About Section 17

1. Which local authority should you approach?

Physical presence in the local authority’s area is all that is needed to trigger the section 17 duty. You should approach the local authority with which your child has the greatest connection. This could be the local authority where you live, or where the children go to school. In some cases, your child might have a connection to more than one local authority (e.g. live in one area and go to school in another). In such cases, you can approach either local authority as per R v Wandsworth LBC ex p Sandra Stewart [2001] EWHC 709 (Admin).

If your family is already receiving support from one local authority, you should approach that authority regardless of where you live.

2. Are the children ‘in need’?

The definition of ‘in need’ in the Children Act is very broad: a child will be ‘in need’ if they cannot achieve or maintain a reasonable standard of health or development. A child will also be in need if they are disabled.

All children have needs that must be met by other people, but for the purposes of section 17(10) of the Children Act 1989, a child ‘in need’ has needs that will not be properly met unless social services provides support.

A child whose family does not have adequate accommodation or sufficient income to meet their essential living needs will almost certainly be ‘in need’. 

3. A ‘power’ or a ‘duty’?

If your child is assessed as being ‘in need’, the local authority can provide support to your family.

The local authority has a duty to support children ‘in need’ in their area, but only the power to support an individual child. This means that the local authority can take into account other concerns when deciding whether to provide support, e.g. if they are facing budget cuts and cannot afford to help.

However, in some cases this ‘power’ can become a ‘duty’. A power will become a duty where a failure to provide support would breach your human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

This could happen if your family:

• Does not have adequate accommodation and does not have means of securing adequate accommodation, or
• Does not having enough money to meet your basic living needs (see section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999)

If a child is destitute, this is likely to constitute a breach of Art 3 ECHR (right to freedom from torture or inhuman or degrading treatment) see R (on the application of Limbuela) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (2005) UKHL 66, (2006) 1 AC 396.

There could also be other breaches of ECHR, such as if your family is unable to live together even though you are not homeless. For example, your child could be staying with a friend from school and you are staying with a relative because there is no way of being together. In this situation, there may be a breach of Art 8 ECHR (right to a private and family life) even if you are not destitute.

Where a local authority’s power becomes a duty to support, it has to act in order to safeguard and promote the welfare of an individual child.

If you're still unsure if you're eligible for support, take a look at our flowchart here.

Some adults are excluded from accessing support under section 17 because of their immigration status (section 54 and schedule 3 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002).

Schedule 3 exclusion

If you fall into one of the following categories, you are excluded from accessing support by schedule 3 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, unless the situation is so serious that a failure to provide support would breach human rights.

The excluded categories are:

• Granted refugee status by another EEA state
• Refused asylum seekers who have failed to cooperate with removal directions
• People in the UK in breach of the immigration rules (except asylum seekers). This means:
  • Present in the UK without a right of abode or leave to enter/remain
  • Not exempted from the need to have leave (e.g. diplomats, forces personnel) as per R (AW) v Croydon LBC [2005] EWHC 2950 (Admin)

Section 122 exclusion

If you are an asylum seeker who is eligible for support under section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 you are excluded from accessing cash and accommodation from social services, by Section 122 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.

You are likely to be eligible for section 95 support from the Home Office if you are destitute and you have a pending asylum application or appeal, or you have been refused asylum but you had children before your asylum claim was refused.

If you have a disabled child in your household, you may be able to access support under section 17 for their care needs. However, you will not be able to access cash or accommodation.

Social workers do not always understand a person’s immigration status and therefore may wrongly conclude that you are subject to the Schedule 3 or Section 122 exclusion.

1. Are there any exceptions to this exclusion?

If you fall into one of the categories of people excluded by schedule 3 (above), you may still be able to access section 17 support if failing to provide support would breach your rights under the European Convention of Human Rights (“ECHR”).

Where there are no alternative forms of support, your family is not able to leave the UK, and your family is destitute, failure to provide support may:

• amount to ‘inhuman or degrading punishment’ contrary to Article 3 of the ECHR or
• amount to an unjustified interference with their right to a private or family life contrary to Article 8 ECHR.

In such cases, you will not be excluded by Schedule 3.

2. Can the local authority avoid breaching human rights by advising or assisting return to the country of origin?

If you are excluded by schedule 3, your local authority will consider whether any human rights breach could be avoided by returning your family to your country of origin.  If they can discharge their duty in this way, long-term support will not be provided. The local authority will carry out a ‘human rights assessment’ which will look at whether there are any practical or legal barriers to your return. If no legal or practical barrier has been identified, the local authority should also consider for itself whether returning your family to your country of origin would breach your human rights.

