A Major Change to Temporary Accommodation: The New Duty to Notify Schools and Health Services
Ross McColl
Oct 9, 2026
11 min read
A significant change to the way families with children are placed into temporary accommodation came into force in England on 1 September 2026.
Under the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, local housing authorities now have a statutory duty to take reasonable steps to notify relevant schools, GP practices and health visiting services when a child is placed into temporary accommodation.
The measure is intended to improve the flow of information between housing, education and health services at a point when families may be dealing with homelessness, an emergency move or considerable disruption to their normal routines.
For local authorities, this creates an additional process that needs to form part of temporary accommodation placements involving children.
For accommodation providers, it also makes accurate placement information and efficient communication with housing teams increasingly important.
The new duty was introduced by section 11 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, which inserted a new section 213AA into the Housing Act 1996.
The legislation requires local housing authorities in England to take reasonable steps to notify certain organisations when a child is placed in temporary accommodation following a homelessness application.
The relevant organisations can include:
The school or other relevant educational institution attended by the child
The GP practice in England with which the child is registered
The health visiting service available to the child at the temporary accommodation address
This represents a material change to the information-sharing process surrounding temporary accommodation placements involving children.
Why Has the Government Introduced the New Duty?
The Government’s stated objective is to strengthen information sharing between housing authorities and the services responsible for children’s health, wellbeing and education.
Moving into temporary accommodation can involve considerable disruption.
A child may:
Move away from their existing neighbourhood
Have a longer journey to school
Move between local authority areas
Lose continuity with health services
Miss correspondence relating to medical appointments
Experience overcrowding or other housing pressures
Need additional educational or pastoral support
Government guidance states that the number of children living in temporary accommodation has reached record levels and identifies potential effects on children’s health, wellbeing and educational outcomes.
The purpose of the notification is therefore not simply administrative.
It is intended to ensure that the organisations already working with the child know that their housing circumstances have changed and can consider whether additional or different support is required.
Which Temporary Accommodation Placements Are Covered?
The duty does not retrospectively apply to every family already living in temporary accommodation.
It applies where:
A child is placed into temporary accommodation following an application for assistance under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996
The homelessness application was made on or after 1 September 2026
The parent or other relevant person agrees to the notification being made
For 16 and 17-year-olds living independently and making their own homelessness application, the young person themselves can provide that agreement.
This distinction matters.
The legislation does not simply authorise an automatic notification every time a council places a child into temporary accommodation. The authority must establish the relevant circumstances and obtain the required agreement.
Is Parental Agreement Required?
Yes.
The duty operates where the child’s parent, person caring for the child or person with parental responsibility agrees to the notification.
For a 16 or 17-year-old who is living independently from their parents and making their own application, the authority asks the young person directly.
Housing authorities are expected to explain why the notification is being requested.
The purpose is to allow education and health services to know that the child’s housing circumstances have changed and that additional support may therefore be required.
This should form part of a structured placement process rather than being treated simply as another administrative form.
How Quickly Must the Notification Be Made?
Where agreement has been given, the housing authority must take reasonable steps to notify each relevant organisation within 14 days.
The 14-day period starts from the latest of:
The date the authority receives agreement for the notification
The date the authority receives the information identifying the relevant organisation
The date the child is placed into temporary accommodation
For local authority housing teams handling large numbers of nightly or emergency placements, this creates a clear administrative deadline.
Placement information therefore needs to be captured accurately from the outset.
Who Must Be Notified?
Depending on the child’s circumstances, the authority may need to notify three principal areas.
The Child’s School or Educational Institution
This can include maintained schools, academies, non-maintained special schools, further education institutions and certain post-16 education or training providers.
Notification allows the institution to understand that a pupil’s housing circumstances have changed.
This may be particularly relevant where temporary accommodation creates:
Longer travelling distances
Attendance problems
Changes in transport requirements
Difficulty completing schoolwork
Safeguarding concerns
Additional pastoral needs
The Department for Education has incorporated the new measure into its safeguarding framework for schools.
The Child’s GP Practice
Where the child is registered with a GP practice in England, that practice is another relevant body for notification.
Temporary accommodation can result in families moving significant distances or changing address repeatedly.
Having accurate housing information may therefore assist with continuity of treatment, appointments and communication.
Health Visiting Services
The health visiting service available at the child’s temporary accommodation address may also need to be notified.
This is particularly relevant for babies and younger children.
There is an important limitation within the legislation.
The statutory notification duty generally arises once for each homelessness application, at the point of the initial temporary accommodation placement.
A council is therefore not automatically required under this particular duty to issue another statutory notification every time the household moves from one temporary property to another.
However, Government guidance specifically states that housing authorities can consider making additional notifications, with agreement, where this would support continuity of health or educational services.
