Children’s Legal Centre Wales and Observatory on Human Rights of Children statement:
Welsh Government’s Response to the Senedd Children and Young People and Education Committee’s Inquiry – Services for Care Experienced Children: exploring radical reform.
Deprivation of Liberty Orders
Senedd Children and Young People Education Committee Recommendation 20: The Committee recommends that: The Welsh Government should carry out an immediate analysis of the use of Deprivation of Liberty Orders across Wales for the past 24 months, broken down by local authority which has responsibility for the child, age of the child and the length of the order, and which should be published no later than December 2023. The Welsh Government and the Association of Directors of Social Services should jointly publish no later than December 2023 an action plan setting out how they will reduce the use of Deprivation of Liberty Orders in Wales. The action plan must include clear timescales and funding allocations.
Response: Accept in part: The Welsh Government will carry out an analysis of the use of Deprivation of Liberty Orders across Wales for the past 24 months, broken down by local authority which has responsibility for the child, age of the child and the length of the order. The results of this analysis will feed into the Welsh Government’s Transformation Programme for Children’s Services.
We very much welcome the Welsh Government’s commitment to carrying out an analysis of the use of Deprivation of Liberty Orders across Wales.
Whist we note that the results of this analysis will feed into the Welsh Government’s Transformation Programme for Children’s Services, we believe that this response lacks urgency, and will not address the immediate needs of highly vulnerable children with complex needs who are facing Deprivation of Liberty Orders in Wales. As reported by the UN Global Study on Deprivation of Liberty:
Children deprived of their liberty remain an invisible and forgotten group in society, despite increasing evidence of these children being victims of further human rights violations.
And, as the Honourable Mr Justice Francis, Family Division Liaison Judge for Wales, stated when giving evidence to the Senedd Children and Young People Education Committee as part of the Children in Care Inquiry:
And I think, for me, doing the job that I’ve been doing in Wales in recent years, this is the single biggest crisis point. It is absolutely desperate. You don’t put somebody under a deprivation of liberty order unless you are absolutely at the extreme end of trouble, and I think it’s a terrible problem.
We would anticipate that the Welsh Government and the Association of Directors of Social Services would respond with greater urgency to a crisis in the violation of children’s rights.
We recommend the development of an urgent action plan to ensure that no child is deprived of their liberty outside the statutory framework and that Ministers give due regard to the rights of the child under the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011 and that local authorities properly meet their obligations under the Social Services and Well-Being (Wales) Act 2014.
Endnotes:
Children’s Legal Centre Wales and Observatory on the Human Rights of Children Evidence Submission to Senedd Children and Young People and Education Inquiry – Services for Care Experienced Children: exploring radical reform. Please access here.
Senedd Children and Young People and Education Inquiry Report – Services for Care Experienced Children: exploring radical reform. Please access here.
Welsh Government response to Senedd Children and Young People and Education Inquiry Report – Services for Care Experienced Children: exploring radical reform. Please access here.
For detailed evidence of the negative impact of Deprivation of Liberty Orders on Children and a review of published judgements see recent report by the Nuffield Family Observatory. Please access here.