Notes on a Scandal: Why We Need More Secure Accommodation for Children

 

Not for the first time,  a senior judge has described the shortage of secure accommodation for the most troubled children in England and Wales as a “national scandal” after being told that last Friday 62 beds were needed and only two available.  The girl whose case the judge was considering was being cared for in an unsuitable hospital setting where most other patients were adults.

Last summer,  Supreme Court Judge Lord Stephens slammed the lack of proper provision for children who need to be detained to protect themselves or others as “disgraceful and utterly shaming". More than four years ago the most senior family judge was concerned at how many young people were having their liberty deprived in units which had not been approved as secure children's homes (SCH).  

So what’s the position? At the end of March this year, 220 approved places were available in 14 secure childrens homes in England and Wales, eight fewer places than in 2019; and 71 fewer than in 2010, down by a quarter in 12 years.  16 SCH’s have closed since 2002.

105 of the 220 available beds were contracted to the Ministry of Justice for children remanded or sentenced by the criminal courts, leaving just 115 for so called welfare cases. These are, in Lord Stephens’ words, “unfortunate children, who have been traumatised in so many ways, are frequently a major risk to themselves and to others. Those risks are of the gravest kind, and include risks to life, risks of grievous injuries, or risks of very serious damage to property”.

In their annual report for 2020-21, Ofsted said that around 25 children are waiting for a secure placement on any given day, at times substantially more. They also reported that on average 20 children from English local authorities were living in Scottish secure homes, having been placed there due to a lack of places in England. Ofsted said that the Scottish government had decided not to accept placements from local authorities outside Scotland from 2022, but I don’t know whether this has happened, further reducing available places.  The number of secure beds for children in the health service in England fell from 222 in 2017 to 188 last year.  

It's also true that some children’s needs are so complex and demanding that SCHs can’t always run at full capacity. This helps explain why a third of places in SCH’s were unoccupied at the end of March.  

So what have the government been doing to address the long standing problem? 

The 2021 Spending Review announced a welcome £259 million capital funding to increase both secure and open children’s homes, but details of the “transformational investment” is hard to find beyond a press release from the end of last year.  This says that final numbers of places in secure children’s homes being created will be confirmed in due course but as recently as June the picture has been opaque. New places require the commitment of local authorities but a clear plan setting out what is being funded over what timescale is surely overdue.

In the meantime, the Independent Review of Childrens Social Care has recommended that there should be enough SCH places not only to meet the needs of welfare cases in every region but  to end the use of “inappropriate and damaging” Young Offender Institutions and Secure Training Centres (STCs) for children in the youth justice system. At the end of June, I estimate there were 365 children under 18 in YOIs and STCs, with numbers projected to increase substantially over the next few years. While increased demand may be met in small part by 49 places in the new Secure School due to open in early 2024, accepting the Care Review’s recommendation would entail more than doubling the size of the existing SCH estate.

As the Care Review put it, “the prospect of recommending an increase in the number of secure children’s homes, or detaining children for justice and welfare reasons at all does not always sit comfortably”. But in cases where depriving a child of their liberty is genuinely necessary, SCHs provide much higher quality care than other options. Much more urgency is required to ensure there are sufficient beds to avoid placements in unapproved settings, to close Secure Training Centres and phase out prison service accommodation.   

Last year, Lord Stephens thought the scandalous lack of provision contained “all the ingredients for a tragedy”. We need to know what is being done to avert that.