The Cost of Secure Accommodation for Children With ASD

We sent the Department for Education Our Data on children killing themselves in unregulated accommodation. We thought those figures would be so shocking that they'd have to respond. Eventually the press office said no to an interview. They said they had nothing further to add. It's important to realise that secure accommodation when you can get it is meant to be a temporary measure to de-escalate a child who is in a frightening crisis. No one is a better example of that than Child X. She self-harmed to a terrifying degree and ended up sectioned in a secure adult mental health unit. Today she's in Rampton, one of the three top security psychiatric hospitals in the country. Usually people