0:00

From the gas pump to the grocery store, inflation

0:03

is everywhere. Seriously,

0:06

make it stop. Thankfully, there's

0:08

one company out there that's giving you a much

0:10

needed break. It's Mint Mobile.

0:13

As the first company to sell premium wireless

0:15

service online only, Mint Mobile

0:17

lets you order from home and save a ton, with

0:19

phone plans starting at just $15 a month. All

0:23

plans come with unlimited talk and text, plus

0:25

high-speed data delivered on the nation's largest

0:27

5G network. To get your new wireless

0:29

plan for just $15 a month and

0:31

get the plan shipped to your door for free,

0:34

go to mintmobile.com. That's

0:37

mintmobile.com.

0:56

Tortoise.

1:21

Hello, it's Basia here, and you're listening to the Slow

1:24

Newscast from Tortoise. Often,

1:26

an investigation starts small. A single

1:29

story, a single person. Late

1:31

last year, Louise Tickle, a reporter

1:33

in our newsroom, began paying attention

1:35

to the story of a vulnerable, suicidal

1:38

12-year-old girl who'd been locked

1:40

in solitary confinement, fed through

1:42

a hatch in the door, because there was nowhere

1:44

else for her to go. But soon, Louise

1:47

realised that this was not a single scandal,

1:50

but a much, much bigger one. This

1:52

week's episode reveals the sheer number

1:54

of distressed and vulnerable children being

1:56

locked away in Britain by order of the courts.

1:59

Our investigation has discovered

2:01

that since the pandemic, the number

2:04

of children issued with deprivation

2:06

of liberty orders by the courts has

2:08

increased threefold. These children

2:10

haven't committed crimes, they aren't being

2:13

sectioned under the Mental Health Act. These

2:15

are children who are being taken away from their

2:17

families and interstate care, and

2:19

they should be placed in homes where they can be

2:21

properly treated and the situation

2:23

de-escalated. But the reality

2:26

is there are hardly any secure, regulated

2:29

places for these children to go, so

2:31

they end up like that 12-year-old, often

2:34

suicidal, intent on self-harm

2:36

and locked in solitary confinement, or

2:39

locked in hotel rooms, or on barges,

2:42

or in caravans.

2:43

This is a system that is unsafe, expensive

2:46

and unseen.

2:48

I'll hand over to Louise and producer Patricia

2:50

Clarke for this episode revealing

2:52

Children Locked Away, Britain's modern

2:55

bedlam. And just before we begin,

2:57

I need to warn you that this is a difficult listen

3:00

at times and it deals with self-harm and

3:02

suicide.

3:05

So, you just pop that

3:07

on. It's early morning

3:10

and I'm in a grey hotel room on a rainy

3:12

day. And I'm

3:14

about to be transported. Hold

3:17

that. Oh my God, that's so weird. And

3:20

you should be able to click. That's

3:22

my producer, and she's just handed me a VR

3:25

headset. To kind of move

3:27

around. I mean, you can just walk.

3:29

Oh my God. And

3:33

suddenly I'm standing in another

3:35

grey room, in a hospital. I'm

3:39

stood in this... I mean,

3:41

it feels like a concrete walled

3:44

room. And

3:46

the first thing I can see

3:48

is a single bed. It's

3:52

blue. It's covered

3:54

in plastic. And

3:57

there's a small

3:58

coverlet on it. it, but

4:02

the first impression is of a completely

4:04

bare room.

4:08

I'm here because I'm following the case of a 12-year-old

4:11

girl who we'll call Becky. Becky

4:14

is, by all accounts, volatile,

4:16

vulnerable and determined to kill

4:18

herself. Just

4:22

over two months ago, she was deemed a threat to

4:24

herself and others and, not

4:26

for the first time, removed from her home

4:29

and her family. And

4:31

until just a few days ago, she was living

4:33

in this room, known as a seclusion

4:36

room, in the mental health unit of

4:38

a hospital in Staffordshire.

4:40

The walls are completely bare and

4:43

if I turn to the door, I can

4:46

see what looks like a

4:47

large letterbox, which

4:50

is the hatch.

4:51

I wanted to visit the room Becky was held in, but

4:53

the hospital press team told me it wasn't possible. It

4:56

set apart from the General Psychiatric Ward

4:59

in a part of the building where there were strict access

5:01

conditions for staff, let alone visitors. Instead,

5:04

they'd given me an online link

5:06

to view it via this VR headset.

5:10

Becky has been kept in this room for eight weeks

5:13

in near-total isolation. Pretty

5:16

much her only contact with human beings is

5:19

when hospital staff feed her through that

5:21

hatch. To

5:23

remind you, she's just 12. So

5:30

it is a room that's been very

5:32

well designed to keep people safe, but

5:35

the idea of putting a 12-year-old

5:37

child in here and

5:39

her being locked in here for

5:42

days and weeks, it's

5:45

not designed for anyone to have a life. Everything

5:49

in this room is designed to stop people from killing

5:51

themselves. The windows are made

5:53

of special material that doesn't break. All

5:56

corners are rounded off, and I'm told

5:58

the furniture is incredibly heavy.