Practical barriers

In some cases, the only barrier to your return may be a practical obstacle such as being unable to afford the airfare, or not owning a passport. You can also show that you are unable to return to your country of origin if you are in the late stages of pregnancy, or have a serious medical condition that prevents travel. However, the local authority could offer to provide support until you are able to fly or assist with the financial cost of return. They may also provide support on a temporary basis while you engage with a voluntary returns programme.

Legal barriers

If you are waiting for the Home Office to make a decision on an application for leave to remain (that is not hopeless or abusive) based on human rights grounds then social services cannot advise that you return to your country of origin. Similarly, if you are appealing against an immigration decision (and the appeal is not hopeless or abusive) or proceeding with a judicial review, then there is also a legal barrier to your return.

Where there is a barrier to your family’s return, the local authority will not be able to discharge its duty by advising or assisting your family to return to their country of origin. They will have to provide support.

If no legal or practical barrier has been identified, the local authority should consider for itself whether returning your family to your country of origin would breach your human rights.

If no barriers or human rights breaches are identified, and your family does not want to return to your country of origin and refuses the local authority’s assistance, the local authority can discharge its duties under s.17 and avoid breaching your family’s human rights without providing support. If this refusal results in the continued destitution of a child, this may be a safeguarding concern and the local authority may look into care proceedings for the child.

There are some risks associated with accessing support from the local authority under section 17. It is important to be mindful of the following issues when exploring local authority support as a possible option.

It’s important that you have specialist advice and are prepared for what to expect before you approach social services wherever possible. You can also take a friend or advocate to the meeting with social services. This may help give you confidence and they can make a note of what the officers say.

Contacting the Home Office

The local authority has a duty to inform the Home Office that they have been approached for support by someone who is undocumented (schedule 3 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002). This may cause problems if you have failed to comply with removal directions or have no leave to remain and no outstanding applications.

Some local authorities have embedded Home Office enforcement officers within their NRPF Teams. You may feel intimidated when faced with a Home Office worker at the local authority. However, if you have a barrier to your return to your country of origin, you are not at risk of removal. You may have a legal barrier to your return if you have applied to the Home Office for leave to remain, and you are waiting for a decision or you are appealing a refusal. There may also be a practical barrier to your return, if for example, you do not have a passport or cannot afford the airfare.

Further, Home Office policy also states that the Home Office does not detain children (See Home Office Enforcement Instructions and Guidance Chapter 45).

Faster immigration decisions

The Home Office may expedite immigration decision-making for people supported by the local authority. If the claim is strong, this could lead to a positive result, but for weak claims it could lead to a quicker refusal.

Offering to fund travel to country of origin

If you have no leave to remain, no outstanding immigration application and there are no human rights grounds for remaining in the UK, the local authority should look at practical reasons why you cannot return to their country of origin.

If the only barrier is a lack of funds and/or lack of a passport, the local authority may offer only temporary support while they arrange return to your country of origin. If you refuse to return and there are no legal reasons why you need to remain in the UK, the local authority may discharge its duty. However, if there is a legal or practical barrier to your return, the local authority should not offer to fund travel.

Offering to take a child into care

Social services sometimes offer to take a child into care instead of providing support to the family as a whole under section 17.  This is likely to be unlawful if you are asking to be provided with accommodation together and there are no safeguarding concerns for your child beyond the destitution you are seeking support for. You are fully entitled to refuse any such offer but it may make you anxious and less confident about continuing to ask for accommodation for the family together.

Broadly, they can only take children into care if:

• You or others with legal responsibility for the child consent (S.20 Children Act 1989) (Consent must be informed and genuine, not coercive. You do not have to agree. If you do agree, you can withdraw that agreement at any time).
• The court has made a care order or emergency protection order giving the council the legal right to remove your child.
• The Police decide to remove your child if they think they are in danger, in an emergency, without a court order, for up to 72 hours only.

Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 also requires councils to support children being brought up within their own families, as long as that is consistent with their other duties to protect children and promote their welfare.

However, if there is no legal or practical barrier to your return to your country of origin, and you refuse to accept support to return home, the local authority can lawfully say they have discharged their duty to your child under section 17 and refuse to support your family beyond that. If this means that your child is homeless or destitute, this could raise safeguarding concerns and it is possible that this could trigger child protection procedures, including under section 47 Children Act 1989.

Asking the other parent to provide support

In some cases, lone parents requesting support under section 17 have been told that the other parent should look after the child. This has happened even when domestic violence has been acknowledged. However, depending on the facts of the case and the best interests of your child, this approach may be unlawful. We would recommend seeking legal advice about challenging such a recommendation.

