My Homeless Son

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In this episode of Phylum Four, Emma Ford asks why a vulnerable homeless teenager was let down by those meant to protect him.

When people looked at me, they didn't think that I was homeless. and like yeah I would look presentable but no one would believe me that I was homeless. I was always asking if they could buy me a meal. People might have wondered how I ended up here, like if it was my fault.

My name's Fier and this is my story.

Theo is 19 years old. He's talking about when he was just a few years younger. He was in his teens when he found himself homeless.

He was acutely muddled. paranoid, disconnected, He wasn't eating, he'd gotten painfully, painfully. You could see his ribs. So he just was in a terrible, terrible physical state really.

Despite thousands of young people who find themselves in a similar situation every year, he turned to his local council for help. But he didn't get it.

I just remember the moment I felt sick.

That decision and what happened to him as a result would change the course of Theo's life. This week an investigation looking into what he went through has been published. He became physically and mentally unwell, and terrible things happened to him. Because of the nature of some of those things, we've changed his name to protect his identity. The other voice you heard was his mum. We're calling her Rose.

Well, from the moment he was born, the lights went on in my world. Mae wedi bod yn amlwg. Mae'n amlwg. Mae'n amlwg. Mae'n amlwg. Mae'n amlwg. Mae'n amlwg. Mae'n amlwg. Mae'n amlwg. Mae'n amlwg. Mae'n amlwg. Mae'n amlwg. Mae'n amlwg. Mae'n amlwg.

He's perfect.

Theo and his mum are very close. He remembers a happy childhood growing up.

It was either Christmas or my birthday and um basically I had a big present but I remember my mum made a treasure hunt and I got a like find the clues. It took me ages but like I just remember how fun it was. there would be like um presents in each one of them and at at the end it was I think it was Lego. I just remember having like the funniest time laughing so much

Yeah. What did you want to be?

When I was little I wanted it to be a firefighter.

Why did you want to be a firefighter?

Yeah. Like imagine the saving people. You're the hero, I guess. It'd be like pretty amazing.

When Theo was just a year old, his mum and dad split up. Rose eventually went on to marry someone else, but due to work and illness they had to move away from the area where Theo grew up, and he began to struggle.

where we moved to he didn't like after having spent his life time in the same area for over thirteen years and then to all of a sudden be moved to a different area and have to start again. Yeah, he got I think it's probably at that stage. that he became very unsettled, very angry and aggressive really, and he said, I'm not staying here, I'm going to live with my dad And I thought I'd be a flash in the pan, he'd be back within a week or so. So I foolishly really let him go in.

Thea moved down here to Cornwall to be with his dad. He was fourteen at the time, and Rose thought it would be for a few weeks. Not long after he moved, things started to go wrong.

I knew that he'd got suspended from school because he was meant to have, with some other children, smoked a joint. People said that he was using drugs. I didn't know to what extent, and it wasn't until where he had a complete psychosis. that I realized how serious it was.

In early two thousand sixteen, Theo and his dad were evicted from their flats and moved to temporary accommodation. Social services and other professionals had become involved due to growing concern about Theo's mental health and escalating drug use. An assessment in the march said his drug use posed a risk of overdose, addiction, and potentially death. He turned 17 and was struggling to live like a normal teenager, but did have a focus.

College was really important because it was like a second world for me. I was loving it, like learning new things, meeting all these new people. I'd never not be talking about

I know you've got a real passion for music.

Mostly grind. I do like I love Dave.

Mae'n gweithwyr yn gweithwyr. Mae'n gweithwyr yn gweithwyr. He does all kinds of stuff.

But at home in Cornwall, things continued to spiral.

Rydyn ni'n ymwneud â nhw'n ymwneud â nhw'n ymwneud â nhw'n ymwneud â nhw'n ymwneud â nhw'n ymwneud â nhw'n ymwneud â nhw'n ymwneud â nhw'n ymwneud â nhw. assaulting his father. But he was he wasn't willing to to come home really. And I think, you know, that that was kind of it. and also there were certain fixations in Theo's mind. So he's really fixated my husband being annoyed with him or me not loving him anymore, things that just weren't accurate.

Formal counsel placed Theo into a housing unit for homeless young people in the July, but just two weeks later the placement broke down when he was found with drugs on him. The council asked Rose if he could come back and live with her.