5:59

so it can't be thrown around.

6:02

But

6:02

according to everyone who's responsible for

6:04

Becky, and there's a lot of them,

6:06

this accommodation is totally unsuitable

6:09

for her. In fact, not just unsuitable.

6:12

Actively damaging.

6:16

Becky's story has made national headlines in recent

6:18

weeks. I know that because I've written

6:21

the articles and attended court

6:23

hearing after court hearing.

6:25

The judge presiding over her case is

6:27

demanding that social workers and doctors find

6:29

somewhere for her to go, somewhere considerably

6:32

better than this. A home

6:35

where she'll be cared for by properly trained staff and

6:37

plenty of them.

6:39

A therapeutic environment where, crucially,

6:42

she also has a chance to get

6:43

better. I'm

6:46

just stood here thinking about

6:49

my 12-year-old son living

6:51

in this room, 24-7,

6:55

with no access to the outdoors,

6:59

no access to daylight, no

7:05

stimulation of any kind. It's

7:08

just

7:10

empty.

7:12

And what that would do to him, I

7:16

think it would send him mad.

7:19

The problem is, there is nowhere for Becky

7:21

to go. Not a single bed is

7:23

on offer in any registered, regulated,

7:25

secure care home across England

7:27

or Wales.

7:28

The system is full. The system

7:30

is full to the brim. And

7:32

I'm telling you about Becky, not just because

7:34

of the horrors of her situation, but

7:37

because, actually, her story isn't

7:39

an exception. She was in danger

7:42

all the time. She was walking down

7:44

motorways in the middle of the night on

7:46

her own to come home. There

7:48

are schools of others just like

7:50

her. Desperate children.

7:52

Sometimes victims of abuse or trafficking

7:55

or with learning disabilities or they've got

7:57

undiagnosed autism or a mental health condition.

8:00

and they come to the attention of police and social

8:03

services when they're distressed, emotionally

8:05

dysregulated and ultimately

8:08

often suicidal.

8:11

These

8:11

are children who can't go home but

8:13

who need keeping safe and

8:15

who need a chance to heal.

8:17

If this is the best we

8:19

can do for ex and others in

8:22

similar crises, what right do

8:24

we, what right do the system, our

8:26

society and indeed the state

8:28

itself have to call ourselves civilised?

8:34

I'm Louise Tickle and you're listening to the slow

8:36

newscast from Tortoise. In

8:38

this episode I'm going to investigate what happens

8:40

to Becky and other children like her. And

8:43

I want to know, where are our

8:45

most vulnerable, damaged and traumatised

8:48

children being held? And why

8:50

are they being harmed, not helped? The

8:53

more research I've done and the most people I've spoke

8:56

to, they never come

8:57

home.

9:08

I've been to see Becky today, she's still

9:10

in seclusion. I took her a collage

9:12

of her favourite pics to stick on her window. She

9:15

reports not being outside other than

9:17

one time

9:18

but she can't remember when that was.

9:20

I got in contact with Becky's mum Lydia, that's

9:23

not her real name, after the first court hearing

9:25

I attended at the end of January.

9:27

We spoke over WhatsApp, I'm sharing

9:29

the messages with her consent.

9:32

Becky has always struggled,

9:34

from walking age really.

9:36

Becky grew up at home with her mum and two siblings

9:39

and lived there until last year.

9:41

Everyone says she's a really bright, clever

9:44

child who loves playing outdoors, adores

9:47

her pets and spending time with her horses.

9:49

That's when she's happiest.

9:52

But life for Becky has been tough from

9:54

the outset. She

9:57

wouldn't sleep, always talking, bouncing

9:59

about. By

10:00

year one in school, aged six,

10:02

she had five excluded periods from school.

10:06

From a very young age, she struggled with

10:08

behavioural issues. Lydia

10:10

tells me that when Becky was seven, her

10:12

school made her work alone in a small

10:15

windowless room because she was so disruptive.

10:18

We moved Becky to a special

10:20

school midway through year four. She

10:23

stayed there 18 months, thriving.

10:26

Then Covid hit and the school shut.

10:29

She was in year six, then she spent 18

10:32

months without education.

10:34

Everything came to a head last summer.

10:37

Becky's behaviour became volatile, so

10:40

dangerous that her mother could no longer manage her. She

10:42

was put into various temporary, unregulated

10:45

placements. In one, she was

10:47

abused and neglected by the staff. Eventually,

10:50

the council placed her in a travel lodge, which

10:53

she quickly trashed. She assaulted

10:55

staff and police. Aged

10:58

just 12, she was charged with criminal damage and

11:00

brought in front of the magistrates. That

11:03

day, while she was in a holding cell, she

11:05

took a smuggled overdose of antidepressants.

11:07

Becky

11:09

has never self-harmed, cut herself,

11:12

taken an overdose in my care, only

11:14

in social care. Becky needs

11:17

an army and her soldiers left her fighting

11:19

alone. With nowhere

11:21

for her to go, Becky was sent to another

11:23

temporary placement. On route,

11:26

she attacked her care staff again, this time while

11:28

they were driving. She pulled the handbrake

11:30

on the car, ran along the motorway, climbed

11:33

up a building

11:34

and tried to jump.

