Cross-Border Placements Regulations: business and regulatory impact assessment

2. Background

A DOL order may be made elsewhere in the UK on the application of a local authority in England or Wales or a Health and Social Care trust in Northern Ireland. Such an order authorises the deprivation of liberty of a child in a residential care setting and will only be granted by a court where it considers that this is necessary to safeguard the child's welfare. In recent times, an increasing number of DOL orders have been granted, particularly in England, which authorise the deprivation of liberty of a child in a residential care setting in Scotland.

There are a limited number of children involved. Since the first cross-border (deprivation of liberty) petition in 2019, there have been 36 such placements of children into residential care in Scotland, of which 35 were from England and one was from Wales. To date, there have been no placements from Health and Social Care trusts in Northern Ireland.

Scottish Ministers have committed to realising The Promise (the conclusions of the Independent Care Review), which made clear that cross-border placements must be reduced to an absolute minimum. All cross-border placements, including those involving deprivations of liberty, should only take place in exceptional circumstances where they are considered to be in the best interests of the child. The Scottish Government continues to work with the UK Government to ensure that it addresses the lack of adequate care provision, as a matter of urgency, given the increase in these cross-border DOL order placements.

The foundation of the policy is to ensure that the best interests of the children are at the centre of all decisions made about their care, their rights are protected and their needs can be met in practice.