More than 100 children subject to repeat deprivation of liberty orders

Of 1,389 DoL applications issued by the court in the 12 months to July this year, 147 were repeat applications, statistics from the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory (FJO) shows.

Its report notes that repeat applications are made to “to extend or vary an existing order (eg, if the child moves placement or additional restrictions on their liberty are sought)”.

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The DoL court was launched by Sir Andrew MacFarlane, president of the Family Division of the Royal Courts of Justice, in July last year.

During its first 12 months, a total of 1,249 children have been subject to DoL applications including a small number of applications for sibling groups.

On average, there have been 117 applications per month, with the highest number of applications – 136 – issued in August last year.

Last month there were 98 applications made through the court.

The majority of children subject to DoL applications are aged 15 and older, according to the figures, with nine per cent under the age of 13.

The proportion of boys and girls subject to DoL applications is roughly equal for each gender, with those identifying as “other” accounting for just 0.7 per cent.

Over the last 12 months, 94 per cent of local authorities in England and 77 per cent of those in Wales have made applications to the DoL court.

Between July 2022 and July this year, just over a fifth of all applications were made by local authorities in the North West of England, followed by 17 per cent of applications from local authorities in London, and 12 per cent from local authorities in the South East.

Local authorities in the North East have made the fewest number of applications, recording just four per cent.

“This pattern of regional variation has broadly remained the same since July 2022,” according to Nuffield FJO.

Lisa Harker, director at Nuffield FJO, said: “This data shows that over 1200 children have been deprived of their liberty in a year, an extraordinary increase in number compared with previous years. They include many highly vulnerable children who are being placed far away from home in unsuitable, unregistered accommodation, with their movements and contact with friends and family being severely restricted. 

"We know from our previous research that there is no evidence that these are temporary fixes and children are living in circumstances that are likely to exacerbate their trauma because there is nowhere else for them to go.

"Action is desperately needed to develop local placements with care that can meet children’s needs and ensure meaningful change to their circumstances and health and wellbeing. It is essential that there continues to be monitoring of this situation and we are pleased that HMCTS has confirmed it will start to collect and publish data about deprivation of liberty cases from July.”

Responding to the statistics, Frances Edwards, legal adviser at the Family Rights Group, said: “This new data shows that the number of children deprived of their liberty remains significant and that some children are subject to multiple applications

“Depriving children of their liberty is a draconian step. Earlier analysis from NFJO showed that barely a tenth of parents and carers were legally represented in such cases. That means many parents are navigating court proceedings without any access to legal advice or representation.

“Urgent reform is needed to address the injustices of the current legal aid regime. Family Rights Group's recent briefing sets out both the current legal aid position and clear proposals for reform.”