'Troubled' Northumberland teen moved to Scotland

Social workers in Northumberland have placed a troubled teenage boy in aspecialist residential school in Scotland after struggling to find a suitableunit in England.

An English High Court judge has approved the move but has told council bosses that judges in Scotland should also give their backing.

Details of the case have emerged in a ruling by Mr Justice Cobb following ahearing in the Family Division of the High Court in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The judge said the boy, who is in his mid-teens, had experienced a traumatic childhood and had gone into council care because his family could not cope with his disruptive behaviour.

He had been placed at a unit in Newcastle but bosses there also said they could not manage him.

Social service bosses at Northumberland County Council had then been unable to find another unit in England - and the boy had at one stage temporarily lived in a caravan in the grounds of the Newcastle unit.

Lawyers told Mr Justice Cobb the only offer had come from a specialist school in Scotland.

The judge approved the move but said the Scottish judges should also consider the case.

He said the boy could not be identified.

The most senior family court judge in England and Wales raised concern about a shortage of secure accommodation units in England for children a year ago.