Legal action launches to halt out of area care placements for children

The action is being launched by the Good Law Project against five councils, Essex, Cambridgeshire, West Sussex, Surrey and Derby City.

• Feature: Children in care who are moved ‘out of area’

• Legal Update: Safeguarding children who go missing from care

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.

NEW: Councils are consistently placing children in care miles away from their local area to save money. The impact is devastating.

We've launched legal action to stop this. You can help by donating here 👇 https://t.co/2ct7nZId7Z

— Good Law Project (@GoodLawProject) July 13, 2021

According to legal papers submitted to the High Court, up to 25 per cent of children in the care of West Sussex are placed out of area. Twelve per cent are being placed more than 20 miles from home.

In Surrey more than half (51 per cent) of children are placed out of the county and 23 per cent placed more than 20 miles away.

Meanwhile in Essex, 63 per cent of children in residential care are placed out of the local authority area. In Derby the proportion placed away from the area is 30 per cent.

Good Law Project says that Cambridgeshire is the only council involved in the case that has failed to provide up to date details of out of area placements. Its legal papers add that available figures from 2017 indicate that almost half (47 per cent) of children in care in the county were placed out of area.

Loneliness, isolation, disrupted education and access to support are among challenges children moved out of their area face, says the Good Law Project.

One care leaver Sedil, who spoke to the Good Law Project, described how out of area placement is impacting on his schooling.

“I was worried about my A Level exams, as getting into university was important to me. But I was placed very far away from my college,” he said.

Another care leaver, Claudia, added: “As a result of my move, I have felt unwanted in various aspects of my life”

The Good Law Project also warns that out of area placed children are more at risk of criminal and sexual exploitation, including trafficking and distributing drugs though ‘county line’ networks.

The high cost of placements through private care providers is a factor in lack of affordable local places, says the project.

The Competition and Markets Authority is investigating profiteering in the children’s social care market. This followed a call from Children’s Social Care Review chair Josh MacAlister and complaints from the children’s sector.

The Good Law Project is looking to raise £30,000 for the legal challenge, with more than £27,000 pledged so far.

“Time and again local authorities are placing children in the cheapest accommodation, often far from home, and not the accommodation that best meets their needs,” said Good Law Project legal director Gemma Abbott.

“Despite the fact that children are taken into care to protect them from harm, the impact of being ripped away from your school, friends and support network can be devastating.

“Gavin Williamson has the power to direct local authorities to comply with their legal obligations where he believes they are not doing so. But on his watch, the placement of children out of area has become not an exception, but a norm.

“We consider the Secretary of State’s failure to act, whilst children in care suffer, to be unlawful. The state can and must do better for these children.”