I wanted him to come and live with me. Let me make that really clear. I so wanted him back home. I bet it was impossible. At the time I was fostering two very vulnerable children. But by this time his mental health was in such a place that he had acute paranoia. We were a loving family who cared desperately. I couldn't get him to come home. He was also desperate to complete this course.

He was offered a place in supported accommodation, over thirty miles away. Initially he didn't want to go there, as it was too far away from the area he knew, and he turned it down. Rose doesn't believe he had the ability to see the reality of the situation he was in.

I don't think that Theo was in the right place to make any decisions about any aspect of his life. I don't believe he had the capacity to make those decisions in terms of the mental capacity. You know, he did not have an understanding Uh because he was unwell. How could he make major decisions?

With nowhere to live, unable to return to his dad, and Rose not able to bring her son home, Theo became homeless.

It was it's pretty mind blowing. I just thought it'd just be like um a day or two and then I'll get housed. It ended up months and it was just horrible. It was pretty traumatic experience. 'Cause obviously I I I've I've al always lived in a house somewhere. I just like to grit my teeth and get on with it really.

Theo's future was left hanging in the balance.

He's street homeless they kept saying, street homeless, street homeless. Theo has always been a very loved and cherished child. He's always been well cared for. For him to be living on the streets it must have been terrible shock to his system to be so unwell on top of that and not understand. I mean I was his mum, I didn't understand. Then there's all the natural feelings as a mother that this is my son and I should be able to sort this out and I should be able to make things happen.

Theo needed accommodation, and in the eyes of the law was a child in need. That's a young person whose health and development is likely to be harmed without help and support. Social services had a legal duty under the Children's Act to provide him with somewhere suitable to live.

One of the worrying things that we found when we looked at the Council's records is He was a vulnerable young person that needed help.

This is Michael King, the local government and social care ombudsman for England. You'll hear later that things got pretty bad for Theo. So bad that eventually what happened to him and the actions of the council were investigated by his team.

He's seventeen years old. He was homeless. He had a history of mental health problems and he you know, he was very vulnerable. We found was that the council offered him accommodation once when he refused it. They didn't question whether that was a legitimate decision and and whether they should try again. What we saw in the council's records was them taking a moral judgment and blaming him for some of the choices he'd made.

It's the heights of summer, the area busy with people enjoying their holidays. The council said finding accommodation would be Always easy. At times there was nowhere appropriate available in Cornwall, but a solution was found.

And I think I I was at work at the time and there was lots going on around me. I just remember the moment I I felt sick. I thought, you know, I seriously thought it was gonna pass out. And then I thought, no, I've misheard what she said. So I asked her r to repeat it about six times. And she said no, we're putting him in a tent and I said Oh how is that even possible? How is it legal even? You know, you'd be so vulnerable in a tent, he's not well I do not give you my permission.

I had my bag And um they just turned up in the car. They was like, Load the car up with your bags, we're going to a campsite And I was just like, What? Why are we going there? And they were just like, Oh, y I've got you a tent. Didn't know what to really say. I couldn't really say no. Like I was saying everything out loud, I was just like, How long am I gonna be there? Like, what's it gonna be like? Stuff like that.

Remember, Theo is 17. He's vulnerable and now homeless. The Ombudsman says no assessment was carried out to look at the potential risks he faced by staying in a tent. He was given food vouchers, credit for a mobile phone, and a torch. He tells me he had a sleeping bag, but not much else. No chair to sit on or cooking equipment. He walks me through what happened when he arrived at the campsite.

Yeah, or it's just Not heartbroken but like pretty Pretty depressed at that point. I tried putting up uh um on my own. this um random guy started helping me put out the tent because he saw that I couldn't like live. But that was my first time ever putting up a tent so it was just like pretty confusing.

Do you remember your very first night sleeping in the tent?

Very spooky like'cause it was this campsite in the middle of the woods. I just remember like hearing um rustling in the in the bushes. I just thought, I saw But like I I was in the centre and I was just like, I'm not going out of the tent. No, I didn't get much sleep.

Faced with the reality of living in a tent, Theo changed his mind about coming into care, but he was told his behaviour made the likelihood remote. something which seems to be a reoccurring theme in this story. Despite living in a small one man tent, Theo was trying to keep his life on track and kept going to college. I wanted to know how he managed that just on a practical level.

