The Plight of a Depressed Teenager in Care

The Plight of a
Depressed Teenager in Care

This is the story of a teenager, child X, who is the subject of a Care Order, made in November 2019. She is living in north Wales but the care system has not served her well. Judge Gareth Jones has drawn attention to her plight to raise awareness of the lack of suitable residential care for children in Wales [see link below]. Child X is now 14 and the local authority recognises that, because the current placement is unregistered, it needs to provide more suitable accommodation for her as soon as possible. No information is available about her educational arrangements.

While social workers would probably describe child X as having 'mental health issues', I have no qualms about describing her as 'a depressed teenager'. However, I recognise that the term 'depression' has both a popular and a clinical meaning, although the two meanings are very much like each other. Depression is still a taboo subject - even though it seems to be increasingly prevalent in society - and the stigma can make sufferers reluctant to talk about it. If constructive work with child X is to take place it may be necessary to recognise that her state of mind may be 'depressed'. Furthermore, the task of finding a home for her would almost certainly need to take account of the natural tendency, during adolescence, to test the boundaries of her environment.

Details of her period in care are interesting because they show that if different arrangements had been made when she came into care at the age of eleven the present difficulties might have been avoided. Over the past three years social workers in north Wales have done their best in the difficult situation they have found themselves in. The underlying cause of the current difficulties is the failure of councils in Wales to plan and invest in their own provision of residential care for children and their reliance on businesses to provide this.

When child X came into care she was apparently assessed as needing something more than foster care. Residential care has long been recognised as a form of 'early intervention' for a child who has emotional and behavioural problems. She was therefore placed in a residential home in Scotland. Details of this placement and the reason for it ending are not known. At some stage she returned to live in north Wales and the local authority sought another residential placement for her.

Unfortunately, the only one to be found was in the south east of England. She was admitted there after the court made an 'Interim Deprivation of Liberty Order' on 10th May 2022 allowing this placement. This move was obviously going to be difficult for her - hence the need for the order. Later on, when this placement appeared to be breaking down, it is interesting to learn that she expressed a wish to return to her previous placement in Scotland. Furthermore, it must have been extremely difficult for social workers in North Wales to maintain a good working arrangement with staff at the residential unit in England, due to the geographical distance.

On 29 July 2022 she allegedly assaulted a member of staff and was arrested by police and taken into police custody. No further action was taken in respect of the alleged assault. The residential placement gave immediate notification of termination of that placement, which left the police in the position that they had to accommodate her at a police station, using a foamy sofa bed in a room within the police station, under a police protection order which was made by them. A social worker from the local authority then brought her back and after her return to her home area her behaviour stabilised. She was having familial contact and the situation was not as difficult as it appeared to be when she was away from her home area. Consequently, the criteria for the making of a secure accommodation order was not met and the interim order was allowed to lapse.

She is now accommodated in a training flat available to the local authority. An external agency has been engaged to provide staffing to oversee the current placement on a 'two to one' basis, effectively with two female carers overseeing the placement on a rota basis.

In Wales the proportion of children in care is higher than in other parts of the UK. Children who are removed from home after suffering 'significant harm' and then made the subject of a Care Order are sometimes so badly affected by their early life experiences that anyone caring for them would find their behaviour challenging. A key concept for good practice with children in care is one that is informed by the child's need for 'a secure base' - which supports the child's healthy growth and development. If possible, children in long-term care should be helped to keep in touch with the members of their family who are important to them. Despite the deficiencies of their parents in the past, children do sometimes have positive memories of their early family life and want to keep in touch.

The story of child X shows that the absence of suitable residential care in Wales causes harm to children in care and this runs counter to social workers' code of ethics. Residential care would obviously require considerable financial investment from the Welsh government. However, the rising number of placement breakdowns - with their heavy workloads for children's services, costly legal proceedings and very expensive unregistered placements - has reached a point where the situation requires a political response.

Hilary Searing