Introduction

There are two main routes into the care system, which make children’s services responsible for making sure that you have somewhere to live when you are unable to live with your parents:

• Being accommodated under S.20 Children Act 1989 means that your parents have agreed to you being accommodated by children’s services, who can determine where you will live. Children’s services do not get parental responsibility – your parents keep full responsibility, and in theory, they can choose to take you out of children’s services accommodation
• Being made the subject of a care order: Children’s services can apply to the court for a ‘care order,’ which, if granted, means children’s services will have parental responsibility over you and can determine where you will live

Once a young person reaches 16 or 17, they can sign themselves into care without parental consent, as long as they fully understand their decision.

Who will I live with and where?

You should be placed in ‘the most appropriate placement available’, that is, the one that children’s services consider will best promote and safeguard your welfare. This could include:

• Placement with a relative, friend or other connected person
• Placement with a local authority foster carer
• Long-term foster placement
• Placement in a children’s home. This is where you stay in a large house with several other children who are generally in a similar situation to you

In deciding which is the most appropriate placement, children’s services must ‘give preference to’ a placement with a a relative, friend or other connected person. They also must ensure that, as far as reasonably practicable, the accommodation:

• Allows you to live near your home.
• Does not disrupt your education.
• Enables you and your sibling to live together, if you have a sibling who is also accommodated by children’s services.