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‘Secure accommodation’ provided by the state outside of the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA 1983) for the purpose of restricting a child’s liberty may be authorised by a court if this is the most appropriate way of meeting the child’s needs. For example, ‘…when a local authority (LA) is accommodating a child, secure accommodation may not be used unless it appears either that (i) the child has a history of absconding and is likely to abscond from any other form of accommodation; and that if they abscond they are likely to suffer significant harm; (ii) or that if they are kept in any other description of accommodation, they are likely to injure themselves or others’.1