This guidance is intended to be used by social workers and other local authority staff who are responsible for assessing need and providing support to families with no recourse to public funds who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, or have insufficient funds to meet their child’s basic needs.

There is no statutory guidance relating to the delivery of support to families with no recourse to public funds and statutory guidance for social workers does not specifically mention children in no recourse to public funds households.

This practice guidance therefore can provide local authorities with:

• Comprehensive information about the statutory framework and how the courts have directed this should be applied to families with no recourse to public funds
• Information to inform best practice when meeting a child’s needs through the provision of accommodation and financial support
• Information to inform best practice when assisting families to achieve a long-term solution to their situation of destitution and pathway off support

This chapter sets out the policy and practice context, how the legislation applies to supporting families with no recourse to public funds, how to use this guidance and notes on terminology.

1.1 Legislative, policy and practice context

Families with no recourse to public funds can experience significant hardship as a result of being excluded from accessing benefits and local authority housing – services that are usually available to alleviate destitution and homelessness or to top-up a low income.

However, local authorities can play a key role in reducing child poverty, alleviating homelessness, and promoting integration by providing accommodation and financial support under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 (‘section 17 support’) to families with no recourse to public funds in order to safeguard and promote the welfare of a child in need. Equivalent duties enable local authorities in Wales and Scotland, and health and social care trusts in Northern Ireland, to deliver similar support to families with no recourse to public funds are set out in later chapters.

Section 17 support has been recognised by the UK government and courts as being an essential safety-net to protect children from destitution and its existence has enabled the government to exclude specific migrant groups from accessing mainstream welfare support. For example, see the case R (HC) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2017] UKSC 73. For more information about section 17 duties, see section 1.2.

The Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance (Home Office, April 2023), also directs local authorities in England to use their power under section 17 to support victims of domestic abuse with no recourse to public funds who have children:

207. ..If a victim of domestic abuse has children, local authorities have a duty to provide financial support and/or accommodation under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 to safeguard the welfare of those in need, regardless of their immigration status or that of their parents.

In 2022, the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, in its Final Report (pdf) acknowledged that restricting access to benefits and housing assistance was a contextual factor driving families towards social care and has ‘a significant impact on the effort and resources needed to uphold children’s rights and keep children within a loving, safe and stable family network’.

At the end of March 2024, 78 councils in England and Scotland using NRPF Connect were providing 1563 families with accommodation and financial support at a collective annual spend of £34 million. Single mothers caring for their children made up almost three-quarters of these families. In 118 families, at least one dependent child was recorded as having British citizenship. Local authorities often work with parents and children who have been living in precarious situations for many years before presenting to their local authority and who may have experienced exploitation or forced dependency.

The local authority’s intervention is often a family’s first step towards stability and the majority of families that are provided with accommodation and financial support will have a long-term future in the UK. In 2023-24, 70% of families transitioned off local authority support following a grant of leave to remain by the Home Office. Access to immigration advice is therefore key for families to be able to assert their right to remain or make an informed decision regarding return.

Although understanding this area of social work practice can seem daunting as immigration laws are complex and the policy environment can rapidly change, in all cases, the duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of a child in need remains central to the local authority’s response. Empowering social workers and their managers to confidently apply the relevant legislation will ensure that this vital safety-net is provided to families in need who have no other support available to them.

By adopting a child-centred approach and providing effective support to meet a child’s needs, local authorities can reduce child poverty and inequalities within communities arising from the impact of the ‘no recourse to public funds’ condition. However, with families receiving accommodation and financial support for an average period of 1.5 years, the financial risk of ongoing high-cost expenditure must be managed strategically and operationally within the local authority.

Sharing best practice learned from local authorities and other stakeholders across the UK with regards to the provision of support will lead to better outcomes for children and assist service delivery at a local level. By sharing data and practice experiences, local authorities also enable the NRPF Network and local government stakeholders to make funding and policy recommendations that are necessary to address the wider economic and societal impacts arising from UK government immigration policy.

This guidance is supported by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and by the Local Government Association (LGA).

1.2 How section 17 applies to families with NRPF

This section summarises the legislation that applies in England. The legislation that enables local authorities in Wales and Scotland, and health and social care trusts in Northern Ireland, to deliver similar support to families with no recourse to public funds is set out at chapter 11 (Wales), chapter 12 (Scotland), and chapter 13 (Northern Ireland).

Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 (‘section 17’) provides the local authority with a broad power to safeguard and promote the welfare of a child in need by providing a range of services, including accommodation and financial support to a child and their family.

A child will be a ‘child in need’ if they are homeless, at risk of homelessness, or the cost of their basic needs cannot be met by their parents due to immigration restrictions that prevent the family from accessing benefits or local authority homelessness assistance. In such cases, under section 17, children’s social care can provide the family with accommodation and financial support (subsistence), in addition to any other services that are necessary to meet the child’s needs.

