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Despite this, the council inexplicably failed to provide BC with any accommodation and indeed failed to take any steps to assess his case at all until September , being days later, which is highly regrettable”. Paragraph ; emphasis added On September , the local authority spoke to BC’s mother who said BC’s bedroom was now taken by one of his siblings, but another caravan was available for BC to stay in, though he’d be expected to pay to stay there. As recalled in the judgment, “the social worker did not probe any further about the apparent availability of the caravan and took no steps to ascertain if it was suitable, available accommodation”.
The High Court later accepted that the caravan was dilapidated, was in a differ Guangdong Mobile Number List ent area and would have to be refurbished to be habitable. Despite taking no action until five days after BC presented as homeless and despite making only two telephone calls, the only recommendation made by the council’s social worker was to refer BC to ‘Targeted Youth Support’ for assistance with education and drug use. No action was taken to address BC’s homelessness and lack of parental care.at reintegration into the family home”. In his witness statements to the High Court, BC said: “Throughout this period I continued staying with K and his mum.
I felt that I was outstaying my welcome and was very nervous because of this. Things got really bad for me in this period. K was a member of the gang that I used to be affiliated with. At the time I was sofa surfing at his home, I had no choice but to go out with him all the time, and to also take part in gang affiliated activities. There was no option for me to stay at K’s house when he was not there, and if I told him I didn’t want to go out then he would threaten to hurt me. I had no choice but to go.” “Social services knew that my staying with K and his mum was really a temporary thing and that the reason I was referred to social services … was because K’s mum said I couldn’t really stay any longer. …, K’s mother was just providing accommodation for me because I had nowhere else to go.
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