Preventing Homelessness And Tackling Its Effects On Children And Young People

This guidance fulfils a commitment between Communities and Local Government and the Department for Children, Schools and Families to work together to achieve key strategic objectives. The guidance focuses on four groups of children and young people who have been identified as being at particular risk of poor outcomes in the absence of effective joint working between Housing Services, Children’s Services and their partners: • 16 and 17 year olds who are homeless or at risk of homelessness • care leavers aged 18 to 21 • children of families living in temporary accommodation • children of families who have been, or are at risk of being, found intentionally homeless by a housing authority. The Government recognises that some people will feature in more than one of these groups, so that for example a care leaver may also be a single parent living in temporary accommodation as result of experiencing homelessness. Services must be flexible enough to address the different ways in which homelessness affects individuals.