Being moved out of the area

Particularly if you approach a local authority in London, it is possible that, if the local authority offers accommodation support, it will be outside of the local area. In some cases, it may even be outside of London. Having children in school is not usually grounds for a family remaining in their local area.

However, if your children are in an exam year at school (e.g. taking their GCSEs) or there are significant reasons why your family should remain in the area (e.g. medical treatment or work), it may be possible to make a case for your family to be provided with accommodation locally.

Personal questions

The assessment process will explore all different aspects your life, including immigration, housing, finance, health, relationships and child development. You need to be prepared to answer intrusive and personal questions. You should be prepared to provide any evidence requested. It is very important that you provide as much information as possible to enable to the local authority to carry out their assessment. However, the process can be intrusive and unpleasant.

If your family needs section 17 support, you can request it directly or ask an organisation or charity you’re working with to make a referral on your behalf.

Who do I ask for support?     

Section 17 support is usually provided by the social services department of the relevant local authority. However, some local authorities have dedicated teams set up to provide this support called the NRPF Team or the Nil Recourse Team; the structure varies between local authorities. You can find out which local authority to approach by searching their postcode here. We advise that you have a look on the local authority’s website to try and establish where to request a Child in Need assessment, and if it’s not clear then make a referral to MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub) and ask them to redirect it to the appropriate team.

Referrals made over email should be sufficient and there’s no need to go in person. However, you may be asked to go to the local authority in person during the assessment to sign forms or drop-off supporting evidence. If you do request support/make a referral over the phone it is good practice to also follow it up in writing so that there is a record of it.

How do I request support?

Some local authorities will have a template referral form that you can download from their website, complete, and return by email (the relevant email address is usually on the form). Other local authorities have online portals where you must enter the referral information into a web-form; we advise saving your answers into a document as you go in case of technical issues, and to keep a record of what you’ve submitted. If you can’t find a local authority’s’ referral form or online portal, we have produced a template referral form which can be adapted, and submitted by email.

Try to make your referral as clear and detailed as possible. You may wish to attach supplementary documents outlining your financial situation - particularly if you can’t produce bank statements. Template income and expenditure logs, and other forms to support your referral can be found below. Outlining your income and expenditure can be useful in evidencing that your family’s income is not enough to meet the children’s needs.  

Your referral should include the following information:

• Request that social services conduct an assessment with a view to providing accommodation and/or financial support pursuant to their duties under s17 Children Act 1989.
• State why you think the child is in need e.g. are you soon to be evicted? Is there enough money to meet the child’s need for food, nappies, clothes etc.?
• State that you have no recourse to public funds.
• State that you expect an acknowledgement within one working day and in urgent cases the date by which you think the assessment needs to be completed.
• State if an interpreter is needed.
• If you are homeless or imminently homeless or have no money at all, state that you would like accommodation and/or financial support on an interim, without prejudice, basis pending the outcome of the assessment.

What evidence should be included?

To help the local authority conduct their assessment it is important that you provide as much documentary evidence as you can to demonstrate your housing and financial situation, although we understand that some documents may be difficult or impossible to obtain. You can read through our evidence checklist below. Not all documents in this list will be relevant to each family and not all will be available immediately. If the situation is very urgent, you should make the referral straight away, even if you do not have all the relevant documents. It is good practice to send any photos, scans, or digital copies of documents needed by social services by email so you have a record of what has been sent, and when.

What makes a good referral?

A good section 17 referral:

• Is specific with dates (ie of when you became destitute/homeless, or will become destitute/homeless) and should have a deadline by which you expect the local authority to respond. This is particularly important if the situation is urgent, for example, if your family will be homeless tomorrow.
• Is detailed and provides as much evidence as possible.
• Is clear about what support you are requesting: accommodation, financial support or both.
• Refers to the relevant case law.

Please note that it is very important that what you have stated in the referral is correct. Any inconsistencies between your referral and information later disclosed may be used by the local authority to undermine the credibility of your family.

You should aim to collect as much supporting evidence as possible and explain any gaps or missing bits of information. If the situation is urgent, you should approach social services as soon as possible and begin collecting evidence as soon as you’re able to.

