Agenda item

This report provides information on the arrangements in place in Haringey to meet the housing needs of care leavers and young people who are facing homelessness.

The Head of the Young Adults Service provided a brief overview of the arrangements in Haringey to meet the housing needs of care leavers and young people facing homelessness. 

Key information noted:

• There is a social housing quota of 60 properties a year allocated to care leavers  [There are 15 properties provided  in each quarter of the year and young people need to attend a tenancy workshop, as part of the arrangement, for receiving the accommodation]

• Care leavers studying, outside London ,at university are still entitled to come back to the borough and be placed in Band A for housing.

• A property in Conway Road N17 had been identified for the council to covert into a shared living space for care leavers. They would be supported by a permanent support worker living in the property.

• Some supported lodgings for young people being taken forward by the YMCA.
• The work with care leavers who have no recourse to public funds
• Current procurement of semi independent accommodation
• The legal legislation which the council in following in terms of housing young people.

Members reported back the following issues raised  by Aspire in the previous  meeting:

• Lack of two bedroom accommodation included in the quota,
• The poor quality of semi independent accommodation , 
• Lack of inspection of shared housing and semi independent accommodation before  provision to a young person
• The need to timetable placement checks to ensure the landlord is  keeping the property clean and in a suitable condition for young people living there.
• Consistent, continued support from a personal adviser to the young person living in shared  or semi independent accommodation.

Officers asked Committee Members to keep in mind that there were young people that chose to live in semi independent accommodation as they did not want to remain in foster care . So, there was a need to provide these young people with  accommodation, as placing the young person in a residential care home was also not acceptable.

Members raised concerns about the quality of the accommodation being procured and there was a need to ensure checks were carried out before the properties were agreed. Aspire had offered  to complete visits to the properties to provide an idea, to the council, of the quality  of accommodation and this  offer should be taken up.

Members noted that properties provided to 16-18 years olds were not regulated, centrally, by government and therefore the responsibility lay with the local authority and ultimately social workers and contract officers to determine their standards. Some councillors shared their own personal experiences of dealing with young people who have been living in shared and semi independent accommodation and felt there was a duty of care to the young people to ensure that the accommodation they were being given met certain standards. The interim Director for Children’s services mentioned the Adults safeguarding protocol which could be examined to understand if any elements can be applied to safeguarding young people in care.

The Chair felt that the quality of accommodation for care leavers was a national issue as well as a local one. Councils were funding accommodation for young people and seemed to have little choice in the quality of the provision due to the demand for places. However, landlords needed some standards to follow to ensure that the living conditions were appropriate, especially for younger care leavers going into accommodation from the ages of 16-17.  There was a significant gap in the regulation of these properties and this was an issue which should raised by local MP’s and taken up with government ministers in the DFE.

The Committee agreed with the Interim Director’s suggestion to consider the Adults safeguarding protocol, at the next meeting. This would help  the Committee provide an input into which elements of the protocol that can be applied to further take forward the council’s responsibility for the standard of accommodation for young people in care and care leavers.

The Committee established that there are 55 [16-17] year olds[10% of the total number of LAC in the borough] not living with a family ,in separate accommodation, and they felt it would be important to look at this group separately . Agreed that a report is compiled which is focused on this group of young people and sets out the council’s support to them and how this compares to other local authorities,  working with a similar cohort.