
A report by children's rights charity Article 39, part of a three-year project funded by BBC Children in Need, found that while many children are in hospital as "informal patients" and there by "consent", they are often kept locked up, or do not understand their rights and fear being "sectioned" if they try to leave.
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Article 39 said children held on an informal basis, making up around two thirds of the 3,500 children placed in mental health inpatient care each year, are denied the legal safeguards provided to children who are formally detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 – such as the right to an independent mental health advocate and to be given information about their rights.
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