Guidance

Joint housing protocols for care leavers

Good practice advice to support local authorities to meet the accommodation needs of care leavers.

• From: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Department for Education
• Published: 26 October 2020
• Last updated: 30 September 2026
  Show all updates

  1. 30 September 2026

     Updated guidance; added Protocol development and review checklist; added Senior oversight template; and Care leave status: criteria.

  2. 3 May 2024

     Guidance updated to reflect changes to Chapter 22 of the Homelessness Code of Guidance on expectations around joint housing protocols and intentional homelessness decisions for care leavers.

  3. 26 October 2020

     First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Joint housing protocols for care leavers: good practice advice

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Annex A: Protocol development and review checklist

ODT, 10.2 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

Annex B: Senior oversight template

ODT, 9.97 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

Care leaver status: criteria

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Details

This good practice advice has been produced, by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Education, to support the development of joint protocols that can help local authorities to meet the accommodation needs of care leavers.

This document provides information and advice which has been drawn from good practice and offers a framework which local authorities and partners can use when developing local arrangements.