11:39

I don't know if people necessarily

11:41

understand what it means

11:44

for a child to be at that level of risk. I wonder

11:46

if you could explain what that looks like. It

11:50

looks like a very angry young person. It

11:52

looks like a very, I want

11:55

to say cornered. They're

11:57

feeling cornered by life and they may

11:59

thrash out.

11:59

in a number of ways.

12:02

It's often the case of being ignored or feeling

12:05

under threat. The ways

12:10

that that drives behaviour can

12:12

look to the outside very

12:15

deterrent, aggressive, kind of

12:18

thoughtless, chaotic, but

12:20

they are a reaction to

12:22

those feelings.

12:24

Cathy Evans, Chief Executive of the charity

12:26

Children England, has worked with dozens

12:28

of children just like Becky.

12:30

She's careful not to describe them as violent

12:33

or aggressive. Often they're

12:35

deeply vulnerable, traumatised

12:38

and are acting from a place of almost unfathomable

12:41

distress. Cathy

12:43

Evans explains that it's important to de-escalate

12:45

children in this state by providing

12:48

them with what's known as secure accommodation.

12:51

That's a home where children are supervised

12:54

24-7, sometimes by multiple care

12:56

workers.

12:57

They might, on occasion, be locked into

12:59

that home.

13:01

And ideally, they will have therapeutic

13:03

care from highly trained professionals to

13:05

help them transition back into their community

13:08

and their family.

13:10

But even the best secure accommodation

13:12

is seen as an absolute last

13:15

resort.

13:15

And it should be a temporary solution

13:18

to diffuse a crisis.

13:20

I don't advocate secure, blithely,

13:23

and certainly not for minor criminality

13:26

or for punishment. But I definitely

13:28

saw some children for whom what

13:30

was needed was a period of time during

13:33

which being able to run off, being

13:36

able to smash things up, was just taking off the

13:39

equation to

13:41

see if we could get to better

13:44

understand and look after them

13:46

and move them from that state of chaos

13:48

and danger to feeling better

13:51

able to manage and to feel

13:53

safe.

13:59

Wales, there

14:01

has been absolutely nowhere for

14:03

Becky to go. That's why

14:05

she's been locked into this seclusion room. And

14:08

as her mum describes, she's not

14:10

getting better.

14:11

She's getting worse.

14:13

Becky was quite

14:16

emotional today. And she never cries,

14:18

but she was crying. Toughest

14:20

visit I've had seeing her crying, not

14:22

being able to hug her. She buried

14:25

her head in my hand through the hatch.

14:31

All the court hearings about Becky's case take place

14:34

online. And while there's no grand

14:36

courtroom or judges in imposing

14:38

robes, the clerk is clear that

14:40

these cases are no less serious because

14:43

they take place on Microsoft Teams. This

14:46

is the second of these cases I've had today,

14:49

the second highly dysregulated teenage

14:51

girl who needs support and is not

14:53

getting it. This is Mrs Justice

14:55

Leven, the High Court judge overseeing

14:57

Becky's case.

14:58

No recording is permitted

15:00

in court, so an actor is voicing her

15:02

words. There are 20-odd

15:05

people on the link, from the council, the

15:07

North Staffordshire NHS Trust and

15:09

lawyers galore. There's also

15:11

Becky's mother, who really wants her to come home.

15:15

The judge wants her home too when she's ready,

15:17

but now isn't the right time. Becky's

15:20

still too volatile. She needs

15:22

to stabilise first.

15:25

In this particular hearing,

15:26

the local council and the NHS have been

15:28

asked to provide court documents suggesting

15:30

a suitable placement for Becky. But

15:33

they filed their paperwork

15:34

late, very late, and

15:37

so the judge doesn't have the information she

15:39

needs. I'm sure some in this

15:41

hearing will think this is ridiculous, but

15:43

given I have no evidence, I will have to

15:45

rely on Google. The

15:48

name of one possible care provider, which

15:50

is all she's been given, is throwing up unhelpful

15:53

results. It's just coming

15:55

up with restaurants. It's

15:58

not the first time something like this has happened.

15:59

and Mrs Justice Levan is

16:02

at the end of her tether. Ms Tickle

16:04

must be getting an extraordinary view of

16:06

the conduct of family litigation. This

16:09

is a particularly badly run

16:11

case, but really, this is not

16:13

a way to proceed. It's just

16:16

embarrassing. Vital court documents

16:18

filed so late the judge barely has time to read

16:20

them, weeks turning into months

16:22

of delays with no good options being put

16:24

forward for Becky, a judge having to

16:27

Google to find information about a placement for

16:29

this child who is in such distress

16:29

that she keeps trying to kill herself,

16:32

sometimes several times a day. To

16:36

be clear, family court hearings are held in

16:38

private, usually the law bans

16:40

reporting.

16:42

But for this case, despite, or

16:44

perhaps because of, its tensions and

16:46

sensitivities, Mrs Justice Levan

16:48

has made an exception.

