Youth offending teams, young people and accommodation - Nacro

Youth Offending Teams, Young People and Accommodation
Housing departments
� 46% of Yots rated their relationship with the Local Authority Housing Departments
or Homelessness teams as good, 38% as adequate and 15% as poor. Departments
varied from those that were considered receptive, but restricted in what they
could offer to those that were felt to lack an understanding of the needs of young
people and unwilling to find accommodation for them.
� There needs to be more cohesive working arrangements between Housing
Departments and Yots, this could be achieved by developing agreements with
Housing Departments that priority will be given to young people in need. Other
options include Housing Departments identifying a worker to be responsible for
young people, rather than homelessness generally or a housing worker could be
seconded to the Yot, if the demand for services could be justified. Finally Yots and
Housing Departments could explore the options for working more closely together
to develop common assessments of young peoples needs and to identify how coordinated
support can be provided to help young people to successfully maintain
tenancies.
� Yots and Housing Departments should have protocols and agreements in respect
of anti social behaviours and their impact on young people. Anti social behaviour
orders need to be supported, particularly where they will impact on
accommodation, to ensure that young people do not become the unintended
victims because of by problems and difficulties caused by other family members
or because the range of housing options available to them diminishes through the
application of exclusion zones.
Homelessness strategies
� In terms of Yot involvement in the development of homelessness strategies fifteen
(83%) had been part of planning groups and three (17%) have not. Of the those that
have attended planning meetings eight (62%) had contributed information about
the needs of young people who offend. When asked whether providing an input
had made any impact on meeting the needs of young people, Yots generally felt
that it had not to any significant extent, the main reasons being that here is a
paucity of suitable Local Authority housing stock; there being no section within
the strategy that addresses the issue from the viewpoint of a young person who
offends and no resources being available to implement what is required.
� Ensuring that there is a section in the homelessness strategy that relates to
vulnerable young people and specifically those that offend in future planning
cycles is clearly important, as this could help to make sure that Yots are seen as
constituent members of the planning process, would raise the profile of young
people who offend and ensure that Yots have the opportunity to feed information
into the planning processes.
Other
� Young People’s Partnerships and the links to Extending Entitlement present an
opportunity to give priority to housing and accommodation issues at a local level
and as a potential means of developing services
Funding and resources
� In total seven Yots (39%) indicated that funding had been made available in their
area to develop local services. The schemes financed by Supporting People are still
operational, but none of the services provided through Youth Justice Board funds
have been sustained. This suggests that there needs to be defined funding
streams that would allow the development of sustainable provision and specific
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