Care Standards Act 2020 to include supported accommodation for teenagers

An explanatory memorandum published alongside proposed changes to the act, which are due to come into force on 8 August, notes that the secondary legislation was “introduced to reform the regulatory care services in England and Wales including children’s homes, fostering agencies and voluntary adoption agencies”.

“It also allows the Secretary of State to set out requirements that apply to establishments and agencies and to issue national minimum standards applicable to all services, to which the registration authorities and providers must have regard,” it adds.

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Such settings were banned for under-16s in September last year following a public consultation which concluded that settings for older children must be regulated.

However, campaigners called for the ban to be extended to cover all children in care up to 18.

The memorandum notes that supported accommodation - which provides housing and support for young people but does not provide care - must be included in act in order for regulations to be introduced.

The regulations will lay out the requirements to be met by supported accommodation, registration and inspection requirements for providers and national standards for supported accommodation which are currently in draft form.

The proposed changes to the Care Standards Act 2020 come days after new Ofsted data revealed that more than 2,000 16- and 17-year-olds were moved into independent or semi-independent accommodation within a week of entering care last year.

Carolyne Willow, director of children’s rights charity Article 39, has long-called for supported accommodation to be banned for all children in care.

Responding to the plans to include such settings in the act, she said: “This further entrenches a second-rate care system for older children, where they don’t actually receive any care where they live. 

“I don’t believe the health service or the education system would tolerate an equivalent recasting of paediatric services, or the school system, yet here we have the radical reshaping of our children’s care system which will take years to undo.

“We know that 29 children in care aged 16 and 17 died in these settings over the past five years, though still the government appears to believe it’s acceptable for children to go for long periods without adult supervision. It beggars belief that children in the care of the state, including those for whom local authorities have parental responsibility, are expected to manage alone years ahead of those growing up in loving and supportive families.”