16:50

And frankly, sometimes it feels like judges like

16:52

her are begging me to report on this issue. Not

16:56

Becky's story specifically, but the hundreds

16:58

of children, just like her, who

17:00

have nowhere to go.

17:03

In the family justice system, it's an open secret that

17:05

we are living through a nationwide, chronic

17:08

children's care crisis. And

17:10

we have been living through it for years. A

17:13

lot of these children are living

17:15

on the margins of a society which doesn't care.

17:20

I mean, it is unbelievable,

17:23

except we know it happens. Six

17:27

years before Becky was locked in that

17:29

hospital room, there was a warning call.

17:33

Another girl with dangerous behavioural issues was

17:35

in desperate need of a secure pediatric

17:37

mental health bed. She

17:39

became known as Child X when her case was

17:41

heard by the country's top

17:43

family judge, Sir James Munby.

17:46

Like the judge in Becky's case, he

17:48

was tasked with overseeing somewhere for X

17:51

to go.

17:52

But he couldn't help her either,

17:54

because nothing was available.

17:56

And so he published what is now

17:58

a famous judgement. It

18:00

is a disgrace to any country with

18:03

pretensions to civilisation, compassion

18:06

and dare one say it, basic human

18:08

decency that a judge in 2017

18:11

should be faced with the problems thrown up by

18:13

this case

18:14

and should have to express himself in

18:17

such terms. Even

18:19

when they're angry, judges' language is usually

18:21

understated and so Mungby's wording

18:24

was extraordinary.

18:26

It led the news bulletins

18:28

for 24 hours. One of the most senior

18:30

judges in England and Wales attacks the lack

18:33

of support services for young people

18:35

with mental health problems.

18:37

And in particular, one phrase

18:39

stood out. If we, the system,

18:42

society, the state, are unable

18:44

to provide ex with the supportive

18:46

and safe placement she so desperately

18:49

needs, and if in consequence

18:52

she is unable to make another attempt on her

18:54

life,

18:55

then I can only say with bleak emphasis,

18:58

we will have blood on our hands. Sir

19:04

James Mungby issued his warning in 2017.

19:08

And in the years since, there have been other

19:11

furious judgements coming out of the family

19:13

courts.

19:14

Just this January, in a case about

19:16

another suicidal child, the President

19:19

of the family court told the Secretary of State

19:21

for Education Gillian Keegan to appear

19:23

in front of him, her departments responsible

19:25

for these children.

19:27

But she has to be excused.

19:30

When the judge said no, she sent a barrister

19:32

in her place.

19:33

So we don't even know if she ever read his judgement.

19:37

All of which makes me wonder, since

19:39

Sir James Mungby warned that our country

19:41

would have blood on its hands if we didn't properly

19:43

care for our most vulnerable children, has anything

19:46

got better?

19:47

Or might things, in fact, have got worse?

19:59

concrete data

20:01

while I went on a journey of my own.

20:04

I wanted to find Child X.

20:07

I wanted to know what happened to her six

20:09

years before I heard about Becky.

20:15

When I started my search, all I had was

20:17

the famous judgment. Child

20:19

X and her family members were, as is usual

20:22

in judgments, all anonymised, but

20:24

their lawyers weren't. They

20:26

were my only hope of being able to get in touch

20:28

with Child X, and they did their best to

20:31

help.

20:32

One day, I got an email saying

20:35

X's mother was happy for me to contact

20:37

her. X's

20:46

mother, who we'll call Sylvia, lives on

20:48

a council estate just off a main road in

20:50

Barrow Infernus, an neglected seaside

20:53

town in Cumbria, where the only employment

20:55

is the submarine industry. I'm a bit

20:57

of a mess. It's with me.

21:00

I feel like I look like I've been battered

21:02

and I haven't. It's just...

21:05

Oh no, not at all. When did

21:06

your house start feeling trouble? Sylvia's

21:09

house is busy. You can tell that lots of people

21:12

live there. She's sitting on her sofa

21:14

surrounded by Easter eggs and children's cards,

21:17

most of them from her large family, who

21:19

drop in and out as we talk. And

21:21

Sylvia is eager to tell me about her daughter,

21:24

Child X.

21:26

Well, she

21:28

was obviously very hyperactive, very

21:30

very...she didn't sleep

21:33

much at all.

21:36

When she first went to nursery, she

21:39

went to a start nursery, and

21:43

she was quite...she didn't want to go. She

21:45

was scared. But she went on a minibus, and

21:48

they brought her back immediately and

21:50

said that she'd got so distressed, she'd

21:53

kicked the gentleman on the bus

21:55

when he was trying to hold her. So

21:57

severely, I've got a hospital.

21:59

She was what, four or five? Two and a half.

22:04

Sylvia says that Ex was finally

22:06

diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder

22:08

in the year she turned 18.

22:11

It runs in their family. Some of her siblings

22:13

have it too, as do her uncles,

22:15

aunts, nephews and cousins.

22:18

There's a kindness in Lucy, she's got a big

22:20

heart, but her difficulty

22:22

is a social understanding.

22:25

I don't like the people in between, she said, which

22:27

is people of her own age, teenagers, because

22:30

she doesn't understand them.

22:32

Lucy is child X.