It was pretty terrible but like yeah I could have a shower but it would always be coldish. Like it wasn't like an open shower. They had um cubicles but I always didn't feel like safe. But I got through it.

How would you get to and from college?

I just don't even walk. I think it would be like forty-five minutes to get into town. There'd be fifteen to m get there, so it'd be like an hour. I'd be in my tent doing my college work. There'd be like a little house. thing like in the middle of the tent and like you could hang your torch off it. and like turn on your torch and then it would be pretty calm.

Theo says he was only at this campsite for a short time before he was moved to another one. He doesn't know why. He wanted to explain what it was like for him, but he didn't feel safe going back to Cornwall. So instead his mum and I headed down just as she done when she got the gun. Yeah, yeah. See the sign for this campsite, it's about 400 yards up this road.

That's where that sign is.

We wind our way up narrow country lanes, with a view of the sea in front of us. Just down this lane here. Yes, pull up here.

Yeah.

Should we go and take a look?

Yeah. And he was just just here. I remember

Thank you.

Thank you.

Driving onto the car park there and thinking, that can't be it, that can't be his tent. It was just a very, very small tent, the type really you give your children to play in the garden. It was a one person tent. And it was drenched, it was wet, it was soaked through, and he was just huddled inside.

Thank you.

Uh huh.

Still in

Incredibly difficult to come back here.

Just can't believe it. The pain it's caused. But you know, why? Why d why was this allowed to happen, you know? It's something you'd expect out of Dickens. It's you know, i it's just incredible. I was just in a state of shock for months.

Theo says this time council staff helped him to pitch his tent. He told me people on the site were kind to him. One man who was holidaying with his family gave him a camping stove and extra food. Another who worked on the site would make him a bacon sandwich in the morning. As families would return from their days out on the beach, Theo would be cooking pasta on his stove. Other people who were staying there, just holidaymakers, did they know you were homeless? Yeah.

ya no, son unos They could kind of guess like I don't know who like that's seventeen that goes on a campsite and sleeps there on the south like No they were shot. upset for me.

Rose was also there. She'd brought her family down to Cornwall, spending a month there to try and help her son. They stayed in a caravan in the area. The ombudsman said she did her best to ensure he was fed and looked after during this time, but her distress was clear. She feared for her son's life.

I actually found a bed and breakfast myself. But again they wouldn't take him. because of his age. I think it made me unwell. I think I was also deeply untraumatised by not being able to protect my own son.

Theo and his mum made repeated calls to the council asking for help. Theo says even that wasn't always easy living on a campsite. He'd have to find somewhere to charge his phone or sometimes ask others if he could use theirs. The social work manager who authorised the tent said she did so to avoid Theo becoming street homeless. But the Ombudsman Michael King says no one considered the risk it put him in.

We asked staff in the local authority whether they thought tents were ever appropriate to accommodate a young person. Rather than getting an absolutely unequivocal response that that is never ever acceptable, what we got was a range of different answers. sydd wedi'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i

Remember, just a few months earlier, Theo was described as being at risk from death due to his drug use, and there was growing concern about his mental health. At one point he'd moved his tent to some rough ground, thinking it would be better because no one knew he was there. But one morning he woke to the sound of people outside.

I heard rustling of the tent and um Yeah, like I was pretty scared but I was like, Who's that? And um And then I got outside the tent really quick, like they whacked out some needles. I was just like, What are you doing? So it's like, oh, just doing some herring. I didn't really want them to do it around me, but like this guy was he was he was just injecting into himself and it was just so horrible.

He continued to ask the council for help. He wanted somewhere else to live. His tent was leaking and he was short of food. Rose was also ringing the council, desperately worried about her son, only to be told that Theo needed to take some responsibility for his behaviour. He did spend one night in a bed and breakfast, but then it was back to the tent.

It sweeps its way into some very windy conditions developing through the day, wet, and they've actually got a warning of wind enforces and

It was real bad but I thought my tent was gonna go over so I was like constantly in my tent. It was so bad. Everything was wet. Especially me when I woke up. This guy that worked on the site came over, was just like, you're right, I was the My tents got literally drenched and like it's it's got all like water in and I don't know what to do. I was devastated. Yeah he just helped me out. He like helped me tip all the water out. Then we put loads of tape and like and stuff over them. Uh top big.

