I am handling a case where D a 18 year old who has been on section 3 four times in 2 different boroughs. They were a looked after child in borough X at the time of all the sectioning’s . The first 2 sectioning’s was in borough X (age 14) and the last 2 were in borough Y (where their foster placement was (age 16). borough X had placed them in a foster placement in borough Y. The child is currently in a supported accommodation in borough X but the council of borough Y have been informed that they need to fund the placement as they were the last borough the child was sectioned in.
My question is if the child is looked after child in borough X and their current placement is in X even though they were last sectioned in borough Y. Which borough is responsible for funding the child’s section 117 aftercare and accommodation ?
It needs to be clearly established whether or not accommodation is part of the s117 aftercare. There is no guarantee that this will be the case, give the information that they have been looked after throughout that time (and possibly prior to their first qualifying detention).
Time and again local authorities and mental health teams fail to create clear and explicit care plans on discharge which set out what is provided under s117 and what is not.
If accommodation was part of the s117 aftercare at the point of last discharge, then the responsible local authority will be where they were living immediately prior to that admission.
Just noticed the error in the last sentence of my post. The responsible local authority will indeed be the one where they were ordinarily resident immediately before their last s3 detention, but if accommodation isn’t part of the aftercare, the responsible s117 authority won’t be responsible for funding it.