Summary

Financial information:

• 6 months’ bank statements
• 6 months’ payslips
• P45 and or P60 from your jobs
• Child Benefit letter
• Child Maintenance letter
• Letters confirming support from friends and family.
• Letters from professionals confirming financial situation
• Income/expenditure breakdown: keep a record of all the money you receive and all the money you spend for 3-4 weeks
• Bills
• Letters confirming debts

Housing information

• Letter from person providing housing. If you are being asked to leave, the letter should say when.
• Letters from professionals confirming housing situation
• Tenancy agreement
• Rent account showing arrears
• Notice to quit
• Possession order/warrant from the court
• Photos

Employment

• If job-hunting, copies of applications/rejection letters
• Contract of employment
• 6 months’ payslips

Immigration

• Copy of your original immigration application
• Biometric residence permit (BRP)
• Home Office letter granting leave to remain
• Passports
• Acknowledgement of outstanding application
• Letter of advice from solicitor

Other

• Medical evidence
• Birth certificates for children
• Evidence of domestic violence

Detailed checklist

Finances

6 months’ bank statements (if printed out, get them stamped by the bank)

• Statements should be given for every single open bank account for the past 6 months.
• Details and proof of any closed or inactive accounts should also be given.
• Annotate the statements to explain transactions into an account.
  • Label any transactions from friends/family and explain what the money was used for if possible.
  • Highlight any transfers between your own accounts (eg from a savings account to a current account)
  • Explain any loans and ask your friend to write a letter confirming this.
  • If you have let someone else use your bank account, ask them to write a letter confirming this.

6 months’ payslips

• It may be helpful to calculate precisely what your income is and present this information to the local authority.
• You can highlight in your bank statements your income from employment and use your payslips as evidence of this.

Letters confirming support from friends and family.

• Where help is received from friends it may be helpful to provide the following:

1. The date and the signature of the person writing the letter
2. How they know you and for how long.
3. What support they have been giving. It is important to be as specific as possible.
4. If that support has ended, or is going to end, the end date should be given.
5. Why the support has ended.
6. If possible, the person providing the letter should agree that they can be contacted to discuss the matter further if necessary. They should provide their contact details.
7. Later on if it becomes necessary to bring a claim for judicial review, these friends may need to provide witness statements confirming what is said in their letters.

Letters confirming debts

• Documents showing money owed to friends, store cards, unpaid bills (council tax, utilities, telephones), rent arrears can help illustrate a family’s situation and show that they do not have an income that suffices to meet needs.

P45 and or P60 from your jobs

• You can request these from your current or previous employer if you do not have a copy.

Child Benefit letter

• If you are receiving child benefit from the government, it is useful to provide a copy of this letter.
• It will be used as evidence of any income that you have.

Child Maintenance letter

• If you are receiving voluntary child maintenance payments from your ex-partner, you can ask them to write a support letter detailing the amount they provide and the frequency of payments.
• If you are receiving child maintenance support through the government, you should provide the confirmation letter that you received.

Letters from professionals confirming financial and housing situation (e.g. charities, GP, health visitor, school, religious institutions)

• If you are working with other charities, you can ask them to provide a ‘support letter’ explaining the support that they have given you and your family.
• Likewise, you can ask your GP, health visitor, and an employee of your child’s school for a letter confirming attendance and detailing your current situation.
• You can ask members of your religious institutions for support letters too.

Bills

• You should try to get copies of any bill payments that you regularly make, eg mobile phone bill, water, gas, electric, tv, school lunches.

Evidence of employment

• If you are employed, you should provide your contract of employment and 6 months’ payslips (or if you do not receive payslips explain this).
• If you are job-hunting, you can show the local authority copies of applications or rejection letters.

Income/expenditure breakdown

• Keep a record of all the money you receive and all the money you spend for 3-4 weeks

Housing

Accommodation history

List all addresses for the past 5 years, including:

1. Dates in the accommodation
2. Addresses
3. Who you were staying with
4. Any rent paid
5. Reason for leaving

• If you have been staying with friends, contact details of the friends you have stayed with over the last 6 months should be provided.
• It is important that there are no gaps because if it is discovered that you have lived elsewhere during this period, it calls into question why you did not disclose it.

Evidence of eviction

1. Notices to quit
2. Court orders or warrants
3. Rent account showing arrears
4. Letter from friend asking you to leave. If you have been asked to leave, the letter should say when.

• If the person you are staying with refuses to provide a letter, then the local authority should be given their contact details.
• You might not want to tell a local authority where you have been living or give the contact details of the person with whom you have been staying. It is your decision as to what information you provide, and this should be respected. However, not telling the local authority where you have been staying may lead to the local authority refusing to help you, and that it may not be possible to challenge such a decision in these circumstances.

Unsuitable housing

• If the accommodation is unsuitable, such as being overcrowded or in bad condition, then you should take photographs as evidence.

