Children’s Commissioner for England hits out at number of extremely vulnerable children in unregulated settings

The Children’s Commissioner for England has expressed concern at evidence of a growing number of children who are locked up but who do not appear in any official statistics and who are not living in places designed to hold children securely.

Publishing a report, Who are they? Where are they? 2020, Anne Longfield said: “Although these children are incredibly vulnerable and can be at risk of being sexually or criminally exploited or harming themselves, often there is no space in a secure children’s home for them to be kept safe.

“As a result, councils are having to come up with makeshift arrangements like flats or hostels or even caravans. One child was living in a holiday home but had to move out for a weekend as it had already been let out to holidaymakers.”

Longfield said the report showed how there were children who were being deprived of their liberty in settings which were inappropriate for their needs, and were not even registered with Ofsted.

She said she was concerned that these children appeared to be at risk of significant harm because they were not living in accommodation that could hold them securely because none was available.

In 2019/20, 327 children in England were deprived of their liberty through the ‘inherent jurisdiction’ of the High Court, the report showed. The number of children locked up through the ‘inherent jurisdiction’ has tripled since 2017/18.

The Children’s Commissioner expressed concern that children placed under the inherent jurisdiction of the court do not have access to the same legal safeguards as children placed under the Children Act. “For example, a child is only entitled to an annual review rather than reviews at 3 months and then 6 monthly, which is the requirement under the Children Act.”

Ms Longfield was also concerned that without any data collected on where these children were living it was harder to ensure that they were in appropriate and safe conditions.

She said that for this reason – with the support of Leigh Day, Victoria Butler-Cole QC, Alex Ruck Keene and Edward Bennett – she jad recently intervened in a Supreme Court case about the use of the inherent jurisdiction in order to highlight her concerns about the legal protections in place for these children, and the appropriateness of their accommodation. The judgment is awaited.

In the report the Children’s Commissioner also warned that those children where a court order was in place might just be the tip of the iceberg when it came to children who were locked away but did not appear in official statistics.

The Children’s Commissioner’s Office helpline Help at Hand service had been alerted to several children living in situations which clearly amounted to a deprivation of liberty, but where no court authorisation was in place, the report said. “For example, a 14-year-old boy who was in care but because his local authority was unable to find a home for him, was living in a campervan under 3:1 supervision with staff on 72 hour shifts. Although this amounted to a deprivation of liberty, the council did not appear to have applied for an authorisation from the court.”

The report also detailed how the Children’s Commissioner’s Office visited 13 children’s homes, residential special schools and mental health wards and found significant concerns about children who appeared to be deprived of their liberty illegally, without the appropriate legal safeguards in place.

“In all these settings visited, there were children who needed a high level of care because of the trauma or difficulties they had experienced. Many of the children were living with high levels of restrictions in place. One of the residential special schools, for example, used restraints such as ‘safe space’ beds which are fully enclosed zipped beds which a child could not get out of without help. They also used lap belts on wheelchairs and various types of walking harnesses,” the Commissioner said.

Concerns are raised in the report at the constant level of supervision, the inability of children to leave, and the lack of clarity about who was providing consent or authorisation for the arrangements.

The report meanwhile showed that in the official figures there were 1,340 children ‘locked up’ in various institutions. On 31st March 2020 there were:

  • 715 children in youth custody
  • 81 children placed in Secure Children’s Homes for their own welfare
  • 544 children detained in hospitals under the Mental Health Act.
  • For the first time the report what types of ward children were detained on, with 237 children in secure mental health wards and psychiatric intensive care units

Ms Longfield said: “We should be shocked that there are a significant number of extremely vulnerable children, who professionals have decided are in need of one of the hundred places in Secure Children’s Homes in the country, who instead end up in places that are not even registered with Ofsted, let alone registered as secure homes.

“I am very concerned that that we do not even know for sure the number of children who are being locked up through the use of ‘inherent jurisdiction’, or where they are living. It is likely that some of these children are living in places that are completely inappropriate, or being locked up without any legal authorization. These are very vulnerable children, often at risk of harming themselves or others. It is astonishing that there is not capacity in the children’s social care system to provide them with the care they need, or the legal protection.”

The Commissioner called on the Government, as part of its review into children’s social care, to ensure that a new integrated secure model of care is developed, to urgently increase the number of specialist settings that can safely care for children.

Ministers should also consider whether new legislation is required to protect children who are being deprived of their liberty in non-secure settings, she said.

“Currently children who are placed in Secure Children’s Homes are subject to certain protections prescribed by law – for example the placements have to be registered and there are regular inspections and checks. However, there is a shortage of such homes and as such some children are being placed in unregulated placements, some of which are extremely unsuitable,” Ms Longfield said.

“Placing children in accommodation that is not a secure children’s home currently falls out of the statutory regime and so they do not have the same safeguards that other children do. This means children are being deprived of their liberty without authorisation and without proper checks and safeguards in place.”

The Children's Commissioner's report comes at the same time as an increasing number of High Court judges have expressed the