Notification is not support: the new temporary-accommodation duty

01 / What changed

The statutory handoff began on 1 September.

The duty applies to local housing authorities and covers relevant educational institutions, GP practices and health visiting services. Consent is built into the statutory process. Where it is given and identifying information supplied, the authority must take reasonable steps to notify each applicable body within 14 days of the latest of placement, agreement or receipt of body details.1

MHCLG describes the policy’s objective as stronger information sharing so education and health services know where a child may require different or additional support. New-burdens funding for local housing authorities is due in the third quarter of 2026/27. The policy does not prescribe a funded school support package.23

02 / The scale

The scale makes continuity an operational issue.

On 31 March 2026, 177,530 children lived in temporary accommodation, 5.2% more than a year earlier. They were in 86,460 households with children, within a record 135,580 temporary-accommodation households overall. These are snapshot figures, not a cohort entering the new process.5

Geography complicates the handoff. Some 43,180 households were accommodated outside their local-authority area; 28,280 of them contained children. A school may therefore need to work with the placing authority, the authority where accommodation is located and existing education or health partners.5

03 / The receiving route

A notification needs an accountable receiving route.

KCSIE already says homelessness presents a real risk to welfare and that designated safeguarding leads should know local housing-authority contacts and referral routes. The new notification should sit within that child-centred system, while avoiding any automatic assumption that temporary accommodation itself proves a safeguarding threshold has been met.4

A defensible local response is a verified receipt, rapid triage and sensitive family contact, followed by proportionate action on attendance, transport, uniform, food, devices, SEND continuity, health or safeguarding. That is an operational recommendation, not a new statutory checklist. The child’s circumstances and the family’s views should determine the response.4

04 / The once-only rule

The once-only rule creates a testable continuity risk.

The statutory duties to seek agreement and notify arise only once for each homelessness application, at initial placement. MHCLG says housing authorities may consider further notifications, with agreement, when local procedures are developed – for example, if a child later moves to temporary accommodation in another area.13

That means absence of a later notice does not necessarily prove non-compliance. Equally, a technically compliant first notice may become stale after another move. Local protocols should distinguish the statutory initial notice from agreed continuity updates and record whether the child’s educational institution was successfully identified.13

05 / Accountability after receipt

Accountability begins after the message arrives.

MHCLG states that housing authorities, educational institutions and health services are independent data controllers for the personal data they process under the duty. Each organisation remains responsible for lawful, secure and proportionate handling; a shared inbox is not a substitute for ownership or access controls.3

The useful performance chain is placement, consent request, agreement, notification, valid receipt, triage, family contact, support offered, support accepted and review. MHCLG’s stated objective is awareness leading services to seek improved outcomes. Testing every handoff is the only way to know where that intention stalls.23

Leadership questions

Questions that turn the development into a governing conversation.

School Connection intelligence lens

What the national Observatory can add, and where it must stop.

Exact Observatory test: consent-ask coverage = in-scope initial placements with an agreement request recorded ÷ all in-scope initial placements. Set T0 = the latest of placement date, agreement date and relevant-body-information date. Notification compliance = placements with agreement and the necessary body information where reasonable steps to notify every identified relevant body were recorded by T0 + 14 days ÷ all placements meeting those conditions.1

Valid school receipt rate = unique school notices successfully matched and acknowledged ÷ unique school notices attempted. Support conversion = valid school notices followed by at least one documented, family-informed support action within five school days ÷ valid school notices; five days is an Observatory benchmark, not the statutory deadline. Report median and 90th-percentile time from T0 to notice, receipt to triage, triage to family contact and contact to first action. Track school continuity and absence over the following 10 and 20 school days, plus transport, uniform, food, device, SEND and safeguarding actions as separate outcomes – not a composite claim of support. Compare aggregate in-area and out-of-area pathways and record agreed subsequent-move updates separately from statutory initial notices.134

Privacy and small-cell limits: never publish family-level records, addresses, accommodation names, movement routes, health details or case narratives. Restrict linkage to authorised teams using pseudonymised identifiers. Suppress cells below 10, use complementary suppression and aggregate periods or areas where combinations could reveal a child or family.3

What we are monitoring next

Publication is the beginning of the watch.

• Q3 2026/27 new-burdens payments and published local operating protocols.
• First aggregate evidence on consent requests, 14-day compliance, failed matches and subsequent-move updates.
• Attendance, continuity, safeguarding and family-experience evidence once sufficiently mature cohorts exist.