A Local Authority v At and Fe (Child; no Approved Secure Accommodation Available; Deprivation of Liberty)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mr Justice Holman |
| Judgment Date | 14 September 2017 |
| Neutral Citation | [2017] EWHC 2458 (Fam) |
| Court | Family Division |
| Docket Number | Case No: FD17P00339 |
| Date | 14 September 2017 |
[2017] EWHC 2458 (Fam)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
FAMILY DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand
London
WC2A 2LL
The Honourable Mr Justice Holman
(sitting throughout in public)
Case No: FD17P00339
Mr E Flood appeared on behalf of the Applicant Local Authority
NO APPEARANCE by or on behalf of the First Respondent Maternal Grandmother
NO APPEARANCE by or on behalf of the Second Respondent Mother
JUDGMENT (As approved by the judge)
If this Transcript is to be reported or published, there is a requirement to ensure that no reporting restriction will be breached. This is particularly important in relation to any case involving a sexual offence, where the victim is guaranteed lifetime anonymity (Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992), or where an order has been made in relation to a young person.
This is an application by a local authority in relation to a boy who is now about 13 and a half. It is not necessary for the purposes of this brief judgment to relate his earlier troubled history. He earlier lived with his grandmother under a special guardianship order, but became the subject of a full care order in December 2015. There is, for the purposes of today, a document headed "Case Summary on behalf of the Local Authority" by their counsel, Mr Edward Flood, dated 13 September 2017. That is, if I may say so, a very well prepared and drafted document which summarises the whole history of this matter with clarity and sets out the legal framework with clarity and accuracy. It is available for anyone with a proper interest in this case to read.
It is clear from the harrowing contents of paragraph 6 of that document that during the last two years or so the child has displayed a desperate history and catalogue of very seriously uncontrolled behaviour, damaging both to himself and to others. As a result, he has, or had until last June, been placed in no less than six different residential settings. Each such setting ultimately broke down, sometimes very rapidly, as the staff there were simply unable to manage his behaviour and keep him safe.
As the case summary makes plain, the local authority would have wished by last June to place the child in an approved secure accommodation placement. Such placements are currently very scarce and they were unable to find one. So it was that they hoped to place him in a unit which is not approved secure accommodation at X. Their plan was, however, that within X he should, if necessary, be subject to considerable restraint, including physical restraint, in order to keep him safe and prevent him from absconding, as he had done on occasions in the past. According to the case summary for today at paragraph 10, 'The staff of X are appropriately trained in de-escalation and physical restraint'.
Section 25 of the Children Act 1989 makes express and detailed provision for the making of what are known as secure accommodation orders. Such orders may be made and, indeed, frequently are made by courts, including courts composed of lay magistrates. It is not necessary to apply to the High Court for a secure accommodation order. However, as no...
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Re A-F (Children)
...Resources) [2017] EWHC 2189 (Fam) {14}; Re M (Lack of Secure Accommodation) [2017] EWFC B61 {15}; Re A Child (No Approved Secure Accommodation Available; Deprivation of Liberty) [2017] EWHC 2458 (Fam) {13}; Re B [2017] EWFC B93 {11}; and Re M (A Child: secure accommodation order) [2017] EWH......
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T (A Child)
...Mr Justice Holman described the situation in one week in the High Court in 2017 with a tone of wholly appropriate concern in A Local Authority v AT and FE [2017] EWHC 2458 (Fam): “5. It appears that currently such authorisation can only be given by the High Court in exercise of its inherent......
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...concern in a number of cases by judges dealing with these cases on a regular basis, notably by Holman J in A Local Authority v AT and FE [2017] EWHC 2458 (at paragraph 6): ‘I am increasingly concerned that the device of resort to the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court is operating to b......