Community Care

If you are leaving care, need help with social services, or want to understand your rights as a care leaver, our team can help. We provide free legal advice on community care issues for young people aged 16-25.

Youth Legal is part of the GLA Family Financial Resilience Partnership (FFRP), a partnership which supports local advice providers to deliver social welfare advice for parents and carers. The advice covers a range of issues including benefit entitlement, debt, housing, childcare, disability, immigration advice and referrals for employment support. We offer specialist Community Care support and expert legal advice through this partnership.

What Community Care can include

Community care covers a wide range of problems involving social services and local authority support. This may include help for children and families, young people leaving care, disabled young people, young carers, homeless 16- and 17-year-olds, and young adults with care and support needs.

You may need community care advice if social services have refused to assess you, delayed support, offered support that is not enough, or stopped helping without giving proper reasons. You may also need advice if you have been given an assessment, care plan or Pathway Plan that does not reflect your needs.

We can help you understand whether the council should be supporting you, what kind of assessment you may need, and whether a decision can be challenged.

• Children’s services assessments and family support
  Advice for families, children and young people who need help from children’s services. This may include child in need assessments, support for families in crisis, help where a child’s basic needs are not being met, or situations where children’s services refuse to assess, delay support or fail to explain their decision.
• Families with no recourse to public funds
  Advice for families who cannot access benefits or housing assistance because of immigration status but may still need support from social services. 
• Age assessments and disputed age
  Advice for young people whose age is being questioned by the authorities. This may happen where a young person says they are under 18 but is being treated as an adult. Age disputes can affect access to children’s services, safe accommodation, education, safeguarding support and future leaving care rights.
• Homeless 16 and 17 year olds
  Advice for young people who have nowhere safe to stay, are sofa-surfing, have been asked to leave home, or cannot safely live with family.
• Leaving care support
  Advice for young people who are leaving care or have already left care, including issues with Personal Advisers, Pathway Plans, accommodation, financial support, education, training, employment and preparation for independent living.
• Pathway Plans and local authority duties to care leavers
  Help where a Pathway Plan is missing, out of date, unrealistic, not being followed, or does not properly address a young person’s needs.
• Disabled children, young people and young adults
  Advice where a disabled child, young person or young adult needs support from social services. This may include assessments, care planning, support at home, personal budgets, adaptations, or help moving from children’s services to adult social care.
• Young carers and parent carers
  Help where a young carer or parent carer has not been properly assessed, or where caring responsibilities are affecting education, health, family life, wellbeing or the ability to cope at home.
• Adult social care for young adults
  Advice for young adults aged 18–25 who may need care and support because of disability, illness, mental health needs or other support needs. This may include assessments, care plans, personal budgets, direct payments, charging issues or cuts to support.
• Transition to adulthood
  Help where support is at risk of stopping or reducing when a young person turns 18.
• Health-related care and continuing care
  Advice where a child or young person has complex health needs and there is a dispute about whether support should come from health services, social services, or both.
• Judicial review
  You may be able to challenge a decision if social services or the council have acted unfairly, ignored important information, delayed support, or failed to follow their own plan.

We may be able to help if:

• • you have been refused an assessment;
  • your assessment is inaccurate;
  • your support is not enough;
  • your accommodation is unsafe or unsuitable;
  • your care or leaving care support has been stopped;
  • your social worker or Personal Adviser is not responding;
  • you have been passed between different council departments;
  • you have not been given clear reasons for a decision.

Depending on the situation, we may be able to explain your rights, help you understand documents, advise you on what to say to the council, help you make a complaint, or challenge a decision.

How Youth Legal can help

We are here to help you understand what support you may be entitled to and what can be done if the system is not working properly. We will do our best to explain things clearly and help you take the next step.

If your situation is urgent, such as having nowhere safe to sleep, being at risk of harm, or having essential support suddenly stopped, please make this clear when you contact us.