22:34

She wasn't formally diagnosed for years and

22:37

didn't go to a specialist school.

22:38

Nursery staff, teachers, other

22:40

professionals didn't seem to know what to do

22:43

with her. There was a school

22:45

education woman, a

22:47

psychologist, and I said to her,

22:49

please, please for God's sake

22:51

do something. She's escalating.

22:54

She's becoming harder to handle at home,

22:57

harder in school. Nobody's helping

22:59

us. There's nowhere for me to go

23:01

to. And she said, I would

23:04

love to work with Lucy,

23:07

but we don't have the funding. And

23:10

it was just like I cried. I

23:12

went outside and I cried. I

23:14

literally was saying, why are you crying? Why are you crying

23:17

and not saying I'm just tired? I'm just tired.

23:19

And I thought, oh, my God, no

23:21

one is going to help her.

23:24

No one is going to do anything

23:27

for her at all. They're

23:29

just not saying there was nothing.

23:32

Her behaviour started escalating, much

23:34

like Becky's. There

23:35

were attacks on her family and peers, suicide

23:39

attempts.

23:40

One night, just like Becky, she was

23:42

found walking down a motorway.

23:44

She was moved from placement to placement between

23:47

the criminal justice system, the NHS

23:49

and the council. And eventually,

23:52

at 17, she was in secure accommodation

23:54

on the basis of a youth court conviction. It

23:57

was at that point that her famous case

23:59

was her. in the family court. It

24:01

was a shocking case. In

24:04

the judgment I said it was a manifestation

24:07

of a scandal, the conditions

24:10

in which X was living.

24:13

And I actually said in the judgment, I said,

24:15

I can't bring myself to use the word living. She

24:18

is existing, who are unbelievably

24:21

grim. And

24:24

there seemed little likelihood of anything

24:26

very much changing. This

24:29

is Sir James Munby, the man who wrote

24:31

The Blood on Our Hands judgment back in 2017. He's

24:35

retired now, and he remembers that

24:37

day well. The expert

24:39

evidence was that unless something

24:41

was done for X, when

24:44

she came out of detention in, I

24:46

think, it was 11 days' time, there

24:48

was a very high degree of probability she would make

24:50

what would turn out to be a successful

24:53

attempted suicide.

24:54

And that was the origin

24:57

of the expression, The Blood

24:59

on Our Hands. X's

25:03

case, and now Becky's, involve

25:06

a tricky area of law. Children

25:09

with complex needs might rarely get

25:11

sectioned under the Mental Health Act, or

25:13

a judge can make a deprivation of liberty

25:16

order, which prevents children from going anywhere

25:18

without close supervision. They

25:20

can be locked into their accommodation or even

25:22

their bedroom, and sometimes a judge

25:24

can give permission for them to be physically or chemically

25:27

restrained to keep them safe. It

25:30

can get difficult because the criteria

25:32

for psychiatric sectioning is very specific

25:34

and very time-sensitive. Sometimes

25:37

doctors say that despite a child showing

25:39

what looks like a mental disorder, lots

25:42

of suicide attempts, for instance, they

25:44

don't assess that child as being mentally

25:46

ill.

25:47

You have cases where families, where parents,

25:49

cut to sitting court, listening to barristers,

25:53

arguing incomprehensibly, and under

25:55

sectioned this and sectioned that and so on and so

25:57

forth, it's actually down to them, not us.

25:59

And everybody says the same thing. It's them, not

26:02

us. Yeah. And occasionally the judge has

26:04

to resolve it. But

26:06

you see that the family judge can't resolve it.

26:08

Meanwhile, this child is sitting in limbo

26:10

somewhere. Meanwhile, the child's sitting in

26:12

limbo. I'm

26:15

struck by the similarity between Ex's

26:17

story and Becky's.

26:18

It sometimes feels eerie.

26:21

Both troubled since they were toddlers, both

26:23

repeatedly running away, both ending up in

26:25

danger on motorways, both

26:27

arrested as young teenagers.

26:30

In both of these cases, the NHS

26:32

and the council argued for months about

26:35

who was responsible for this child. Back

26:39

in 2017, Munby gave that strongly

26:41

worded judgment because he wanted someone

26:43

to do something. And lo

26:45

and behold, they did.

26:47

The case came back, I think, a few days

26:49

later. Miraculously, they'd

26:52

found the place. On

26:54

the one hand, from Ex's point of view, I was delighted.

26:58

On the wider front, I had severe misgivings

27:01

about it. For this reason,

27:04

I don't know about all the other Ex's out there.

27:25

The

27:28

world is pretty well. It's pick stories about

27:31

places that surprise people. They

27:33

try to overturn expectations.

27:35

News stories that perhaps you won't have heard

27:37

anywhere else and the things to look out for

27:39

in the future. The Global News Podcast

27:41

helps you catch up with our restless

27:44

world in your own time. Search for it wherever

27:46

you get your BBC podcasts.

27:50

It's

27:53

hard to find out exactly how many other children

27:56

like Becky and Child Ex are out there. But

27:58

in the four years to 20... the number

28:01

of applications to deprive children of

28:03

their liberty more than quadrupled.

