I know, admire and much respect Sir Andrew McFarlane as a bold and outspoken figure who hesitates not at all to expose and condemn individual and collective indifference on the part of officialdom and of holders of high office. My “arm’s length” experience of him in Birmingham and the West Midlands had led me to expect nothing less. ( I was a criminal defence solicitor and higher court advocate until my retirement but through Law Society activities I had rubbed shoulders with him frequently since he had been a practitioner on the Birmingham, etcetera, circuit) .
“Shameful” is the appropriate adjective for all this shrugging of shoulders.
It's outrageous that nothing has been done to address this problem over the years. The lack of secure accommodation for young people has been recurrently addressed in the Court of Protection hearings I've attended. Back in July 2021, I wrote a blog post describing the case of a 17-year-old who was being kept inappropriately in an Accident and Emergency bed because there was nowhere else for her to go. The judge (Mrs Justice Judd) said: "“I can tell you I have had myself a number of cases like this, with young people being in an A&E Department of a hospital, simply because there’s nowhere else for them. No doubt social workers are in a parlous position on this, but judges are being asked to authorise this position and it really is very troubling.” And back in 2017, Sir James Munby (then President) referred to this "disgraceful and utterly shaming lack of proper provision". Check out my blog post on "Secure Accommodation for Young People" https://openjusticecourtofprotection.org/2021/08/12/secure-accommodation-for-young-people-a-well-known-scandal/
I know, admire and much respect Sir Andrew McFarlane as a bold and outspoken figure who hesitates not at all to expose and condemn individual and collective indifference on the part of officialdom and of holders of high office. My “arm’s length” experience of him in Birmingham and the West Midlands had led me to expect nothing less. ( I was a criminal defence solicitor and higher court advocate until my retirement but through Law Society activities I had rubbed shoulders with him frequently since he had been a practitioner on the Birmingham, etcetera, circuit) .
“Shameful” is the appropriate adjective for all this shrugging of shoulders.
It's outrageous that nothing has been done to address this problem over the years. The lack of secure accommodation for young people has been recurrently addressed in the Court of Protection hearings I've attended. Back in July 2021, I wrote a blog post describing the case of a 17-year-old who was being kept inappropriately in an Accident and Emergency bed because there was nowhere else for her to go. The judge (Mrs Justice Judd) said: "“I can tell you I have had myself a number of cases like this, with young people being in an A&E Department of a hospital, simply because there’s nowhere else for them. No doubt social workers are in a parlous position on this, but judges are being asked to authorise this position and it really is very troubling.” And back in 2017, Sir James Munby (then President) referred to this "disgraceful and utterly shaming lack of proper provision". Check out my blog post on "Secure Accommodation for Young People" https://openjusticecourtofprotection.org/2021/08/12/secure-accommodation-for-young-people-a-well-known-scandal/
Thank you for highlighting this issue.