Child Protection Section 20

This duty can arise from various reasons for example the child has been lost or abandoned.

Child protection section 20. If the parents won t agree to s 20 accommodation their child can only be removed by court order or temporarily by the intervention of the police using their emergency powers under section 46 of the children act 1989. Basically section 20 of the children act 1989 is about the la s duty to provide a child with somewhere to live because the child doesn t currently have a home or a safe home. Section 20 of the children act 1989 sets out how a local authority can provide accommodation for a child within their area if that child is in need of it due to the child being lost abandoned or there is no person with parental responsibility for that child.

There isn t anyone who has parental responsibility for him for e g. Section 20 is often offered as an alternative to the local authority applying for a care order and asking for the parents to consent to the child living in local authority care. What happens if one parent agrees but the other does not.

We explain this in more detail below. Section 20 accommodation is very different to your child being removed from your care against your will under a care order. The person who has been caring for the child is prevented permanently or not from providing him or her with suitable accommodation or care.

The la do not share parental responsibility for your child just because you have agreed that your child should be in foster care under a section 20 agreement. Under section 20 of the children act 1989 the local authority has a duty to provide a child with somewhere to live if the child doesn t have a home or a home which is deemed unsafe.