Housing boost for young people leaving care in St Helens

Supported lodgings services provide vulnerable young people, aged from 16 to 24, who cannot return to live with their families, with places to live in the homes of local people.

The host family provides a safe and supportive environment, usually for around two years, working with professional services to support the young person in gaining skills for independent adult life.

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Host families are assessed, vetted and trained for the role and offered support once a young person is placed.

Currently, there are only four supported lodgings placements available in St Helens and the local authority has struggled to recruit suitable host families due to the financial support being offered.

On Wednesday, St Helens Borough Council’s cabinet approved the expansion of its existing provision to offer 15 placements to young people leaving care.

In addition, the provision will be tiered so that support is available for young people with different levels of need.

A report setting out the case for the expansion says it will, ultimately, reduce the risk of young people becoming homeless as they move into adulthood.

Cllr Nova Charlton, cabinet member for protecting young people, said: “Supported lodgings, firstly are extremely cost-effective but more importantly they enable positive outcomes for young people, making that transition to independent living.

“So if we look at those young people moving into further education, employment and training, the outcomes of those young people that need supported lodgings are much better than the counterparts.

“If you look at some of the outcome indicators, there’s a higher percentage of those living in supported lodgings that achieve positive outcomes.

“And I think that’s really important because we’re preparing our young people and we’re giving them better life chances.”

According to the cabinet report, there are currently 86 young people aged 16 to 17 preparing to leave care.

Out of those, 31 of these Cllr Nova Charlton, St Helens Borough Council's cabinet member for protecting young people have a plan for staying put with foster carers or with connected persons.

Most of the young people are local to St Helens with a small number of young people requesting to remain out of the area where they already live.

The report also highlights that the council will need to make additional investment for local provision.

Cllr Charlton insisted the council will get a return on the savings it will make, as it will reduce the number of young people being placed in alternate and more costly expensive settings.

The Labour councillor has previous spoken out about private care homes, who she has accused of making huge profits by charging “extortionate” prices.

According to the cabinet report, the current average cost for other supported accommodation for 16 and 17-year-olds is approximately £1,500 per week.

The average unit cost for a supported lodgings placement is £308 per week.

This is a potential saving of just under £1,200 per week, which for one young person over one year would equate to £62,000.

Placements in private leaving care provisions vary depending on the support hours delivered and can range from £275 per week up to £3,000.

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Thatto Heath councillor Richard McCauley, cabinet member for economic regeneration and housing, said the expansion will help budget pressures within children’s services “immensely”.

Jim Leivers, the council’s interim director of children’s services, said the expanded supported lodgings provision will be delivered by a local charity.

He said the charity will be responsible for the recruitment of supported lodgings and insisted that families will be “very carefully vetted and approved”.