Campaigners hope guidance will cut B&B use for care leavers

The planning transitions to adulthood for care leavers guidance, published last week, specifies that B&Bs are not considered “suitable accommodation” for care leavers and that local authorities should only use it in “exceptional emergency circumstances” and for a maximum of two working days.

The previous guidance also stated that B&Bs were not suitable options to accommodate care leavers, but local authorities still used them when no other housing was available.

Last year, the education select committee heard evidence of care leavers being placed in B&Bs by councils for months at a time and recommended an outright ban on their use for vulnerable young people. However, the government rejected the committee’s call and instead said it would limit their use by councils to just two days and as a last resort.

Natasha Finlayson, chief executive of the Who Cares? Trust, said that while she still supported a complete ban on B&Bs, the new guidance will help to identify bad practice.

“We’re pleased that the wording in the new guidance sets a clear maximum amount of time that young people should spend in B&Bs as this will enable local authorities to be held to account more easily if they place young people in B&Bs for longer than two working days,” she said.

She added that the new guidance will only be effective if enforced by the Department for Education. “We are encouraged by the fact that the DfE has said it will continue to review practice and will be collecting more data from local authorities about their use of B&Bs so that they can ‘challenge local authorities where necessary’.”

The issue is likely to be raised in a debate in the House of Commons today on accommodation for young people in care.