Housing and social services cooperation when assessing young people

There is a range of issues that should be considered when assessing the needs of children and young people or care leavers. These include the:

• particular accommodation and support needs of the young person

• risks to the young person if they become or remain homeless

• personal characteristics and experiences of the young person

• young person's wishes and feelings

Local authorities should operate a protocol between housing and social services authorities that details their specific roles and responsibilities for young people aged 16 and 17 years old.[1]

Joint housing protocols for care leavers

Local authorities should develop a joint protocol between housing services, children's services and other relevant departments to ensure collective responsibility in providing support to care leavers.[2]

Joint protocols should cover:[3]

• arrangements for achieving planned transitions to independent living

• steps to identify risk of homelessness and to prevent it

• a quick joined up response for care leavers who do become homeless

• joint arrangements for signing off intentional homelessness decisions for care leavers

Government guidance provides advice to support the development of joint protocols that can help local authorities to meet the accommodation needs of care leavers. Find out more on gov.uk: Joint housing protocols for care leavers.

Housing authorities are required to have regard to the Homelessness Code of Guidance in exercising their functions under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 and under the Homelessness Act 2002.[4]

Social services authorities are required to have regard to the Homelessness Code of Guidance and to Department for Education guidance when exercising their functions relating to homelessness and the prevention of homelessness.[5] The Department for Education guidance can be accessed on gov.uk: Working Together to Safeguard Children.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Department for Education have also issued guidance to social services authorities and local housing authorities about their duties to secure accommodation for homeless 16 and 17 year old young people.[6]

Guidance issued concerning joint working is to be followed by a local authority unless there is a good reason to deviate from it.[7]

Promoting cooperation

Statutory authorities are under a duty to promote cooperation between agencies to improve the well-being of young people in their area, and to have regard to the need to promote the well-being of children in the discharge of their functions.[8] This applies to the authority as a whole, not just the social services department.[9]

Cooperation in assessments

Protocols should set out how social care assessments will 'be informed by, and inform, other specialist assessments' and 'ensure that any specialist assessments are coordinated so that the child and family experience a joined up assessment process and a single planning process'.[10] Guidance specifically suggests that it is good practice for the assessment of a homeless 16 or 17 year old to be carried out jointly by social and housing services.[11]

Requesting assistance from other departments

The Housing Act 1996 allows a housing authority to request a social services authority (in England, Scotland or Wales) to assist it in the discharge of its homelessness functions. Depending on its other commitments and responsibilities, the social services authority must co-operate by offering such assistance as is reasonable in the circumstances. Each case should be considered on the circumstances at the time.[12]

The Homelessness Act 2002 establishes a referral and cooperation duty.[13] This duty applies where a housing department is dealing with a homelessness application from a person whose household includes a child under 18 years of age, and it has reason to believe that the applicant may be either intentionally homeless or not eligible for assistance. Under the provisions, the housing authority shall make the necessary arrangements to ensure that:

• the applicant's consent is obtained for the referral of the facts of their case to the social services authority and

• if they consent, social services is made aware of those facts and of the subsequent decision of the housing division regarding their case[14]

Housing authorities may also wish to consider making a referral to social services where an applicant with dependent children turns down an offer of suitable accommodation, as such applicants could find themselves without accommodation and not entitled to further assistance from the housing authority. Again, consent for such a referral will normally need to be sought.[15]

Social services might respond to such a referral by for example:

• conducting a child in need assessment

• where appropriate, assisting the family to obtain accommodation, for example, by providing temporary accommodation and/or a deposit

Under the Children Act 1989, social services departments can request the assistance of a housing authority to provide accommodation for a child in need.[16] A housing authority must comply unless doing so would prejudice its ability to discharge its own functions, for example, where it has already decided that it did not owe any further duty to accommodate because the applicant had been found to be intentionally homeless under the homelessness legislation.[17]

Requests for assistance are not legally enforceable within a single unitary authority.[18] However, statutory guidance requires that the same degree of co-operation should be provided.[19]

Although duties under the Children Act rest with the authority as a whole, social services authorities have the responsibility of dealing with any problems regarding the provision of services.

Ongoing cooperation

In some cases it will be necessary for housing and social services departments to keep monitoring the situation and acting according to new information. This may involve further referrals.

Where a social services department identifies a need for rehousing it is not enough to refer to the housing authority and close the file.[20]

Statutory guidance suggests that children's and housing services could establish an 'integrated front door' whereby the two departments work together to provide assessment, homelessness prevention and access to suitable accommodation. Children's services would need to take the lead, given that the Children Act 1989 takes precedence over the Housing Act 1996.[21]

In addition, the guidance suggests that:[22]

• strategies such as homelessness or supported housing strategies should include the anticipated accommodation and support needs of vulnerable young people

• consideration should be given to developing collaboration between children's services and commissioners of housing and support services to meet the housing needs of young people in the area