Judge condemns council over ‘dreadful failures’ in handling of children in care

A High Court judge has condemned a council as a result of “dreadful failures” in the handling of children in its care.

Mr Justice Keehan said he had decided to publicly identify Herefordshire Council because people have a “legitimate interest” in knowing what public bodies do and do not do.

The judge complained of “egregious abuse” of legislation designed to provide accommodation to children who did not have somewhere suitable to live.

Bosses had been too slow to ask family court judges to take control of cases and make long-term term decisions about children’s living arrangements, he said.

He said about a third of approximately 50 children in the council’s care had been affected.

Mr Justice Keehan has outlined criticisms and concerns after analysing the cases of two children in the council’s care at a family court hearing in Nottingham.

The judge, who is based in the Family Division of the High Court in London, said a new senior management team was in place and aimed to make significant improvements.

He said, in a written ruling on the two children’s cases, that a new head of children’s services had been “frank and open about past failings”.

Mr Justice Keehan said his concerns centred on Herefordshire’s use of section 20 of The Children Act – a provision which gives councils the ability to provide accommodation to children who have nowhere suitable to live.

He said the provision was a useful tool in “appropriate circumstances” – such as a case involving an unaccompanied child who arrived from abroad seeking asylum.

But he said he was “wholly inappropriate” to use the provision as an alternative to launching legal proceedings and asking family court judges to make long-term decisions.

He said he had asked the council for a statement detailing the circumstances of “each and every child” in its care.

“The… document made very grim reading,” he said.

“Excepting (five) children who are now the subject of (family court) proceedings, the local authority is accommodating 42 children.

“Of these 42 children, the local authority have now recognised that 14 have wrongly and abusively been the subject of section 20 accommodation for a wholly inappropriate lengthy period of time and/or should have been the subject of legal planning meetings and/or care proceedings at a much earlier time.”

The judge raised particular concern about the two children whose cases he had analysed.

He said they have been accommodated under the terms of section 20 for a “very considerable period of time” and added: “Their treatment by Herefordshire Council represents two of the most egregious abuses of section 20 accommodation it has yet been my misfortune to encounter as a judge.”

The judge said the council’s “failure to plan and take action” in both cases had been “extremely serious”.

Mr Justice Keehan said Chris Baird, the council’s new director for children’s wellbeing, had outlined plans to “remedy past mistakes”.

“I (am) roundly critical of egregious failings of this local authority,” said the judge.

“Nevertheless, it is important for me to recognise and acknowledge that Mr Baird and the new senior management team at this local authority have taken and will take steps to ensure that such dreadful failures in the care of and planning for children and young people in its care will not occur in the future.”

Lawyers representing Herefordshire had argued that the council should not be named in the judge’s ruling.

Bosses told of how they struggled to recruit solicitors and social workers and said “adverse publicity” would be damaging.

The judge said he had considered whether it was “necessary” to name the council.

“After long and careful reflection I have concluded that it is,” said the judge.

“I decided that a public judgment which named the local authority was necessary.”

He added: “The public have a real and legitimate interest in knowing what public bodies do, or, as in these cases, do not do in their name and on their behalf.”

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