Did you say to any of the people who were supposed to be working with you and supporting you My tent's leaking. Can you help?

I had um no credit on my phone so um as soon as they called I told them about it. Basically the tents drenched. accommodation like now like

What did they do? He was given the new tent by a social worker who brought it to the campsite for him. Michael King says that wasn't good enough for the

yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw, yw.

So what action was taken? Social workers asked Rose again if she could take Theo in, but she couldn't, as she was still fostering the two children. Reluctantly, she had to leave Cornwall and return home. Theo had now been living in a tent for nearly a month, and would text his mum saying he was lonely and depressed. Over the next few days the council did try to find him a place in supported accommodation, but without success.

Like everything that I owned was under those stairs. It's like

What was it like living?

Under the stairs and it was it was pretty weird.

Did you stay there because that's the way you wanted to live?

Yeah, but I really wanted to.

By the 7th of September, the council finally took the decision it was too risky to leave Theo in a tent. Surely now he would be found somewhere suitable to live, wouldn't he?

He was the team manager who phoned me up, we're moving Theo, we're moving him. to a caravan. And I said, Well he you know, he's a risk to himself. Don't you understand that he needs guidance. He needs guidance and support, which I'm willing to give if I can get him back home. But no, putting him unsupervised in a caravan I mean I don't think most parents would do that.

I was living in someone's back garden. I felt like people watching me through the windows. I walk in around them Like my dressing gown and that. I thought people were like peering in and that. I did feel safe because there was a lock on the door, but I I made sure that all the windows were closed when I went to sleep and that.

Not one of the six council staff interviewed as part of the Ombudsman's investigation thought it inappropriate to house a vulnerable seventeen-year-old in a static caravan. In fact, one family worker described it as a good option. Oliver Studdett is a solicitor who works with vulnerable children in need of accommodation. One particular case he worked on back in 2009 laid out the duties that local authorities in England should be following to help homeless young people.

Rydyn ni'n ymwneud â phobl sy'n ymwneud â phobl sy'n ymwneud â phobl sy'n ymwneud â phobl sy'n ymwneud â phobl sy'n ymwneud â phobl sy'n ymwneud â phobl So for example, accommodation in a bed and breakfast will never ever be a suitable accommodation. The bed and breakfast is never going to be suitable whilst it doesn't explicitly state tent or static home. uh one would assume that in terms of suitability options they would fall significantly behind, some way behind a bed and breakfast.

One of the reasons that young homeless people shouldn't be placed in the likes of a bed and breakfast Is that other people staying there could pose a risk to them? In a caravan alone, surely Theo was even more vulnerable. Around the time he was living there, he went through a horrific experience whilst walking home one night.

It's a random car, there's like there stops and beeps and so I go over to it and this is like what? It's like jump in, I'll drive you home. He was much older than me, I d I don't know how old. But then he um he drove me to this like dark uh car park.

The man went on to sexually assault him, and then dropped him off at the caravan. Alone, Theo was terrified.

Constant like It's paranoia, so I always had to be out. I was worried because he knew where I lived.

You were worried he might come back?

Yeah, just do anything.

Theo told staff at the college about the assault. Council Records noted that the police had been informed, but police told us they weren't notified until weeks later. The man concerned has never been caught. Solicitor Oliver Studd is clear on what should have happened.

As soon as that have been reported to the authorities, the local authority should consider whether or not it needs to undertake assessment. to to identify whether or not that's a genuine risk, whether or not this is something that they need to be putting support into place. They simply shouldn't ignore it.

Yet Thea remained in the caravan for nearly a month after the assault. The social care records show no evidence that the council considered whether to take any action to protect him afterwards.

By now, Theo was spiralling further. His drug use was out of control, and he was threatening to kill himself. Yet the council continued to blame him and take no account of the possible risks he faced. But finally he was found a place in some supported accommodation, run by a housing association which helps homeless youth.

Hello?

How are you doing? Lovely to meet you. Come in.

Thank you.

So this is the first time you've met in person, isn't it?

