Britain’s most vulnerable children are being badly let down. So who cares?
A year ago last week, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson responded to a letter from the coroner who investigated the death of 17-year-old Jacob Bates. Jacob had autism and had taken his own life aǽter years of struggling with his mental health.
Having lived in “a succession of secure placements under the provisions of the Mental Health Act 1983 and the Children Act 1989” from the age of 14, Jacob was latterly put by children’s social care into an unregulated home, before deciding he wanted to live with his dad.
Although he found no causal link between Jacob’s death and his time in an unregulated setting, the coroner wrote to Williamson to prevent future deaths of 16 to 18-year-olds living in this kind of accommodation. Two former employees had told the
