National Youth Homelessness Scheme

Cross-boundary working

Local authorities in areas of widely dispersed communities face particular difficulties in meeting requirements for

  • Services which require intensive support or specialist expertise
  • Consistency of approach towards a mobile population of young people
  • Intensive staff time or expertise to deliver new initiatives
  • Alignment of effort and resources between authorities and agencies who are  geographically far apart from each other and differently dispersed.

Issues associated with two-tier operation in local government are also prevalent in such areas, especially those where District authorities have limited resources for housing strategic work. In one case study are - Devon - the County Council social Services took the lead in developing a county-wide youth homelessness strategy. In another - Durham - a third sector agency commissioned by the District authorities in partnership has done so. 

In both cases this has facilitated multi-agency working, and making best use of pooled budgets to achieve consistent outcomes for young people across the County.

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