28:06

Based on numbers since last summer, the

28:08

Nuffield Family Justice Observatory predicts

28:11

that 1,300 children

28:13

will be subject to deprivation of liberty orders

28:16

over the course of the year.

28:17

So when judges who, you know, some of

28:19

the most senior judges in the country who oversee what's

28:22

happening to these very vulnerable,

28:25

complex children, they keep publishing

28:27

judgments that are literally screaming out for

28:29

help. Does it make any difference?

28:34

No. No,

28:37

it didn't translate into any

28:39

improvements whatsoever. Things have got worse.

28:42

They haven't got better. This is Mark

28:44

Carr, Deputy CEO of the Children's

28:46

Homes Association, which supports providers

28:49

of residential childcare.

28:51

I'd say the sector's probably at about 95% full. Certainly

28:58

the last 15 years or so, local

29:00

authorities have been given

29:02

significant increase in statutory duties

29:04

of what they have to do. But unfortunately,

29:07

the government just doesn't send the check to go with

29:09

it. Two of the core spending

29:11

areas are children's social care and adult social care.

29:14

Adult social care is much more political. They

29:18

vote. So actually funding

29:20

has been much more protected or

29:22

increased for adult social care. Children

29:25

in residential settings are just not

29:27

a priority for government and they're just not interested.

29:30

It's not just a lack of bricks and mortar.

29:32

Even

29:34

if there were enough homes, there is an

29:36

ongoing workforce crisis because people

29:39

can earn more at a supermarket than they

29:41

can looking after troubled kids. And

29:43

the sector is inherently precarious because

29:46

private providers can do as they please. One

29:49

of the biggest has just abruptly closed 28 residential

29:51

care homes because of market

29:54

challenges, leaving councils in a panic

29:56

and vulnerable children no option but

29:58

to move.

29:59

Add to this the fact that few people

30:02

running a business want to take on the risk of housing

30:04

a highly complex, volatile child.

30:07

They're really risky centres

30:11

to run. We know anecdotally

30:13

that the gaps that are there are

30:15

generally the fourth bed in the three bed home or something.

30:18

So you're that children's home manager, you've looked

30:20

at the referral, come through and you've

30:23

looked at that child and go, I cannot jeopardise

30:25

the progress that I've made with these three kids

30:28

by bringing in this potential grenade.

30:30

So where do children go when they can't

30:32

get secure accommodation that's registered with Ofsted

30:35

and regulated in terms of care standards?

30:36

Well, what

30:38

we discovered is that they end up in unregulated

30:41

accommodation, where there's no independent

30:43

oversight of skills, training or

30:45

standards, and no accountability

30:47

for the people in charge.

30:49

And we know there are children living,

30:51

we know there's some time

30:53

living being accommodated by those types of

30:55

children, took the unsuitable accommodation. But

30:58

like children living in

31:00

tents, there've been children living

31:02

in caravans, there've been children

31:04

living in all sorts of unsuitable accommodation.

31:06

That's right, tents and

31:09

caravans. Other sources

31:11

told me they'd come across vulnerable children living

31:13

in chalets, holiday lets, even

31:16

on barges. Children

31:18

end up in places like this because there

31:20

is simply nothing else.

31:23

And because these children often need supervision

31:26

by several adults 24 hours a day,

31:29

providers charge the councils stupefying

31:32

sums, a cost that is borne

31:34

by the taxpayer. And there's

31:36

little option but to pay up because otherwise,

31:38

these most vulnerable of children

31:41

would have nowhere at all to go.

31:44

So I've just had a response back from the Department

31:46

for Education. This is my producer

31:48

again, Patricia, and she's been collecting

31:51

data about the severity of the situation. And

31:53

they did respond to some of my questions,

31:56

but crucially, they

31:58

admitted that they don't actually know. how many children

32:01

have ended up in unregistered, unregulated

32:03

accommodation. They

32:05

just don't collect that data. So Patricia

32:07

tried local councils individually. So

32:10

that's over 170 councils in England

32:12

and Wales. And I asked them how

32:14

long on average children have had to wait over

32:16

the past two years for a secure, regulated

32:18

placement.

32:20

So they said the average was two and a half months. But

32:22

then there were eight councils where children waited

32:24

at least a year for a placement. And

32:27

a boy looked after by Sallahull Council waited

32:29

at least three years.

32:32

Months and years of waiting when

32:34

a child is already at crisis point. So

32:38

where are all the children going? So

32:40

when they're out of options, they sometimes send children

32:42

to Scotland. So in just two years,

32:45

at least 61 children from England

32:47

and Wales have been sent up to Scotland

32:50

because there's nowhere else for them to go here.

32:53

So that means children are sometimes hundreds

32:55

of miles from their families. I mean, in one case, three

32:58

children were sent from Devon all

33:00

the way to Scotland, which is a nine hour journey just

33:02

to the border.

33:03

Herefordshire Council sent 11 children

33:06

in two years to Scotland.

33:08

If they're not lucky enough to get a regulated placement

33:10

in Scotland, hundreds of miles from family and friends,

33:13

well, they end up in unregulated placements.