That could become particularly important where a family is subsequently moved:
To another borough
A considerable distance from their original accommodation
To accommodation served by different health visiting services
To a location that materially affects school attendance
Authorities may therefore decide that their internal procedures should go beyond the statutory minimum.
Does the Duty Apply to Temporary Accommodation Providers?
The statutory duty itself sits with the local housing authority.
It does not transfer the section 213AA notification obligation directly onto the landlord, managing agent or private temporary accommodation provider supplying the property.
That distinction is important.
However, accommodation providers form part of the wider placement process.
Councils may increasingly need accurate and timely information about:
The temporary accommodation address
The date the household occupied
Subsequent changes to the placement
Household composition
Relevant operational information surrounding the accommodation
Providers that work regularly with local authorities should therefore expect placement administration and information-sharing processes to become more structured.
At Link Property, our Nightly Self-Contained and Temporary Accommodation service provides managed accommodation for local authority partners across the South East, with established processes covering placements, property management, inspections and resident communication.
What Does This Mean for Local Authority Housing Teams?
The immediate effect is another statutory process that needs to sit alongside the existing homelessness and placement workflow.
Authorities should consider whether their systems adequately record:
Whether the household includes children
Each child’s relevant educational institution
The child’s registered GP
The relevant health visiting service
Whether agreement to notification has been obtained
When the relevant information was received
The placement date
When notifications were sent
Evidence that notifications were completed
Where this information sits across several teams or systems, there is an obvious risk of delay or incomplete records.
The 14-day deadline means responsibility for each stage needs to be clear.
Data Protection Still Applies
The notification duty does not displace normal data protection requirements.
Government guidance states that housing authorities, educational institutions and health services are independent data controllers in relation to the personal data they process for these notifications.
Each organisation therefore remains responsible for complying with UK GDPR and its other data protection obligations.
Existing data protection procedures should be applied, and housing authorities may need to review how notification data moves between housing, education and health systems.
For households requiring more specialist arrangements, our Adaptive Accommodation Solutions provide additional flexibility around individual accommodation requirements.
Local housing authorities should therefore make sure their temporary accommodation procedures reflect the requirements applying from 1 September 2026.
Areas worth reviewing include:
Homelessness application forms
Temporary accommodation placement forms
Consent and agreement procedures
Case management systems
School information fields
GP information
Health visitor information
Data-sharing arrangements
Staff responsibilities
14-day notification monitoring
Evidence and audit trails
Procedures following subsequent TA moves
Where private accommodation providers form part of the placement process, authorities may also need to consider what information needs to pass between the authority and provider and at what stage.
Things to Know
The main points are:
The temporary accommodation notification duty commenced on 1 September 2026
It was introduced through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026
It applies to local housing authorities in England
It concerns children placed into temporary accommodation following relevant homelessness applications made on or after 1 September 2026
The authority must seek the required agreement before making the statutory notification
Relevant bodies include schools and other educational institutions, GP practices and health visiting services
Notifications generally need to be made within 14 days
The statutory duty normally arises once for each homelessness application
Councils can consider additional notifications where a household subsequently moves
Normal UK GDPR and data protection requirements continue to apply
The statutory notification duty falls on the housing authority rather than directly on the accommodation provider
A More Connected Approach to Temporary Accommodation
The new notification duty reflects a wider change in the way temporary accommodation is being treated.
A housing placement cannot always be considered separately from education, health and safeguarding.
For children in particular, an emergency move can affect several different parts of daily life simultaneously.
The legislation therefore creates a formal mechanism for housing authorities to alert the organisations already responsible for supporting the child.
For councils managing substantial temporary accommodation caseloads, the principal challenge is likely to be operational: making sure information is collected, agreement is recorded and notifications are issued consistently within the required timeframe.
Reliable placement data and clear communication between housing teams and accommodation providers will consequently become increasingly important.
Looking for Temporary Accommodation Across the South East?
Link Property provides managed temporary and long-term accommodation solutions for local authorities across Kent and the wider South East.
Our portfolio includes self-contained nightly accommodation, longer-term housing, HMOs and adaptable accommodation options.
Landlords with suitable properties can visit our Landlord Partners page to find out more about supplying accommodation through Link Property.
Frequently Asked Questions
The duty came into force in England on 1 September 2026. It applies in relation to relevant temporary accommodation placements following homelessness applications made on or after that date.
Where the statutory requirements are satisfied, the local housing authority must take reasonable steps to notify each relevant body applicable to the child. This can include the educational institution at which the child is a registered pupil or student.
Yes, where the child is registered with a general medical practice in England and the statutory requirements for notification have been met.
Yes. The relevant health visiting service available to the child at the temporary accommodation address is one of the bodies covered by the legislation.
The authority must take reasonable steps to notify the relevant organisations within 14 days, calculated from the latest of the relevant statutory dates.
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Ross McColl
