Public reports pack Wednesday 22-Jul-2015 19.00 Council

Page 85development. Importantly, Lambeth care leavers have been instrumental to shaping theprotocol – not only have the Visions of Success consultative group fed into thedevelopment of the draft protocol for practitioners, but their feedback has also lead to theproduction of a young person’s guide to the protocol.2.111 The development of the Leaving Care and Housing protocol has undoubtedly improvedhousing outcomes for care leavers from the time it was created to date. This hasincluded the creation of pre tenancy training for care leavers, the development of ayoung person’s resource pack, the creation of rent arrears panels as well as improvedpartnership working between agencies. The Protocol is not just a working document butalso acts as a framework for teams to work together to support care leavers in theirtransition to adulthood.2.112 The protocol is monitored by Housing Commissioning to ensure it is being adhered to byall agencies involved. Review meetings are held regularly with Lambeth Living, LeavingCare, Allocations and Commissioning, which provides an opportunity for officers todiscuss difficulties which may have arisen during the period and to share good practiceacross the organisations.2.113 Care Leavers continued to be placed as Lambeth’s highest priority (Band A) and tend toget housed very quickly if they bid for properties. As of April 2015 there are 104 careleavers eligible to bid, however 50 care leavers failed to make a single bid during the lasttwelve months. Allocations continues to provide Leaving Care with updates as to thecare leavers that are not bidding and the Leaving Care Social Workers further exploresthe reasons with their young people. Social Workers continue to support care leaversthroughout the bidding process and in their transition to independence.2.114 The next stage of the protocol is to carry out the following:To ensure consistency across Leaving Care it has been proposed that a number oftraining sessions be held for social workers. The training will cover the protocol ingreater detail so that social workers become familiar with their roles andresponsibilities as well as the role of other agencies. The training will also covergeneral housing management issues and will be facilitated by Lambeth Living andHousing Commissioning.To establish Rent Panels to provide a good forum for both Lambeth Living andLeaving Care to discuss clients that are at crisis point and reduce the number ofthose at risk of being evicted.2.115 Lambeth Living is looking at how best the sign up process could be improved so thatvulnerable people (including care leavers) are supported – this may mean thatprospective tenants will not be allowed to sign for their tenancy without the relevantfinancial information.2.116 A senior officer is nominated to act as a champion with overall responsibility for theeffective running of the protocol by Leaving Care. Quarterly review meetings to be19