needs and preferences of young people, with ‘pathway plans’ set up to cover all
the key areas necessary for independent living, including access to personal
advisors, who would provide advocacy, advice and support to the young people
making the transition to independent living. To aid this, a minimum income level
to cover housing costs and a personal allowance was set in line with current
benefit rates, with the plans reviewed at regular intervals (approximately every 6
months), so as to address the ongoing needs of young people.
The Housing Act 1996 also has relevance to care leavers, along with a
subsequent statutory instrument (SI 2002 No. 2051) which designated care
leavers as a priority group for housing and access to a wide range of housing
services. However, this legislation did not specify which local authority
department (housing or social services) was responsible for making sure care
leavers were given priority. Broad (1998) points out this resulted in considerable
difficulties for care leavers trying to access housing. Section 189 of the Housing
Act 1996 set out who would have a priority need for accommodation. This
referred to section 24 of the 1989 Act, which stated that all 16 and 17 years olds
who had left home, and those who had been looked after, accommodated or
fostered, as particularly vulnerable (ODPM, 2006). However, in practice, it was
difficult for individuals to prove that they were lacking family support (Niner et al.
1996).
Another feature of this Act, still applicable today, is the Single Room Rent
regulation which meant many young people under the age of 25 were likely to be
priced out of the private housing stock market by those entitled to higher housing