Scottish Executive: National Seminar on the Prevention of Homelessness

1
(No Transcript)
2
Preventing Youth Homelessness

• Scottish Executive National Seminar on the
  Prevention of Homelessness
• Matt Elton, Head of Youth UnitScottish Council
  for Single Homeless2nd March 2007

3
Youth Homelessness

• Under 24s make up abouta third of homelessness
  applications

4
16-17 Year Olds and Homelessness

• 4417 young people between 16 and 17 presented to
  their local authority as homeless across Scotland
• there are around 60,000 young people in each
  school year in Scotland.
• on average, the equivalent of 3.7 (1 in 27) of
  each year group, presented as homeless between
  the ages of 16 and 17.

5
Prevention

• Prevention work prior to crisis
• e.g. leaving home housing education, family
  mediation, preparation
• Prevention around point of crisis
• e.g. holistic / solution focused response
• Prevention around repeat of crisis
• e.g. tenancy sustainment work

6
Youth Prevention 1, 2, 3

• At home or in care
• Around first time independent living
• Around repeat housing crisis
• Im leaving out point of crisis today
• but, of course, support the development of
  holistic and solution focused services and of
  dedicated youth services where possible

7
When, Where and Who

8
What

9
RationalesAt home or in care

• Leaving Home and Housing Education
• Lack of knowledge and skills in 14-18 years about
  the realities of independent living, services,
  sources of support, etc.
• Very clear feedback from early home leavers on
  how difficult leaving home is very strong
  message if you can stay at home safely, then
  stay
• Very clear feedback on format and content of
  advice and information for young people

10
ApproachesAt home or in care

• Im Offski! and home smart schools material
• Streets Ahead
• the guide to leaving home and housing for young
  people in Scotland
• www.leavinghome.info
• Streets Ahead on-line
• Database of national andlocal resources
• Regional overviews andcontacts

11
ApproachesAt home or in care

• Universal
• cant always (reliably) tell who is at risk of
  homelessness
• providing peers with knowledge that may be
  transmitted on
• reducing stigma / prejudice by informing people
  about homelessness
• Targeted
• potentially more efficient

12
Rationales and ApproachesAt home and in care

• Knowledge / options gap on stay or go issues
  for young people amongst parents / foster carers
  etc.
• Helping ShareMediation andFamily
  InterventionPractice
• Mediation andHomelessness EventFri June 15th
  2007

Carers Guide (2005)
Parents Guide (in preparation)
13
RationalesAround first time Independent Living

• Independent Living Preparation
• Very clear feedback from early home leavers and
  workers on the challenges of independent living
• Themes based on common problems
• Advice Support
• Quality of Offers / Range of Options
• Meaningful Activity
• Support Networks

14
ApproachesAround first time Independent Living

• My Space My Place
• ask the young people what creates what the issues
  are and what might help
• create a resource in a language and format that
  is accessible and approachable
• complement it with supporting material for
  workers
• help young people, workers and others get on the
  same page

15
ApproachesAround first time Independent Living

• Common sense systematisedetc.
• Responding to gaps / inadequacies
• i.e. fixing / filling in where things are clearly
  not working
• QUESTION Youre telling us a lot about what NOT
  to do what about what TO DO, what works
  good question. Whats the evidence base?

16
Does it work?

17
Does it work?At home or in care

• Leaving Home and Housing Education
• Not easy to evaluate, but there are practical and
  achievable steps short of major longitudinal
  study
• Family Support / Interventions
• Potentially easier to evaluate.
• Mediation initiatives look promising and
  measuring can be built in from the ground up.

18
Does it work?At home or in care

• Early Prevention Interventions
• General problem in all areas, not just
  homelessness, about how to evaluate the impact
• Warning!
• if its easier to measure, and measures up well,
  it is easier to justify spending money / time on
  it
• and ease-of-measurement of impact need not
  correlate with impact

19
Does it work?Prior to independent living and
Around Repeat Crisis

• We dont know (OK, a crude generalistion but)
• Work tends to be driven by
• Systematised common sense / fashionable ideas
• Filling in gaps which are obvious pitfalls for
  young people
• Monitoring and Evaluation tends to be
• Patchy at best - often regarded as a distraction
  to the main work of assisting young people
• Focus usually on OUTPUT rather than DIFFERENCE
  MADE (i.e. OUTCOMES)
• Rare to find adjustments for environment, e.g.
  quality of local housing, local training and
  employment opportunities supports to access

20
Does it work?Around first time Independent Living

• Tracking Outcomes
• Need to build up an evidence base that allows
  meaningful comparison across projects
• shift away from multiple one-off evaluations
• be happy with someone elses method / systems
  because of the greater prize
• Need to attempt to record client profile at
  in-take in order to measure change (cf. school
  league table debate)
• note in some cases, staying the same is a
  success

21
Does it work?Around first time Independent Living

• Tracking Outcomes
• Need to correct for environmental factors
• e.g. quality of local housing better housing
  will (may?) tend to yield better OUTPUTs
• e.g. range of training and employment
  opportunities, social / network opportunities
  better opps will (may?) tend to yield better
  OUTPUTs

e.g. Charities Evaluation Service managing
outcomes a guide for homelessness organisations
e.g. Joan Smith Oonagh Borwn What Happened
Next? ex residents of Foyer Research
22
Does it work?Around repeat housing crisis

• ?

23
Blue Skies Hidden Un-Home-Less

• What about young people exposed to all the risk
  factors who, despite the challenge, successfully
  make the transition to independent living?
• (a) Is this because they have benefited from
  particular prevention measures, such that if we
  do more of those, well have more successes?
• (b) Is this because they are more resilient
  where resilience is largely independent of
  factors that prevention work can influence?
• If (a), wouldnt it be good to know