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National Youth Homelessness Scheme
Wider needs
All young people need support to make a successful transition from childhood to adulthood. Young people who have experienced homelessness are more likely also to have experiences which have reduced their resilience and mental, emotional or physical resources to make the transition, while the fact of living in temporary or unsatisfactory accommodation itself is a disadvantage in comparison with their more settled peers. At the same time, young people who are homeless or have become detached from long term family support are expected to make the transition more quickly than others.
Services aimed at preventing homelessness or accommodating and re-settling homeless young people should also have a coherent support and developmental strand, geared to the wider needs of the individual.
By their very nature, these are complex and inter-related needs. Creative partnerships and networks of provision are essential to meeting them:
- providers of supported accommodation are frequently the initiators and crux of such partnerships;
- funding for programmes of intensive or specialist support is frequently a fortuitous, uncertain, and labour-intensive combination of public and charitable inputs, and thus difficult to sustain and replicate.
Nevertheless, it is essential to meet the wider needs of young people in making the transition to adulthood to prevent longer-term damage to them and cost to public budgets. The most effective local authority strategies and wider partnerships have recognised this.
