Now there is another pressure on councils' role as corporate parents. Local authority children's services departments need to factor in the demands on social care services from 16- and 17-year-olds that are homeless. As we reveal this week, councils in London are bracing themselves for a 20 to 30 per cent increase in the looked-after children population as a result of accommodating homeless teenagers, costing up to an extra £2.4m a year.
Their calculations follow a landmark judgment by the House of Lords in May, which found that Southwark children's services had an obligation under section 20 of the Children Act 1989 to accommodate and provide social care services to a homeless 17-year-old male. The young man had been sofa-surfing, sleeping in cars, snatching showers and washing his clothes when he could. He was therefore quite reasonably considered by the Lords to be "in need". As a result of becoming looked after, he will also be entitled to leaving care support.
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