Children under liberty orders housed in ‘highly unsuitable’ accommodation – including caravans and Airbnbs – says commissioner

Some vulnerable children in England have been housed in “highly unsuitable” accommodation – including a caravan and an Airbnb – according to a new report.

Dame Rachel de Souza, England’s children’s commissioner, said it was a “stark failure of the children’s social care system” that some under deprivation of liberty orders (DoLs) were not housed in appropriate homes.

Under government guidance, children under the High Court orders generally require high levels of care and supervision, and should therefore be placed in settings such as children’s homes or care home services.

The commissioner said however that according to her research, some children’s basic rights were “too often being ignored in a system that puts profit-making above protection and allows decisions to be dictated by local resources”.

In one instance, a teenage girl who suffered domestic abuse from her parents was given supervised crisis placement in a caravan. She was later housed in a children’s home 120 miles away from her grandparent’s home.

Dame Rachel also noted an instance where an autistic teenager was placed by her local authority in an Airbnb under supervision for nine months.

That decision came after pressure to discharge her from the hospital as she did not meet the criteria to be held under the Mental Health Act.

While the “vast majority of children subject to deprivation of liberty orders are in the care system” and are in appropriate settings, the commissioner said: “Many children live with these restrictions in places that are highly unsuitable.”

She added: “Far from providing the environment they need to help them with the behaviours that have caused concern, this leads to children feeling unsafe and uncared for, further adding to their trauma.”

Dame Rachel then said: “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.”

Published today, the commission’s report said the number of children subject to applications for DoLs has risen from 359 in 2020/21 to 1,368 in 2023.

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It recommended “far fewer” children should be subject to the orders, that those who are should never be placed in an illegal children’s home, and that the law should be changed to let “children have a say in the decisions affecting their lives”.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said in a statement: “Children who have been deprived of their liberty are facing the most heartbreaking experiences, with many being re-traumatised by a system that can’t meet their needs.

“That is why today I will confirm plans to break down the barriers to opportunity that they are facing, including by developing new community-based provision to meet their needs to give children the best life chances.

“Our reforms will go even further to give vulnerable children the best life chances by lifting the curtain on care providers profiteering off of vulnerable children, tackling unregistered placements and shifting the focus back to earlier intervention to help children achieve and thrive.”