Housing and Support for

teenage parents

Val KeenSpecialist Adviser

Youth Homelessness

CLG

Teenage Parents Next Steps:

Guidance for Local Authorities and Primary Care Trusts (2007 DCSF and Dept of Health)

• Vision of what should be in place locally and nationally • Focus on improving:

• health• emotional wellbeing• economic wellbeing

• Theme of better engagement of services with young fathers • A “New approach to housing” – being tested through Teenage

Parent Supported Housing Pilots

TPNS: What young parents said about housing

Mums• Finding accommodation is difficult and

stressful • Some temporary accommodation is poor and

doesn’t feel safe• Building based supported accommodation

generally good• Poorer experience of floating support, with

frequent changes of staff

Dads• Often couldn’t be housed with the mother and

child• Often homeless or living with own parents –

making it hard to maintain relationships with their children as nowhere to take them.

Consultation through YWCA and Girls’ Friendly Society

National action

• National Youth Homelessness Scheme

• Enhanced Housing Support Pilots announced as part of Budget 2008 “Ending child poverty: everybody's business”

• 7 pilot LAs selected from 54 Expressions of Interest

• Aim to Identify effective models which can be replicated in different LA contexts – inner cities, counties, rural

Plans from the Pilots• Passport to housing (Blackburn

with Darwen)• Rent deposits (B with D and

Nottingham) • Family floating support (Somerset)• Countywide delivery through

Children’s Centres (Worcestershire)

• Coaching and mentoring (Wandsworth and Brighton)

• Dedicated accredited courses (Wandsworth)

• Development programme for young fathers and young men (York)

(Evaluation complete May 2011)

Supporting People and Teenage Parents

• 3,956 teenage parents entered SP services %• Floating support 63• Supported accommodation 26• Teenage parent accommodation 9• Foyers 0.5• Supported Lodgings 0.05

• 3,179 outcome records for young parents moving on• 42% of the 1,040 identified education or training as a need

to be addressed through support• 80% of the 1,040 achieved their outcome of participation

www.spclientrecord.org.uk/webdata/ – provisional data 08/09

Food for thought - St Basils’ Edmonds Court Foyer

• 48 units for young people – • single Mums and (sometimes) Dads with their children• couples with children• Single and co-habiting young people without children

• Provide the right support and young parents will excel• Great accommodation and housing related support• Ready access to health services – support and peace of mind• On-site learning in manageable chunks• Crèche facilities and links to local education and training providers• Being able to see and believe what you’re working for

• Moving on from moving in• Next steps in life, not just housing• ‘Starter Homes’

Parents at Edmonds Court out-perform young people without children in engaging with learning and work. Their tremendous incentive and motivation for

learning inspired St Basils award winning learning and skills work, now integrated throughout the agency

www.communities.gov.uk/youthhomelessness