'Stark failure': Vulnerable children placed in caravans and Airbnbs, report finds

Many vulnerable young people under deprivation of liberty orders (DoLs) have been placed in "highly unsuitable" accommodation, including in Airbnbs and caravans, a new report found.

Dame Rachel de Souza, England’s Children’s Commissioner, called this “stark failure of the children’s social care system”.

While most children subject to court orders from the High Court depriving them of their liberty are in appropriate settings such as children’s homes, Dame Rachel said many are in unsuitable housing.

Government guidance states that children under DoLs generally require high levels of care and supervision, and should therefore be placed in settings such as children’s homes or care home services.

However, Dame Rachel said her research indicated some children’s basic rights to safety and happiness are “too often being ignored in a system that puts profit-making above protection and allows decisions to be dictated by local resources”.

The number of children subject to applications for DoLs has risen from 359 in 2020/21 to 1,368 in 2023, the commission said.

Dame Rachel’s report, published on Monday, told of an autistic teenager who was placed by her local authority in an Airbnb under supervision for nine months following pressure to discharge her from hospital as she did not meet the criteria to be held under the Mental Health Act.

It also noted an example of a teenage girl who had suffered parental domestic violence and neglect, and who, after experience in foster care and a children’s home, was given a supervised crisis placement in a caravan.

She was later housed in a children’s home 120 miles from her grandparents.

Dame Rachel said such children “exist within a health and social care system which is in urgent need of investment and reform, and addressing their needs should form an integral part of the wider plans for children’s social care going forwards”.

She said: “The vast majority of children subject to deprivation of liberty orders are in the care system.

“Some are living in specialist therapeutic children’s homes or settings that have been created specifically for them.

“However, many children live with these restrictions in places that are highly unsuitable, including illegal children’s homes, Airbnbs or on hospital wards while awaiting discharge.

“Far from providing the environment they need to help them with the behaviours that have caused concern, this leads to children feeling unsafe and uncared for, further adding to their trauma.”

Her report recommended that “far fewer” children should be subject to DoLs, and for those who are they should never be placed in an illegal children’s home.

The commissioner called for a strengthening of the law in this area to give clarity and transparency on decision-making; for children to have a stronger voice in the process; and oversight from a judge to ensure local authority decisions are reviewed every three months.

Dame Rachel also called for “radical investment in creating new and safe places for children to live” and an end to “profiteering in children’s social care”.

She said: “For children under deprivation of liberty orders, these basic rights are too often being ignored in a system that puts profit-making above protection and allows decisions to be dictated by local resources.

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“Depriving a child of their liberty is one of the most significant interventions the state can make in a child’s life.

“My new report tells these children’s stories, revealing a stark failure of the children’s social care system.

“We need to strengthen the law so that children have a say in the decisions affecting their lives, and radical investment in new and safe places for them to live.”

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Children who have been deprived of their liberty are facing the most heartbreaking experiences, with many being retraumatised by a system that can’t meet their needs.

“That is why today I will confirm plans to break down the barriers to opportunity that they are facing, including by developing new community-based provision to meet their needs to give children the best life chances.

“Our reforms will go even further to give vulnerable children the best life chances by lifting the curtain on care providers profiteering off of vulnerable children, tackling unregistered placements and shifting the focus back to earlier intervention to help children achieve and thrive.”

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