33:16

And it costs a bomb. As the replies

33:18

trickled in, Patricia and I stared

33:21

at the sums. Trafford Borough

33:23

Council spent half a million pounds on a

33:25

single child over 40 weeks.

33:26

Other councils gave

33:28

us fees of £20,000, £30,000, £40,000 a week. That

33:33

wasn't unusual. The highest we found

33:35

was £62,000 a week. Every

33:38

year, that's £3.2 million. And

33:40

then we came to the most disturbing

33:43

answers of all. Finally, we

33:45

decided to ask the government how many children

33:47

had died

33:47

in these unregulated settings. And

33:50

they told us that they didn't know. They don't collect

33:52

that data centrally. But we

33:54

found out that in the last five years, at

33:57

least nine children have died in these unregistered

33:59

and uninsurgable settings. with at least

34:01

four of those deaths being children who killed themselves.

34:04

And that includes a 13-year-old boy. At

34:07

least nine child deaths. And

34:10

that's a conservative estimate, because some

34:12

councils refuse to answer the question and

34:14

many wouldn't be precise on the numbers.

34:18

When children in crisis aren't given the help

34:20

they need, inevitably they

34:22

will get worse. Becky

34:24

has. So did Chardex.

34:27

So is it any surprise that children

34:30

are dying in unregulated accommodation?

34:32

Here's Mark Carr again.

34:34

This is a political choice. Where

34:36

we are is a political choice. There's no denying that.

34:39

The only thing about spending and resources

34:42

is a decision made by government.

34:43

And either we've

34:46

had over a decade of incompetence or

34:49

the situation we're in is by design.

34:51

He doesn't blame the local councils or the NHS,

34:54

at least not exclusively. He

34:56

says it's a matter for the Department for Education,

34:59

which holds overall responsibility for children's

35:01

social care. And so we tried

35:03

repeatedly to speak to the Department.

35:06

The person that Sandra

35:09

Macfarlane called out was Gillian Keegan, so I

35:11

tried to reach out to her.

35:13

We kept asking. And eventually

35:15

we got sent a press release telling us that

35:17

the government was banning unregulated accommodation

35:20

for young people in care aged 16

35:22

and over.

35:24

But with just 128 regulated

35:27

secure placements across the country, there's

35:29

still not enough to go round, not nearly.

35:32

And anyway, we didn't understand how regulating

35:34

accommodation post-16 would help Becky, who's

35:37

just turned 13.

35:39

So we pushed back asking for an interview or

35:41

for our specific questions to be answered.

35:44

That elicited a generic press background

35:46

statement which cited the £259 million which were

35:48

promised in the 2021 spending review.

35:53

But that money is for capital projects,

35:55

i.e. more buildings. It's not to pay

35:57

for trained and qualified staff who are experienced.

35:59

experienced at working with vulnerable children.

36:02

We were also sent an old quote by the children's

36:04

minister.

36:06

As a final push, we sent the Department

36:08

for Education our data on children killing

36:10

themselves in unregulated accommodation.

36:13

We sent them the cost of these placements and

36:15

the lengthy times they were having to wait.

36:18

We thought those figures would be so shocking

36:21

that they'd have to respond.

36:23

Eventually the press office said no to an interview.

36:26

They said they had nothing further to add.

36:33

Leaving aside for a moment the shocking data

36:35

we discovered, beyond the horror

36:37

of children killing themselves in unregulated homes

36:40

while in the care of the state, beyond even

36:42

the complacency of the government, it's

36:44

important to realise that secure accommodation,

36:47

when you can get it, is meant

36:49

to be a temporary measure to de-escalate

36:51

a child who is in a frightening crisis. That

36:54

means that these children need skilled

36:57

practitioners to care for them when they're spiralling.

37:00

And when they don't get what they need, when they need

37:02

it, they get worse.

37:05

No one is a better example

37:07

of that than Child X.

37:11

After Sir James Mumbie's judgement was published,

37:13

almost immediately a paediatric mental

37:16

health placement was found for Child X. Her

37:18

mother has nothing but praise for the care she

37:21

received there, and she says that X

37:23

improved.

37:24

But it was a placement

37:26

in a unit for children, and

37:28

Child X had just turned 17. As

37:31

she approached her 18th birthday, she

37:33

was discharged home. And

37:36

then, seven months later, another

37:38

crisis.

37:40

Child X self-harmed to a terrifying

37:42

degree, and ended up sectioned in

37:44

a secure adult mental health unit.

37:48

Today she's in Rampton, one of the three

37:50

top security psychiatric hospitals in the

37:52

country.

37:55

Usually people end up in Rampton because they've

37:57

committed a terrible crime.

37:59

But Child X isn't I didn't

38:01

want her around the kind of people that

38:03

are there. So what kind of people are there? There

38:06

was paedophiles there,

38:08

convicted paedophiles and

38:10

murderers. The

38:12

craze were in there at one point and

38:15

other people like that. And

38:17

that's not the kind of place that a young

38:19

girl with ASD

38:22

and problems like that should be around people

38:24

like that. Because of

38:26

her heart and lung failure, Sylvia can't walk for

38:29

more than about three minutes. She hasn't

38:31

been able to visit Chardex for months.

