Department for Education Sets Out Action Plan to Reduce Care Leaver Homelessness
On 5 November 2026, the Department for Education launched the Care Leaver Homelessness Reduction Action Plan to stop young people from becoming homeless after leaving social care. In England, the number of care leavers aged 18 to 24 reached 86,890, rising nearly 10% in two years. Under the new plan, the government aims to halve the number of care-experienced people who experience homelessness. Local authorities will face new duties to assess accommodation needs and support young people at risk. Care leavers under 25 can no longer be ruled intentionally homeless, removing a major hurdle to housing assistance. The government is also creating a £3 million Test, Learn, Grow fund to try new prevention methods. This matters because care leavers often move into adulthood without family support networks, leaving them vulnerable to money problems, isolation, and housing instability when official care stops.
What was announced
The Department for Education set out new local authority duties and guidance designed to protect young people exiting care from homelessness. The plan sets an explicit goal to cut care-experienced homelessness in half.
Key measures include:
- Removing rules that allowed councils to label care leavers under 25 as intentionally homeless.
- Removing local connection rules that blocked care leavers from accessing social housing.
- Requiring councils to publish accommodation plans and work with local housing teams.
- Launching a £3 million Test, Learn, Grow programme focused on youth homelessness prevention.
- Expanding the Staying Close programme nationwide by 2029 to help care leavers up to age 25.
- Making government departments and public bodies corporate parents from autumn 2027.
What it means
Young people moving out of social care will get expanded legal protections when seeking shelter. Previously, being declared intentionally homeless could cut off access to emergency housing support. Removing this decision gives care leavers a safer transition to independent living.
Councils will need to coordinate their children's services and housing departments far earlier. Guidance documents will direct local teams to plan ahead rather than responding after a crisis happens. By 2027, updated guidance will also adjust how social housing allocations work for care leavers across England.
What the announcement does not tell us
The plan does not state how much total funding councils will receive to meet their new statutory duties, apart from the £3 million prevention fund. It does not explain how local housing departments will secure extra housing units in areas with severe social housing shortages. Additionally, the announcement does not outline how national targets will be monitored or enforced if local authorities fail to lower homelessness rates.
How this was written
This analysis was written with AI from the official announcement below, using only facts that announcement states. The quoted wording is gov.uk: Department for Education’s own. Always check the original before acting on anything here.
Government sets out new Action Plan to reduce homelessness for care-experienced young people, building on PM’s pledge to tackle rough sleeping.
Opens www.gov.uk
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