Homelessness legislation and Children & Families

Open to all social work practitioners across Adult and Children's Services within the West Midlands Social Work Teaching Partnership. Please see our Partner organisations below. 

Session overview: 

• The session will cover the relevant parts of the Children Act 1989 and the interplay with Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996. In practical terms you will come away with some knowledge about different ways of service delivery that different local authorities might have developed and the importance of trying to prevent homelessness.
• You will also learn where to find the statutory guidance and your local ‘joint protocol’ between Children’s Services and Housing.
• We will also look at your work with families who might be at risk of homelessness in this session and what you might need to consider and actions you would need to take.

Facilitator: Anna Whalen works as a freelance consultant across England with local authorities and some third sector agencies on homelessness.

She has a background working with young people and worked as a senior manager in Children’s Services responsible for setting up and managing a multi-disciplinary Service for older teenagers who were looked after, young people leaving care, and 16/17-year-olds who were homeless.

In 2008 Anna started a national role as a youth homelessness adviser, working with councils all over England. She then went on to spend time as a senior homelessness adviser in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), leaving in 2019.

Anna works across England with councils to prevent homelessness through helping them and their partners improve their services to vulnerable people including young people. This involves undertaking service reviews, other improvement work and training. Anna is also an associate for St Basils, a youth homelessness charity and housing association in the West Midlands.

Deadlines for registering: Friday 16th February 2024

Please note, your space will not be confirmed until after this deadline date, when a member of the Programme Team will be in touch to confirm the status of your booking, i.e., if you have secured a space or if you will be placed on the waiting list.

Partner Organisations: 

Birmingham City Council

Birmingham City University

Chershire East Council

City of Stoke-on-Trent Council

City of Wolverhampton council

Coventry City Council

Coventry University

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council

Keele University

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Shropshire Council

Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council

Staffordshire county council

Staffordshire Universty

Telford & Wrekin Council

University of Birmingham

University of Warwick

University of Wolverhampton

University of Worcester

Walsall Council

Warwickshire County Council

Worcestershire County Council