Article 39 has today published a new resource for children aged 16 and 17 who are without a home and parental care. The urgent need for such a resource became clear after freedom of information (FOI) research by the charity revealed that more than half (53%) of local authorities in England do not have published materials for 16 and 17 year-olds who are homeless.
Statutory guidance for local authorities, first issued in 2010, requires local authorities to give children “full information” about their rights to protection and care when they are considering whether or not to be looked after by a local authority. It should be extremely rare for a child in England without a home and parental care to be provided accommodation through local authority housing duties, rather than child welfare law.
Despite very clear legal duties, consistently confirmed by the courts, research last year by the Children’s Commissioner for England showed that 4 in 10 children aged 16 and 17 without a home and parental care in 2022/23 were not looked after by their local authority. The Children’s Commissioner found that children were more likely to be looked after by their local authority after they had been provided help from an independent advocate.
Article 39’s FOI research found that, even when local authorities did have information for children aged 16 and 17, fewer than half (47%) of the materials actually informed children of their right to help from an independent advocate, and just 40% contained the contact details of an advocacy service. The right to an independent advocate for children and young people when they are in contact with children’s social care has been in law since 2002.
Carolyne Willow, Article 39’s Director, said:
“Our research indicates a large proportion of local authorities in England are failing in their most basic duty to properly communicate to children who are in desperate need that they are there for them, and can help. Even when materials were provided for children, we found them to be often impersonal and detached. Very few showed compassion and awareness of what it feels like to be a teenager without a safe, loving home, and only some materials positively explained the care and protection children would receive if they became looked after by local authorities – both now as children, and throughout the early part of their adult lives as care leavers.
It is staggering that fewer than half of local authorities that had materials for children mentioned their right to help from an advocate. Children’s rights and advocacy services have been a central part of children’s social care since the late 1980s, introduced because of abuse and systemic failures within the children’s care system.
We are focused here on children who are often in the most perilous circumstances, without a home and parental protection. Statutory guidance is clear that children should be offered help from an advocate. We know from our own advice service and conversations with children and young people that delayed access to advocacy can mean children and young people continuing to suffer alone for many years. The legal protections for vulnerable children put in place by parliament, including the right to an advocate, should not be hidden from them. Whether this omission is deliberate or not is beside the point; if information is not disseminated directly to children, how can they possibly know what help is there for them?
Children in need should not have to fight to be looked after by a local authority, though this is often the case, and they should never have to do this alone. We know from our advice service that an advocate can be the difference between a frightened child sleeping on a park bench or having the love and security of foster carers or a nurturing children’s home.
It is indisputable that local authorities have been wilfully underfunded for many years, and this must be addressed as a matter of urgency by the new government. But our research reveals a detachment from the needs and rights of teenagers, and we ask those in positions of power to change this at a local and national level to think deeply about what they would want for teenagers in their own family if they could no longer live with their parents.”
Notes
- In July 2023, Article 39 sent an FOI request to every local authority children’s services in England. We asked them for their policies on 16 and 17 year-olds without a home and parental care, and for any materials they gave to children in these circumstances. We also asked for policies on placement decision-making for children aged 16 and 17 who are looked after. We received responses from 131 local authorities (from 152), with the last response received in March 2024. Article 39 will release Part 2 of its analysis later this year, together with information for local authority social workers and others.
- Today (9 September 2024) is the third anniversary of secondary legislation coming into force which ensures that children who are looked after by local authorities receive care where they live – but only to age 15. Article 39 challenged this age-based discrimination through a judicial review, which was unsuccessful. We are awaiting clarification from the new government as to whether or not it intends to ensure that all looked after children receive care where they live.
