On 18th November 2024, the Children’s Commissioner published her report, “Children with complex needs who are deprived of liberty.” The Children’s Commissioner stated that the report, which was informed by interviews with 15 young people subject to deprivation of liberty orders, found the following key themes:
- Lack of stable support: All children had experienced significant instability and had struggled to get the support they needed before a deprivation of liberty order was put in place.
- Limited say in decision making: Most children felt there were limited opportunities to have their voices heard and to be involved in decisions about their lives, while living under the deprivation order.
- Restrictive living conditions: Children were unhappy with the conditions associated with their deprivation of liberty order and found it particularly difficult when they did not have a clear plan for stepping down the restrictions.
- Educational and social setbacks: The deprivation of liberty order had a detrimental impact on children’s education; most were out of school and receiving a limited curriculum. Most children were in solo placements and felt socially isolated.
- Inconsistent mental health support: While some children were receiving therapeutic input, many felt their mental health needs had never been fully addressed.
Children’s Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza said:
“As Children’s Commissioner I want every child to grow up safe, happy, healthy and engaged in their communities and in their education.
For children under Deprivation of Liberty orders, these basic rights are too often being ignored in a system that puts profit-making above protection and allows decisions to be dictated by local resources.
Depriving a child of their liberty is one of the most significant interventions the state can make in a child’s life. My new report tells these children’s stories, revealing a stark failure of the children’s social care system. They are enduring things no child should ever have to: contained, often in isolation, in illegal children’s homes, without the opportunity for their voices to be heard.
The children living in the care system today need urgent and bold change – no more strategies, no more debates. We need to strengthen the law so that children have a say in the decisions affecting their lives, and radical investment in new and safe places for them to live.”
In announcing the report, it was noted that “there has been a sharp rise in the number of children deprived of their liberty, with data from Cafcass indicating the number of applications to the court for these orders having more than doubled between 2020/21 and the end of June 2023.”
The Commissioner’s report makes the following recommendations:
- Far fewer children should be deprived of their liberty – but in the small number of cases where it is necessary to, this should never be in an illegal children’s home.
- A strengthened law, via an effective legal framework and guidance that:
- gives clarity and transparency on decisions to restrict liberty;
- gives children a stronger voice in the process and allows them to share their views with the judge in a way that is comfortable for them;
- sets out the steps local authorities should take before depriving a child of their liberty; and
- provides oversight from a judge and ensures decisions are reviewed every three months.
- Radical investment in creating new and safe places for children to live in registered children’s homes which can provide safe accommodation and therapeutic support for children living with trauma and at risk of harm. A shortage of accommodation should never be a reason for depriving liberty; and
- An end to profiteering in children’s social care – for a system that is guided by the same principles of quality, opportunity and safety as in the education system.
For the press release see here
Read the report here
Original reporting by Family Law Week