The Single Access Point

 

The Single Access Point is a specialist service that caters for 16 & 17 yr olds with a potential housing problem. The Single Access Point is based at The Bridge, 38 Leicester Road, Loughborough and is delivered in partnership with Charnwood Borough Council.  From 6th May 2008 all 16/17 year olds who are experiencing difficulties in their current home should come directly to the Single Access Point at The Bridge. 

 

At the Single Access Point we will work with 16 & 17 yr olds with a wide range of issues including:

 

·         Arguments with mum/dad/step parents/carers/siblings

·         Disagreements over household chores

·         Not being in education, employment or training

·         Little or no money

·         Drugs and alcohol problems

·         Physical health

·         Mental health and learning difficulties

·         Behavioural problems

·         Criminal or anti-social behaviour

·         Anger management problems

·         Self harm

·         Pregnancy

·         Overcrowding

 

The Single Access Point Workers are here to listen and help you unravel and priorities the issues that are causing the problems. In order to do this we will conduct a holistic and in-depth needs assessment for all 16 & 17 year olds approaching the service. The outcome of the assessment will be a structured action plan with realistic and clear goals to help the young person resolve their housing problem before it results in homelessness.

 

The Single Access Point Project is a multi-agency approach and we therefore have established effective working relationships with many partner agencies. This multi- agency approach fits well with the national roll out of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) for 0-19 year olds. The Single Access Point worker will use the CAF as a central part of their needs assessment.  We will help link the young person into all relevant services such as family mediation, specialist housing advice, support with education, employment and training options, peer mentoring, (informal) life skills and appropriate support to move on to supported or independent accommodation where needed. The Single Access Point worker will then continue to co-ordinate the support including monitoring appointments with other agencies and maintaining regular contact to ensure a positive outcome for the young person.

 

At the Single Access Point we also listen to parents and will be able to carry out home visits. In order for us to be most effective we encourage parental involvement and can help towards improving relationships with sons or daughters in the hope that parents can continue to offer support during our process.

 

The aims of the Single Access Point are:

·         To increase the understanding of the reality of the young person’s personal and housing situation

·         To motivate and empower young people to make appropriate decisions based on available options

·         To enable family members to plan future accommodation

·         To improve young people’s life chances

·         To provide appropriate guidance and advice regarding young peoples’ responsibilities and rights

·         To reduce the use of unsuitable bed and breakfast accommodation for 16 &17 year olds

·         To prevent homelessness for 16 &17 year olds

 

 

Sharing Good Practice

 

The Bridge and Charnwood Borough will develop robust evaluation methods which will run from the set up phase to the conclusion of the pilot.  The findings will be shared with other six Local Authorities within the County. It is envisaged that they will benefit from the experience of The Bridge and Charnwood Borough Council working in partnership to deliver an enhanced service to 16 & 17 year olds.  The Bridge has experience of sharing good practice nationally, in 2007 they hosted a conference at Leicester University Effective Homelessness Prevention: Why Mediation? which was attended by 80 paying delegates, 40% of these from Local Authorities.  The Bridge are also sited in Good Practice Guides, used as benchmarks in other project evaluations and feature on the CLG’s National Youth Homelessness Strategy website.  

 

 

Background Information

 

The Government has set a target for all Local Authorities to eliminate the use of Bed and Breakfast accommodation for those who are homeless by 2010.   Specialist Homelessness Advisors from Communities and Local Government suggested a meeting with Charnwood Borough Council and The Bridge to prioritise reducing the use of unsuitable Bed and Breakfast accommodation for 16 & 17 year olds. Bed and Breakfast accommodation as well as being inappropriate is also very expensive. The main cause of homelessness amongst this age group is parents or others being unwilling to continue to accommodate - this is a main cause amongst a high number of LA Housing Departments.

 

Whilst this is an area of homelessness which requires significant improvement, in terms of reducing the numbers, the CLG have also highlighted areas of strong performance. By way of example the Borough has one of the lowest causes of homelessness in the area of Assured Short hold Tenancies ending in the private sector nationally. It has been recognised that one of the key resources in this success is the The Bridge's Tenancy Relations Officer's joint work with CBC homeless officers and private sector landlords. Other Housing Departments in the County have expressed an interest in this service.

 

Examples of good practice from other Local Authorities indicate the use of a Single Access Point model is a solution for reducing the use of temporary accommodation.  For example, Safe Moves was piloted in 4 areas across England for 18 months.  This preventative service provided a Safe Moves worker who co-ordinated other agencies and provided low level support. The worker utilised other services such as family mediation, peer mentoring, (informal) life skills and appropriate support to move on to supported or independent accommodation where needed. The outcome of these pilots demonstrated success in helping the young person remain in the parental home and an improvement in the quality of life for the young person.

 

The key success of Safe Moves was in helping young people at risk of homelessness remain safely in the parental home. However, most young people and key agencies reported that Safe Moves also had a positive impact on young people’s confidence, self-esteem, emotional wellbeing and motivation.

 

A number of young people explained how the service had made the difference between staying and leaving the parental home; here the Safe Moves projects were achieving their key aim of keeping home people in the family home. However, more importantly, the key change for some of the young people was a positive change in how they felt about being at home chiefly because they felt they could communicate to a greater extent with their parent(s) and this gave them a greater sense of control over their lives. In particular, family mediation/ counselling services appeared to be having a significant and positive impact on young people’s lives. Safe Moves also appeared to have helped reduce young people’s tendency to run away from home.

 

As well as improving life chances for the young people, the Single Access Point  has the potential to reduce expenditure on Bed and Breakfast Accommodation. Local Authority spend on B&B amongst this client group is significant. Safe Moves an average total cost per client (unit cost) was calculated at between £500 to £1,400 across the four projects, with an overall average of approximately £1,000 (excluding in-kind costs). This compares to the average cost of £400 a week for a hostel bed, £650 for processing a local authority homelessness application and £2,800 for a failed tenancy. An effective Safe Moves project, helping young people to remain in the parental home, can be considered good value for money.

 

The benefits of the Single Access Model were highlighted at a recent conference hosted by Barnett Council, a Local Authority cited as a Beacon for good practice in youth homelessness. The information disseminated confirmed that 16 & 17 yr olds have specific needs and need to be provided with specialist services catering for their age group. Therefore it is necessary to have a single point of access and excellent links with appropriate key agencies. It highlighted the importance of outsourcing the single point of access to the voluntary sector, as this helped with shifting the emphasis away from housing.

 

The Bridge May 2008