Homeless children

Three single mothers claimed their local social services departments were required to provide suitable homes for them and their children. The mothers could not access appropriate homes through normal social housing routes: G did not meet the "habitual residence" test; W had been found intentionally homeless; A had disabled children who needed better housing than she could provide, but the family had not been rehoused.

The mothers said their children were in need and that it would be better for the families, and cheaper for the councils, to rehouse them together rather than taking the children into care.

They relied on the duty in the 1989 Children Act that social services should meet the needs of children in need in their areas.

The House of Lords rejected their claims, finding the Children Act did not impose a duty on social services to accommodate families with children not entitled to housing through the usual channels. Councils were entitled to adopt policies that placed individual children with foster parents or other carers if their own parents could not house them.

Any other result would undermine the normal scheme of social housing distribution.