Guidance

Definition of a family for the purposes of accommodation in an immigration removal centre or pre-departure accommodation (accessible)

Updated 15 June 2026

Detention Services Order 01/2014

June 2026

Version: 2.0

Document Details

Process: To provide information regarding the accommodation of families in immigration removal centres or pre-departure accommodation.

Publication Date: June 2026 2026

Implementation Date: April 2016 (reissued June 2026)

Review Date: June 2028

Contains mandatory instructions

For Action: Home Office and contracted service providers operating in Immigration Removal Centres, Gatwick Pre-departure Accommodation and Residential Short-term Holding Facilities.

For Information: Home Office caseworking teams.

Author and Unit: J. Hayson, Detention Services

Owner: M.Smith, Head of Detention Operations

Contact Point: Detention Services Order Team: DSOConsultation@homeoffice.gov.uk

Processes Affected: N/A

Assumptions: All staff will have the necessary knowledge to follow these procedures.

Notes: N/A

Instruction

Introduction

1. This Detention Services Order (DSO) provides guidance on the definition of a family for the purposes of accommodation in the immigration removal estate, pending publication of the updated substantive Detention Services Order (DSO). This instruction should be understood in alignment with the Home Office family separations guidance.

2. This instruction does not apply to Residential Holding Rooms (RHRs).

3. Two different Home Office teams operate in IRCs:

• Detention Services Compliance Team (Compliance team)

• Immigration Enforcement Detention Engagement Team (DET)

The Compliance team are responsible for all on-site commercial and contract monitoring work. The DETs interact with -detained individuals face-to-face within the IRCs on behalf of responsible officers. - They focus on communicating and engaging with people detained at IRCs helping them to understand their cases and detention.

There are no DETs at Residential Short-term holding facilities (RSTHFs) and the Gatwick PDA; some of the functions which are the responsibility of the DET in RSTHFs are carried out by the contracted service provider and overseen by the International and Returns Services Command (IRSC) Escorting Operations (Escorting Ops). In the Gatwick PDA, the role of engagement with detained individuals is covered by the local Compliance team.

Definition of a family

4. Home Office officers are likely to encounter many different kinds of families. The list which follows is not exhaustive but is intended to be indicative of the sorts of groupings that must be treated as families for detention accommodation purposes:

• Two parents, married or unmarried, and their dependent children, including dependent children who may be 18 or over.

• A single parent or other adult carer/guardian with dependent children, including dependent children who may be 18 or over.

• An extended family unit that may include, for example, one or two parents, grandparent(s), aunt(s), uncle(s) – or any combination of extended family members - with dependent children.

• A heterosexual couple, married or unmarried, without dependent children.

• A same-sex couple, married/in a civil partnership or not, with or without dependent children.

• An older sibling (18 or over) with dependent younger siblings under 18 or 18 or over but vulnerable by reason of mental or physical disability.

5. Where other groupings present themselves as a family unit it will be necessary to consider carefully the truthfulness of the relationships and whether all members of the family unit should be accommodated together as a family.

6. All claims to be in a relationship that would constitute a family under the terms of this DSO should be checked on Atlas and/or with the caseworker to establish:

• if the claimed relationship is genuine;

• whether there are any concerns about co-locating the parties.

Accommodation of families with dependent children under 18

7. For those families with at least one dependent child under 18 who have been in the country for some time but have no legal right to stay, the process for managing their return aims to encourage them to leave voluntarily and without the need for enforcement action.

8. Such families who refuse to leave voluntarily may need to be accommodated in pre-departure accommodation for a very short period to facilitate their return. Any such stay would form part of the return plan for the family, which would have been considered by the Independent Family Returns Panel (IFRP). This helps ensure that individual return plans take full account of the welfare of the children involved and that the Home Office fulfils its responsibilities under section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009.

9. For the purposes of family accommodation, only families with at least one child aged under 18 years of age may reside in the pre-departure accommodation.

Accommodation of families without dependent children under 18

10. A family without children, or a family where all dependent children are 18 years or over, may be detained in an immigration removal centre (IRC). Where operationally possible, all such families should be placed in the same IRC. Heterosexual couples will be accommodated separately on wings in line with their sex, but will have the opportunity to associate with each other during the day where appropriate.

11. Siblings who are all 18 years or over are not a family for the purposes of immigration detention accommodation. If the siblings, or parent and adult child, are all male or all female, efforts should be made to accommodate them in the same centre and in the same room or in the same sleeping area (for example, if the centre has accommodation on the same wing or is split into separate sleeping areas).

Separating, or continuing to separate, families in detention

12. Occasionally, it may be necessary to separate members of a family after they have been detained. For more information, refer to the family separation policy.

Revision history

Review date	Reviewed by	Review outcome	Next review
June 2016	Removals, Enforcement and Detention Policy	New draft	2018
June 2026	J. Hayson, Detention Services	Clarification of accommodation requirements for families without dependent children.	2028