They may require this level of specialist care in a variety of individual or family circumstances, not just those with complex or additional needs.
The children were placed in care in Dumfries and Galloway, East Dunbartonshire, Fife, North Lanarkshire, Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire, Stirling and West Lothian.
These placements cost more than £7.4 million in the last financial year, with an average annual cost of £166,427 per child.
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Ian and Jamie McNab, along with their daughter Ivy (12), face a regular 10-hour round trip to visit Sophie (13), who has complex needs and was placed in a residential care facility over the summer, more than 230 miles away in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway.
Jaime, Sophie’s stepmother, said full-time care was their only option due to a lack of before and after school facilities in the Highlands.
She said: “If Sophie hadn’t gone there, the only option would have been for one of us to quit our jobs.”
And Ian added: “I mean we could have said no, we had that option, but when I say we ‘had the option’ there was no other suitable alternative.”
At the time of the speech, the family had yet to see Sophie after her carers decided it would be the best way to help her settle in.
Because she is non-verbal, phone calls are also difficult, although the family has tried to arrange a video call with her.
The family is still trying to figure out how to arrange regular visits.
Iain said: “What we don’t want to do is go down so often that it upsets her, but at the same time we don’t want to go down so infrequently that it upsets her.
“We can’t see her that often, we can’t see her for short periods of time. It has to be long weeks or a week at a time because it’s essentially a 10-hour round trip in the car and getting Sophie out of there to get her back a day later is quite a long time for her.
“We’re kind of limited in how often we can see her and for how long, given the cost of mileage and travel and possibly having to take time off from work, whereas if she were local it would be very easy to fly her back for the weekend and we could be with her much more often for short periods of time rather than planning a long trip and a week’s holiday, essentially.”
Iain and Jaime explained that Sophie may struggle if someone she associates with a particular location is not where she expects it to be, adding apprehension to any upcoming visit.
Jaime said, “In the past, when we would take her to respite, as soon as she saw that physical building, it was time for us to leave because she has caregivers in that building.
“We’re not sure how much she’ll actually tolerate us even being in the house where she’s at because for her that’s where she’s at with her caregivers and we’d like to have her at home.”
Before Sophie moved into full-time care, she was left on respite care, dividing her time between The Orchard on Broome Drive in Inverness and her home in the Lichkin area of the city.
But for much of July, due to a lack of availability, they were forced to take out short-term rentals as an alternative respite.
Iain said: “I think it was about four or five weeks where she split her time between our house: a couple of nights a week at The Orchard and then a couple of nights a week at this Airbnb with the agency carers she managed.
“There was no major problem, but obviously all these changes were very disturbing to her.”
The family are incredibly grateful to the staff caring for Sophie – “They’ve been so supportive, they’ve worked really hard to try and provide something,” Ian said – but the work ahead takes its toll.
“We all have moments when everything is fine and then it gets worse,” Ian said.
The family hope Sophie will be able to return to Inverness once building work to expand The Orchard’s capacity is completed, but this will take up to nine months and Ian said he is not “totally confident” the timetable will be met.
A Highland Council spokesman said it could not comment on individual cases, but “we recognize the impact of out-of-authority placements on both children and their parents/carers” and the associated costs to the council.
Explaining its goal to increase care capacity in the region, the company said it is working to increase capacity at The Orchard from four to eight beds, with a target completion date of next fall.
“This is considered a realistic time frame at this time,” they said.
And they added that “the strategy to rebalance council care is designed to significantly reduce the increased use of out-of-house placements.
“This is a five-year strategy reflecting the scope of the project, which includes the development of kinship, foster care, residential care and short-term care/respite care, combined with early intervention and prevention initiatives to support more children remaining at home with their parents/carers,” they said.