Immigration

If you have leave to remain/right to reside:

1. Biometric residence permit
2. Passport
3. Home Office grant letter
4. Evidence of EU right to reside

If you have an outstanding immigration application:

1. Home Office acknowledgement letter
2. Proof of delivery of application
3. Copy of application, if requested. Be aware that discrepancies between the immigration application and the situation as presented to the local authority, such as a claim in the applications that a friend or family member is financially supporting you, will need to be explained.
4. The local authority may update the Home Office with any changes of circumstances, so immigration advice may be needed if this change could affect a person’s leave to remain.

If you do not have leave to remain or an outstanding application:

1. Evidence that an immigration adviser has been instructed
2. Evidence of any possible applications that could be made
3. Details of plans to instruct an adviser
4. If known, details of any basis on which an application for leave to remain could be made, and human rights implications of return

Other

Health complaints or disabilities

• Where possible, supporting documentation should be provided. If any of your children have any special education needs, then details of the school and other supporting agencies should be provided. Similarly, if you or your partner have any health or disability needs, it may be helpful to provide any medical records or letters from health practitioners.

Absent parent

• The local authority will want information about an absent parent and will expect the absent parent to provide some financial assistance. You should expect to explain:
  1. What support you are currently receiving (again, be specific) and when you last received support.
  2. What efforts you have made to obtain financial support from the absent parent and the result of such efforts.
  3. If the whereabouts of the absent parent is unknown, the local authority should be told this, as well as when they lost contact and of any effort to try and find them again.
  4. If there are good reasons why you do not want to contact the absent parent (for example, if there was domestic violence) this should be explained too.

Birth certificates for children

• If you do not have access to these, please explain why (eg they are with the Home Office).

Evidence of domestic violence

• This can include police reports, DASH risk assessments, and witness statements or letters of support from professional agencies as well as friends and family.

Example templates

The below example templates may help clarify a family's circumstances. Professionals may want to create similar tables summarising a family's circumstances to strengthen a referral:

• Accommodation spreadsheet example
• Support from friends summary
• Expenses spreadsheet

The local authority must carry out the assessment if they believe that your child may be in need (see R(G) v Barnet LBC [2003] UKHL 57). This is a relatively low threshold and social services can only refuse to assess if there is no realistic prospect that your child is in need.

The local authority should decide what type of response is required and acknowledge the request within one working day. They should then carry out the assessment in a timely fashion appropriate to the urgency of the situation. The maximum time limit for completing the assessment is 45 working days, but should a social worker identify a particular need they should not wait until the end of the assessment before commissioning services (see para 83 of the Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance 2023) If your family is facing destitution or street homelessness, an assessment is likely to be required urgently.

If you are unable to provide enough information (such as information about where you have previously stayed, who has provided support, and why support can no longer be provided) to demonstrate that the children are in need, social services may conclude that it has no power to provide support (MN and KN v Hackney LBC [2013] EWHC 1205 (Admin) and R(O) v Lambeth LBC [2016] EWHC 937 (Admin).

If you may be excluded under schedule 3 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, social services may also carry out a further human rights assessment.

In urgent cases local authorities are able to provide support on a ‘without prejudice basis’ pending the outcome of their assessment. If this is required, you should let the local authority know what date support will be needed (e.g. the date you will become homeless) and ask for the assessment to be completed by this date. Or, if it is not possible to complete the assessment within this timeframe, for support to be provided on a without prejudice basis until the assessment is completed.

You should ask the social worker what the next steps are and when you will be given a decision. Any decision should be given in writing, and you should ask for a copy of the child in need assessment.

If you have been refused an assessment or support, or the support provided is inadequate, you can challenge this. Read more here.

Subsistence

The High Court determined that any amount which falls below section 4 asylum support rates (£49.18 per person per week) was very unlikely to meet a child’s essential needs. Any amount of section 17 subsistence support which falls below this is therefore likely to be challengeable as per R (VC) v Newcastle CC [2011] EWHC 2673 (Admin) and BCD V Birmingham CT [2023] EWHC137 (Admin).

If you are receiving less than this, click here to find out how to challenge this. 

Accommodation

Families may be housed outside of their local area or even town/city. Section 17 accommodation is most commonly provided in shared HMO’s, B&Bs, or hostels. Occasionally, families will be offered self-contained accommodation.

If the accommodation you have been provided is inadequate, click here to find out how to challenge this. 

Support for whole family

The support provided should be for the entire family. For example, a local authority should not provide financial support only to a child and not their parent. 

If you are not receiving support for your entire family, click here to find out how to challenge this.