The country’s most senior family judge has accused the education secretary of “complacency bordering on cynicism” in a scathing judgment that deplores the lack of secure, therapeutic placements in England and Wales for scores of children with complex needs at risk of taking their own lives.
Dealing with a case involving a 15-year-old girl in care known as X, who experienced trauma in early childhood and has repeatedly self-harmed, absconded, threatened herself and others and spoken of suicide, the president of the family division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, lambasted Gillian Keegan for asking to be excused from coming to court to account for failures to keep the child and others like her safe.
In a ruling that invokes the right to life and the right to protection from inhuman and degrading treatment, the president said it was “scandalous” that when a court ordered secure accommodation for a child’s safety, there could be little assurance that a placement would be found.
He expressed disagreement with the secretary of state’s position that the government had nothing to contribute on the issue of lack of secure placements for children at risk of self-harm and suicide, saying: “It was, I observed, shocking to see that the Department for Education seemed to be simply washing its hands of this chronic problem.”
The judge refused Keegan’s request to absent herself, insisting that the education secretary should engage with the court’s concerns.
