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

‘I can’t help with accommodation so it has not formed part of the young person’s
training plan’.
5.24 Case supervisors said it was important to have YOT representatives and, where applicable,
social workers at training planning meetings and several said they would wait until these
meetings to find out the latest situation. In many cases accommodation arrangements were not
confirmed until the final review, and sometimes not even by then, although case supervisors
reported finding this frustrating. For example, one case supervisor of a looked after child said:
‘The social worker was tasked with finding accommodation in the initial meeting. I
presume [the social worker] has done this as it’s close to his release. It will be
discussed at his final meeting on Thursday – it is the social worker’s responsibility.’
5.25 This therefore meant that young people were often very close to their release date before
finding out where they would be living. Other case supervisors were more engaged in the
process, contacting YOT case managers or social workers frequently to obtain information
about how plans were progressing. One looked after child said:
‘There has been a lot of discussion about finding me accommodation as I am a looked
after child and I know that my social worker has to find me something.’
5.26 Assistance from outside agencies was limited and dependent on the links establishments had
established. Fourteen young people reported that they had received assistance from outside
agencies, such as Barnado’s, Connexions and Voice, to assist with accommodation needs,
although their views varied about how helpful the agencies had been:
‘Connexions were good – explained about money and flats and stuff. Barnardo’s were
not as useful as they did not explain enough – they were talking about living in a
hostel.’
‘I spoke to them about accommodation. They wrote some stuff down… nothing
happened.’
5.27 Despite the age of our case sample, only two young men who would not be living with family
said they had attended a course to help them prepare for living independently.
Barriers to arranging suitable accommodation
5.28 Across establishments case supervisors described a range of barriers they experienced when
trying to arrange suitable accommodation. One of these concerned ensuring that
arrangements were in place for a young person’s early release. Several case supervisors felt
that YOTs and social workers did not understand this process and often left accommodation
arrangements until the last moment, not realising that this would have an impact on whether
the young person was granted early release. One looked after child told us:
‘One minute they are telling me I'm getting my own house, the next I'm going to my
Mum's, next back in to care. This is the only thing stopping me getting early release.’
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