Unaccompanied children

A judgement known as H and others v Wandsworth and others clarifies the responsibilities of local authorities towards unaccompanied children. The judge was particularly critical of the practice by some local authorities of asking a newly arrived child to select whether they wish to be supported by section 17 or section 20 of the Children Act 1989.

This briefing explains what the law, government guidance and the judgement say about local authorities’ duties to provide an adequate level of support to unaccompanied children.

		Download a copy of the report (PDF)
		In order to download this report you will need Adobe Reader. You can get this free on the Adobe website