Resettlement provision for children and young ... - Ministry of Justice

Information from ASSET for our case sample revealed that, prior to custody, the young men’s
living arrangements were as follows:
Table 3: Where the young men in our case sample were living prior to custody
Type of accommodation
Number of young people
Living with family 36 (59%)
Care home 6 (10%)
Living with foster carers 3 (5%)
Semi-independent living 2 (3%)
Living with friends 2 (3%)
Hostel accommodation 1 (2%)
Supported housing 1 (2%)
Bed and breakfast lodging 1 (2%)
Unclear 9 (15%)
5.3 It was not clear where nine of the young people (15%) had been living prior to custody; some
described ‘sofa hopping’ between family and friends’ houses.
5.4 In terms of accommodation on release, children and young people from our case sample fell
into two distinct categories:
those who would be living with family members
those without an address to return to who would have to report to the local authority
on release as homeless, unless accommodation was arranged for them.
5.5 These categories are discussed separately below. By interviewing young people and their
case supervisors we were able to cross reference what they told us, and some inconsistencies
were identified. Case supervisors reported that accommodation had not been arranged for 19
young people in the sample at the time of interview, ranging from two to four at each
establishment. However, three of these young people told us that accommodation was
arranged. In these cases either the young person reported that they were returning home but
the case supervisor reported that the family or YOT had decided they were not happy with this
arrangement, or the young person thought that they were going into local authority
accommodation but the case supervisor said this had not been confirmed and there was still a
possibility that they might have to report as homeless on release.
Young people living with family
5.6 Of the 61 young people interviewed, 37 (61%) reported that they would be living with a family
member such as parents, siblings, or grandparents on release. This included one looked after
child (who had been living with family prior to custody) and three young men who had not been
living with family prior to custody. For the latter, family members had either been encouraged
to accommodate the young person due to the difficulties of providing alternative
accommodation or family members had volunteered to accommodate them in the hope of
preventing further offending. For example, one young person said:
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