Secure care shortage for vulnerable children

VULNERABLE CHILDREN with complex needs are continuing to “fall through the gaps” due to a chronic shortage of secure care placements, a High Court judge has said.

Mr Justice MacDonald issued the warning in a ruling about a suicidal teenager in urgent need of a suitable place to live.

As of Friday, there was no secure placement available for the 16- year- old girl – referred to as G to protect her identity – anywhere in the UK, he said.

He said the lack of places left him with the “stark choice” of whether to send her to a “suboptimal” placement because it is “the only option available” or allow her to be discharged into the community “where she will almost certainly cause herself possible fatal harm”.

The senior judge concluded he was left with “no option” but to make an order authorising the deprivation of the teenager’s liberty at the unregulated placement, saying it is the only one available and “the priority must be to keep G safe”.

Mr Justice MacDonald said: “The brutal reality facing the court in this case is that if not deprived of her liberty in an unregulated placement, there is an unacceptable risk that G will end her own life or cause herself, and possibly others, very serious physical harm.”

He said the background to G’s case is “one that is now depressingly familiar to the Family Division of the High Court”, and referred to previous similar cases – including one in April which involved a teenager being placed in a holiday cottage because no suitable placements were available.

Mr Justice MacDonald said G’s case will be “urgently reviewed” on Monday to decide if the placement should be continued. The lack of secure accommodation has been highlighted by a number of family judges in recent years.