Section 17(1) of the Children Act sets out the general duty of local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children:

(1) It shall be the general duty of every local authority (in addition to the other duties imposed on them by this Part)—
(a) to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need; and
(b) so far as is consistent with that duty, to promote the upbringing of such children by their families,
by providing a range and level of services appropriate to those children’s needs.

Section 17(3) states:

Any service provided by an authority in the exercise of functions conferred on them by this section may be provided for the family of a particular child in need or for any member of his family, if it is provided with a view to safeguarding or promoting the child’s welfare.

Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 requires a local authority to make arrangements to ensure that their functions are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. This duty applies to social care and other local authority services, including housing and public health.

The statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children (Department for Education, February 2024) defines ‘safeguard and promote the welfare of children’ as:

• providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge
• protecting children from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online
• preventing impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development
• ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
• promoting the upbringing of children with their birth parents, or otherwise their family network through a kinship care arrangement, whenever possible and where this is in the best interests of the children
• taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes in line with the outcomes set out in the Children’s Social Care National Framework

The statutory guidance goes onto state, at paragraph 12:

A child-centred approach is fundamental to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of every child. All practitioners should follow the principles of the Children Acts 1989 and 2004. These Acts make clear that the welfare of children is paramount and that they are best looked after within their families, with their parents playing a full part in their lives, unless compulsory intervention in family life is necessary.

The courts have often described section 17 as a ‘target duty’, as the local authority can safeguard and promote the welfare of an individual child by using its discretion to provide a broad range of services to the child and/or their family members. However, where a child and their parent would otherwise be homeless or destitute, the power under section 17 to provide a wide range of services in order to meet a child’s assessed welfare needs can amount to a duty on the local authority to act as a provider of last resort. (O v LB Lambeth London Borough of Lambeth [2016] EWHC 937, paragraph 13.)

Although the courts have been clear that section 17 will be engaged to alleviate destitution where a family has no other support available due to the parent’s inability to access benefits and local authority housing assistance, the local authority may take into account its resources when deciding how any formally assessed needs are met. (R (AC & SH) v London Borough of Lambeth Council [2017] EWHC 1796, R (C, T, M and U) v London Borough of Southwark [2016] EWCA Civ 707 and R (G) v Barnet LBC [2003] UKHL 57.)

Any decision regarding meeting needs must be reached lawfully and rationally, and the local authority must act reasonably when determining how to most effectively allocate its resources. Meeting a child’s identified needs must remain at the forefront of any decision regarding the support provided to a family with no recourse to public funds under section 17.

A decision to meet a child’s needs under section 17 must also be compatible with the family’s human rights. A human rights breach is likely to arise when the failure to provide support would leave a family homeless or unable to meet their essential living needs (Article 3), or results in family members being separated (Article 8). Therefore, it will be unlawful to refuse to provide accommodation and financial support where a family would otherwise be homeless, or to offer to support a child on their own, rather than with their parent or care giver, in the absence of any additional safeguarding concerns relating to the parent or care giver.

Section 17 is an ongoing duty, so the local authority will need to be responsive to any changing needs that a child has and be prepared to re-assess need as the family’s circumstances change.

1.3 How to use this guidance

This guidance is intended to be used by social workers and other local authority staff who are responsible for assessing need and providing support to families with no recourse to public funds who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, or have insufficient funds to meet their child’s basic needs.

Practitioners in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will need to read the initial chapters of the guidance, which refer to the legislation, statutory guidance and case law that applies in England, in conjunction with later chapters that set out the equivalent legislation and any additional guidance that they will need to apply and follow: chapter 11 (Wales), chapter 12 (Scotland) and chapter 13 (Northern Ireland).

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the key practice points, which can be referred to for a ‘quick read’ or to help navigate the full guidance.

This guidance is published online and can be viewed by chapter or as a full document. Readers can search for terms within an individual chapter or the full document and print an individual chapter or the full document.

We provide separate practice guidance for practitioners who are supporting adults with no recourse to public funds. Local authorities can read more about service delivery in our new guidance: Supporting Households with No Recourse to Public Funds: Key Elements and Service Models.

1.4 Terminology

‘No recourse to public funds’ refers to being:

• Subject to immigration control under section 115 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• Ineligible for benefits when a person has pre-settled status or a pending EU Settlement Scheme application, or is a joining family member

‘Local authority housing assistance’ refers to a housing allocation and homelessness assistance under parts VI and VII of the Housing Act 1996, respectively, or the equivalent legislation in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, which is set out at chapters 11 to 13.

‘Parent’ is used in the singular because single parent households make up a disproportionate number of families supported under section 17. At the end of March 2024, 80% of families receiving support were single parent households.

‘Section 17 support’ refers to accommodation and financial support provided under section 17 of the Children Act 1989.

Unless specified otherwise, all data that is referenced in the guidance is taken from the NRPF Connect 2023-24 data report (pdf). This comprises of information about the families with no recourse to public funds who requested or were provided with accommodation and financial support by 78 local authorities in England and Scotland.