a strikingly fragmented market

The number of registered children's homes rose 20.5% in a year, from 3,647 to 4,394. Registered places rose only 14.7%, from 13,438 to 15,416.

Because homes grew faster than beds, the average home got smaller, from 3.68 places to 3.51. This is the clearest signal in the dataset: the sector is expanding by opening many small houses rather than by scaling existing ones. Every region grew, but the pace varied by nearly three to one.

The North West alone accounts for 1,149 homes, 26.1% of every registered children's home in England, and more than the South East, South West, London and the North East combined.

Lancashire is the single largest local authority area with 376 homes, up 84 in a year. At constituency level the concentration is sharper still: Fylde contains 66 registered children's homes and 149 places. Homes are spread across 519 of England's parliamentary constituencies, so roughly one in five constituencies has none at all.

Private providers run 3,730 of the 4,394 registered homes. Private provision grew 22.9% year on year, against 9.6% for local authority homes and 7.8% for the voluntary sector.

The three sectors are not growing at comparable rates, and the private sector is expanding from much the largest base. That combination means the year's 747 additional homes came overwhelmingly from private provision. The dataset records registrations, not why organisations chose to register, so it establishes the pattern without explaining it.

4,394 homes are run by 1,526 distinct organisations. More than half of them, 793, own exactly one home.

The ten largest owners together account for just 12.6% of homes. The largest single owner, Cambian Childcare Limited, runs 180 homes: 4.1% of the sector. That is a long tail by any measure, and it cuts against the assumption that children's residential care is dominated by a handful of large groups.

Nearly 57% of registered children's homes have three beds or fewer. Only 232 homes across all of England have seven beds or more.

Of the 3,913 homes carrying an inspection judgement, 87.4% were rated Good or Outstanding. 91 homes, 2.3%, were rated Inadequate.

A further 481 homes had not yet been inspected at the snapshot date, which is consistent with the volume of new registrations during the year. The overall grade mix barely moved: Outstanding rose from 11.7% to 12.8% of graded homes, while Requires improvement fell from 11.2% to 10.3%.