ROOF Blog

The House of Lords upheld a Court of Appeal decision that a local authority’s children’s service unit had not fulfilled its duty of care to a homeless child, just by referring him to a homeless person’s unit. The claimant had presented himself to Southwark council’s children’s services department asking for urgent assessment under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 and immediate accommodation under section 20(1). The assessment initially concluded that, as he was 17 and not in fulltime education, accommodation provided by the homeless person’s unit was sufficient.

The House of Lords economic affairs committee has criticised the way banks were supervised by the Treasury, Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority and has called for reforms. The committee said it was unclear who was in charge, and criticised the FSA particularly for concentrating on its consumer protection role at the expense of its responsibility for maintaining financial stability. The committee added that the responsibility for supervising the banking system as a whole should be taken from the FSA and given to the Bank of England.

Young people housed by local authorities are entitled to ‘more than a roof over their heads’, a ruling by the House of Lords established. The Law Lords judged that councils have a duty of care to assess the wider needs of 16- and 17-year-olds coming to them following family breakdown or because they are refugees. Their judgment clarified whether young people asking local authorities for accommodation should be dealt with by housing departments, or children’s services, as they finally ruled. Solicitors have called the judgment a ‘huge step forward for children’s rights and required councils to rethink services’.