The action is being launched by the Good Law Project against five councils, Essex, Cambridgeshire, West Sussex, Surrey and Derby City.
The campaign group’s legal challenge also calls on Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to ensure he is using his powers to force all councils to comply with their obligations around local placements.
Local authorities have a legal duty to ensure as far as reasonably practicable that children entering the care system are accommodated in their local area if it is in the child’s best interest.
But in 2020 four in ten children entering care were placed outside of their local authority area. The proportion rises to seven in ten among those in residential care.
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