Question to the Department for Education:

What steps he is taking with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure that homeless children aged 16 and 17 without family support are accommodated by their local authority as looked-after children.

The Department for Education and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) have issued joint guidance to local authorities which makes clear that children’s services have responsibility for assessing the needs of 16 and 17 year olds who are homeless or are at risk of homelessness and that, if they need to be accommodated, they should normally become a looked after child. A copy of this guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/provision-of-accommodation-for-16-and-17-year-olds-who-may-be-homeless-and-or-require-accommodation.

There are only two circumstances in which a local authority might find that a homeless young person should be accommodated by homelessness services under the Housing Act 1996, rather than by children’s services under section 20 of the Children’s Act 1989 – becoming looked after. These are where the young person is either:

• not a child in need, or
• a 16 or 17 year old child in need who, having been properly and fully advised of the implications and having the capacity to reach a decision, has decided that they do not want to be accommodated under section 20.

Alongside this guidance, Coram Voice’s 'Always Heard' safety net service, funded by the Department for Education, has provided vital advocacy support for looked after children, care leavers and children on the edge of care since 2017. As a direct result of the work of the Always Heard service, children have been made safe, removed from homelessness, and poor or unlawful care planning decisions have been challenged. Coram Voice continued to provide vital advocacy support during the COVID-19 outbreak to young people at most risk – with over half of the children and young people using the safety net service in 2020-21 from harder to reach groups, including homeless children. The department will continue to work together with MHCLG, to ensure this group of young people receive support and accommodation which meets their needs and, most importantly, keeps them safe.