Legal Update: Support for homeless young people

A recent report from Centrepoint estimated that in 2016 to 2017 around 86,000 young people approached their local authority for help as they were homeless or at risk of homelessness in the UK. Yet in more than half the cases no positive action was taken to improve the young person's situation. From its work with homeless children and young people in recent years, Coram has found some children's services to be failing in their legal duties, turning children away without performing a proper assessment, or without providing the support that children need. Last month, the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Education issued joint guidance on "Prevention of homelessness and provision of accommodation for 16- and 17-year-old young people who may be homeless and/or require accommodation on functions relating to homelessness and children aged 16 and 17". It replaces the previous guidance from 2010 and has been amended to reflect new duties introduced through the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and other relevant updates.