This report focuses on the rights, needs and experiences of 16- and 17-year-old children who present themselves to their local authority as homeless and are all too often unable to access the care and support that they are entitled to.
The report follows the publication ten years ago of The Door is Closed (Coram, 2014) which highlighted that some children were being allowed to become or remain homeless and being left exposed to potential risk because local authorities were too often falling short in their legal duties, turning children away without performing a proper assessment, or without providing the support that children need. Safeguarding concerns were being missed, while children’s wishes and feelings were being ignored and their experiences disbelieved. They were left unable to access advocacy, and denied a reasonable route to challenge the decisions taken about them.