Yeah, I've uh I've heard a lot about you. Yeah, yeah. But it's the first time we've met face to face. I think that he was as unwell as anyone I've ever seen. In fact probably the most erratic that I've ever seen. I thought he was really ill. But while he was living on in a tent, he he had to keep it contained because he had to deal with the crisis right now, which was surviving, living in a tent.

Claire showed us round the accommodation, taking us to a block of flats.

And this is where uh

is a young man currently living in the block. We introduce ourselves, and he and Rose get talking. It turns out he also resorted to living in a tent when he became homeless at eighteen. We've called him Sam.

I'd literally spend about two hours in the day looking for the perfect spot to set up my tent, which is away from people. Like down here and b like yeah, I set up my tent in a corner of a wooded area But it was ne it was still next to like houses and stuff, but no one came down and disturbed me. I think they knew I was there. But like I always made sure that I was close to somewhere so if I needed help and like I could call it. But also far enough away that that that I didn't get really seen.

Yeah. How did it make you looking back on it now?

That meant that your mental health deteriorates when you like I don't know, when you're homeless messes up your head and yeah, causes you to see things, hear things. So like the amount of times I'd come out of my tent thinking that there was Mae'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer

I asked Claire how often they're asked to help young people like Sam and Theo, who are homeless and in need of accommodation. I

Rydyn ni'n ymwneud â'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer o'r nifer.

Is that increasing, do you think?

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Definitely.

Yn ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud ymwneud? Mae'r rhaid i'r 16-17 yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw'r yw

No. I have a waiting list right now. All my beds are full. Seventy two beds across the county are full. And I have a waiting list of thirty five.

The provision of specialist accommodation like this across the country is patchy. Thankfully, Theo's story isn't typical. But during the making of this programme, we were told of families with children being accommodated in caravans. Theo only spent a few weeks with Claire and her team. It was clear to everyone that he was very unwell and needed specialist help. Rose said he looked emaciated, with sores on his face that left scars, still visible today.

We're completely accepting that um the services that this young man received and and his mother actually were well below what we would expect. There's nobody Certainly not me, who thinks that a tent on the best campsite in the world is suitable accommodation for a young person in that situation, Emma. I I need to really emphasise that.

But this was clearly a child in need. Why didn't the council house him?

The council offered housing. They offered the supported lodgings, which he stayed in for a while but um had to leave. We offered him foster care but he refused and you can't make a seventeen year old do what they don't want to do. If a young person is refusing the offer of accommodation, it it closes down those options really, really quickly.

Do you think that at this time Theo had the capacity? make those decisions for himself, do you think he he knew what he was agreeing to?

That's a very important point and it's one of the aspects of the case that I would consider a a a serious failing. Um that um the team manager f felt that he had mental capacity, but what she should have done is undertake or had an uh mental capacity act assessment undertaken and that didn't happen and that that is a a very serious shortfall in practice.

During the period when Theo was living in the caravan, he says that he was sexually assaulted by a man in a car. But he was left at risk in that caravan for a further month after that serious sexual assault. The perpetrator knew where he lived. Why didn't you take action to protect him at that point?

between his health worker, the police and the team manager at that time. And that didn't happen. There should have been a proper multi agency discussion about the risks that he faced and what the plan should be to try and keep him safer. What I would say to Thea is that I will do everything in my power and in my authority to make sure this never happens again.

The council has since apologized to Theo and his mum, but the impact for them has been far reaching. Rose gave up fostering, and she and her husband moved house to look after him. She says the whole experience has devastated them.

Totally broken us. We still laugh, we still get on with life, we still function as a family, but it has it's broken us. It's On many levels. you know, emotionally. But we won't become a victim to it. We won't be consumed by it. We shall build on it and we shall go to better things.

Leo is taking things one day at a time. He and his mum are as close as ever. But Theo is looking ahead.

For the future.

I wanna be a locksmith, I wanna be a carpenter, I wanna be a clothes designer and I wanna be a rapper on the side. Cause I know if I went just for rap or um just for clothing design. I don't But if it didn't work out it wouldn't

Good to have a backup.

I'm I'm really looking forward to like Getting settled, getting to college. I got through it in the end. It was really hard. It's pretty amazing to be alive right now, so yeah.

That edition of Phileum 4 was presented by Emma Ford and the programme was produced by Matthew Chapman. Enjoy this podcast? Discover more music, radio and podcasts on BBC Sound.