38:33

Instead, her daughter writes her letters.

38:36

I can't see properly. My eyes

38:38

are so bad. She can't write very

38:40

well. But she's getting

38:42

there. She's going to education.

38:44

And I mean, her

38:46

writing's not very... If

38:50

you can see it. Yeah. Can I have a look? Yeah.

38:54

Hello, ma'am. There's a red heart

38:56

in the corner with some kisses. I'm

38:58

writing to let you know I'm doing

39:00

well. I'm doing a story in

39:02

education for the kids. And I've

39:05

been reading lots of good books and they are very interesting.

39:08

And I

39:10

haven't read them in a long time. I'm

39:12

going to the shop and there's a lot of nice

39:14

stuff to buy. Like getting

39:17

stuff for you means a lot to me. When

39:20

I speak to you on the phone, it makes me

39:22

happy.

39:23

Love you lots. Miss

39:26

you to the moon

39:28

and back. Love, Lucy. Yeah. And

39:34

there are lots of kisses at the bottom. Yeah. I get at least one of

39:37

them a week, I do. As we're talking, Ex's sister Claire

39:39

walks in. She's 37 and

39:41

has taken over visiting

39:43

her sister and being what's known as her

39:45

nominated family member because of Sylvia's ill

39:47

health. And

39:51

her view of the situation is bleak.

39:55

I ask every single time will my sister

39:57

ever come home and they'll say she won't

39:59

be there. be here forever. So

40:02

it's not an infinite, it's not a definite answer I ever

40:04

get. It's a bit of like, it's

40:07

a bit of hope but there isn't a bit of hope. But

40:09

then the more research I've done and the more people I've

40:11

spoke to, they never come home

40:13

and the longer they're away, the more

40:15

damage is done.

40:17

Child X was 17 when the Munby

40:20

judgement came out.

40:21

Now she's 22 and after years of being

40:25

locked up and in isolation,

40:27

things seem no better for her.

40:29

I don't think Lucy would know what it is to

40:32

have a normal life now. She's never seen a £5 note.

40:35

Stuff like that.

40:36

How many places has she been

40:38

in since she was 17 do you think?

40:42

I don't know. Over 10.

40:46

Over 10? Yeah. And she keeps

40:48

getting moved because?

40:50

Yeah, we just don't know. We

40:53

don't know, it's like a loss. I

40:55

think she keeps getting moved because

40:57

they said they couldn't control, not controlable,

41:00

they didn't have enough specialised. Yes,

41:02

right. Because when they were in like, things

41:05

like restraints, she wouldn't stop.

41:07

It's inhuman. What's it done to

41:09

your family? It's destroyed us. And

41:12

that's when I'm past the responsibility onto me

41:14

because she can knock up. And I

41:16

mean she physically and mentally can knock up.

41:19

She cries and cries and cries and

41:21

because I'm like the eldest,

41:23

I don't want any mother sisters

41:25

to feel that as well. So I've took

41:27

it on. It's a lot, isn't it? It's

41:30

a hell of a lot.

41:32

As we're talking, Sylvia gets up to go for a cigarette.

41:34

Sorry, we'll just take him on to go out. I'm

41:37

addicted to cigarettes. You

41:39

did say, didn't you? Yeah, I know.

41:41

This is when Claire shares her fears for her sister. I

41:44

just know in my heart, when a mum comes back

41:46

in, that she won't get out until dying in hospital.

41:50

I know that in my heart. I have nightmares about

41:53

it.

41:54

I know it. I feel it.

41:55

It's a horrible thing

41:58

to have to have over your head. It

42:03

just feels like Becky is child ex

42:05

six years on. If she

42:07

doesn't get the expert help she needs, she's

42:10

going to get worse if it's not already

42:12

too late.

42:14

Her mum desperately wants her home, and

42:17

the judge does too I think when Becky's ready.

42:20

But recently something happened. Lydia

42:23

discovered she was pregnant. It

42:25

should have been happy news, this was a wanted

42:27

child. But the judge and

42:30

others were worried. I'm also cognisant

42:32

that the mother's now pregnant, which is

42:35

not going to make it easier, physically

42:37

or emotionally for Becky, and

42:40

as a physical risk for the mother.

42:42

Lydia soon understood this pregnancy

42:44

could easily mean Becky would never be allowed

42:46

home. And so at the

42:48

last hearing, her barrister informed the

42:51

court that she had decided to have an abortion.

42:54

And I watched through my computer screen

42:57

as the court fell silent.

43:03

I'm only doing it to get Becky home.

43:06

If Becky was home, I wouldn't even think

43:08

about termination. At this

43:10

point, we'd arranged to go and interview Lydia, but

43:12

the situation had just become too difficult.

43:15

It would have been the week of the termination.

43:18

After it was done, she messaged me.

43:21

Still in quite some discomfort,

43:24

I was quite far into the pregnancy. It's

43:27

something that will be with me for

43:29

life.

43:31

I'm just focusing on getting Becky home. I

43:33

can't lose two kids because of social services.

43:38

These are the unseen, untold costs of the drug.