A council in England has paid £60,000 a week – the equivalent of £3.12m a year – for a “wholly unsuitable” children’s home placement for an autistic teenager with a mild learning disability.
The judge hearing the girl’s case was so appalled that he ordered the education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, to explain the government’s position on what he called a “national crisis” – the severe shortage of secure placements for vulnerable children with complex needs.
