| Previous Section | Back to Table of Contents | Lords Hansard Home Page |
Hybrid Instruments Committee
The Chairman of Committees: My Lords, I beg to move the second Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper.
Moved, on behalf of the Committee of Selection, That the Baroness Fookes be appointed a member of the Select Committee in the place of the Earl of Courtown.—(The Chairman of Committees.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.
Privileges Committee
The Chairman of Committees: My Lords, I beg to move the third Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper.
Moved, on behalf of the Committee of Selection, That the Lord Trefgarne be appointed a member of the Select Committee in the place of the Viscount Cranborne.—(The Chairman of Committees.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.
Homelessness Bill
3.33 p.m.
The Minister of State, Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (Lord Falconer of Thoroton) moved Amendment No. 1:
- After Clause 11, insert the following new clause—
The noble and learned Lord said: My Lords, as I said on Report, the issue of accommodation for children in need and their families under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 is an important one and will be considered in the House of Commons in relation to the Adoption and Children Bill. This will address a central issue of concern that has been raised both in this House and outside; namely, that it needs to be clear that social services have the power to provide accommodation for children and their families under Section 17.
But there is also the separate question of ensuring that there is good co-operation between the housing and social services departments in working to meet the needs of such children and their families.
I have previously mentioned having met a number of social services directors and being impressed by the arrangements they have in place to ensure that their own department works together with the housing authority—or housing department in the case of unitary authorities—to find an appropriate solution for the whole family when dealing with families with children who are intentionally homeless or ineligible for housing assistance. I am bringing forward amendments with the purpose of ensuring that all local authorities should adopt similar co-operative arrangements.
New Clause 11A—which would insert a new Section 213A in the Housing Act 1996—would require housing authorities to have arrangements in place to ensure that the social services authority is aware of cases where the housing authority is dealing with an application from an applicant whose household includes a child under age 18 and the authority has reason to believe that they may be homeless, or threatened with homelessness, intentionally, or may be ineligible for housing assistance. The housing authority would also have to inform the social services department of the decision taken on the homelessness application.
These requirements would be subject to the applicant's consent, although, where consent was withheld, this would not affect the housing authority's ability to alert the social services authority in any case where it was concerned that a child might be at risk of suffering significant harm.
New Clause 11A would also place a new duty on housing authorities to provide advice and assistance to the social services authority, where the latter was aware of a decision by the housing authority that a household that includes a child under 18 is intentionally homeless, or threatened with homelessness, or ineligible for housing assistance, and the social services authority asks for assistance in the exercise of its functions under Part III of the Children Act 1989. This new duty will not prejudice the current provisions on co-operation between authorities in Section 27 of the Children Act 1989.
New Clause 11A would also place a requirement on unitary authorities to have similar arrangements in place; that is, to ensure that, subject to the applicant's
As I said on Report, my department and the Department of Health intend, in addition, to issue joint guidance to housing and social services departments about co-operative working in the context of these new provisions.
It is essential that when dealing with homeless families with children there is positive co-operation between housing and social services departments, and that there are joint protocols in place to ensure that this is carried through in practice. Some authorities are already doing this, and I applaud them. We want to see this extended to all authorities. New Clause 11A will provide the statutory framework to ensure that this happens, and I urge noble Lords to give their support to it.
Perhaps I may mention the fact that these proposals were first raised in this House, and from all sides. The noble Baronesses, Lady Maddock and Lady Hanham, both referred to them. My noble friend Lady Massey, who is not present today but who knows about this provision, has persisted in raising the issue—rightly—throughout the course of the Bill. Shelter has also done a significant amount in bringing this matter to the attention of those in this House and beyond. One of the great things that we manage to do in this House is to produce provisions such as this. I commend the amendment to the House. I beg to move.
Baroness Hanham: My Lords, I welcome these provisions. They will strengthen the Bill and move towards meeting what has for some time been a crying need to make sure that parents, particularly mothers, with children who find themselves homeless or about to become homeless are not separated. That has been one the great shames in some places in the country.
I have no difficulty in welcoming the amendment. As this may be a final opportunity, perhaps I may say in passing that on the whole the Bill has been uncontroversial. What we have all tried to do during its passage through this House has been to strengthen it and ensure that it achieves the objectives that lie behind it.
My anxiety remains that the Bill may be a triumph of hope over experience—largely because it extends the "homeless" categories. We all know that that objective will be impossible to meet if we cannot resolve the problems of temporary and permanent housing for those for whom the Bill is intended. It is a matter to which we may return on other occasions. It is
"CO-OPERATION IN CERTAIN CASES INVOLVING CHILDREN
After section 213 of the 1996 Act (co-operation between relevant housing authorities and bodies) there is inserted—
"213A CO-OPERATION IN CERTAIN CASES INVOLVING CHILDREN
(1) This section applies where a local housing authority have reason to believe that an applicant with whom a person under the age of 18 normally resides, or might reasonably be expected to reside—
(a) may be ineligible for assistance;
(b) may be homeless and may have become so intentionally; or
(c) may be threatened with homelessness intentionally.
(2) A local housing authority shall make arrangements for ensuring that, where this section applies—
(a) the applicant is invited to consent to the referral of the essential facts of his case to the social services authority for the district of the housing authority (where that is a different authority); and
(b) if the applicant has given that consent, the social services authority are made aware of those facts and of the subsequent decision of the housing authority in respect of his case.
(3) Where the local housing authority and the social services authority for a district are the same authority (a "unitary authority"), that authority shall make arrangements for ensuring that, where this section applies—
(a) the applicant is invited to consent to the referral to the social services department of the essential facts of his case; and
(b) if the applicant has given that consent, the social services department is made aware of those facts and of the subsequent decision of the authority in respect of his case.
(4) Nothing in subsection (2) or (3) affects any power apart from this section to disclose information relating to the applicant's case to the social services authority or to the social services department (as the case may be) without the consent of the applicant.
(5) Where a social services authority—
(a) are aware of a decision of a local housing authority that the applicant is ineligible for assistance, became homeless intentionally or became threatened with homelessness intentionally, and
(b) request the local housing authority to provide them with advice and assistance in the exercise of their social services functions under Part 3 of the Children Act 1989,
the local housing authority shall provide them with such advice and assistance as is reasonable in the circumstances.
(6) A unitary authority shall make arrangements for ensuring that, where they make a decision of a kind mentioned in subsection (5)(a), the housing department provide the social services department with such advice and assistance as the social services department may reasonably request.
(7) In this section, in relation to a unitary authority—
"the housing department" means those persons responsible for the exercise of their housing functions; and
"the social services department" means those persons responsible for the exercise of their social services functions under Part 3 of the Children Act 1989.""
Next Section
Back to Table of Contents
Lords Hansard Home Page