Council to restructure supported living for young people as service struggles with demand

The Town Hall is seeking to consolidate and extend its supported housing for young people after cuts in 2017 left its services struggling with increasing demand.

The council hopes to see the introduction of evidence-based ‘psychologically informed environments’ under the plans, with up to £2m earmarked for an annual contract with social landlords to provide between 96 and 140 places for the borough’s young people.

The council’s services in this area were stripped back from 147 places to 64 in 2017, leaving the Town Hall increasingly reliant on the private sector to provide accommodation for care leavers and looked-after children, usually outside the borough.

Cllr Anntoinette Bramble (Lab, London Fields), cabinet member for education, young people and children’s social care, said: “Providing 16- to 21-year-old care leavers with suitable accommodation that is tailored to their needs is essential in supporting them with their transition to adulthood.

“Whilst some care leavers return home or ‘stay put’ with their foster carer, many move to [semi-independent] accommodation that comes with varying levels of key-worker support.

“This proposal will ensure that for those care leavers who need it, there is access to a range of semi-independent accommodation options that are of a high standard and deliver the best value for money.”

Demand for places has spiked over the past four years, with 149 16- to 17-year-olds looked after by the council at March 2019, a 57 per cent increase on 2015.

This is paired with the number of children of that age coming into care seeing a year on year increase, with the 16-17 age group representing 42 per cent of children needing care from the Town Hall in 2018/19, up from 33 per cent in 2017/18, with most preferring to live semi-independently than be fostered.

A working group within the Town Hall’s children and families department is understood to have been set up to consider the current state of its services, with the review revealing “considerable inconsistencies with quality and cost”.

The new contract arrangements will aim to implement a “robust quality assurance framework”, acknowledging that all providers under current law are not regulated under the Care Standards Act or inspected by Ofsted.

According to a council report on the issue, two contractors provide the current 64 places, with the additional placements bought in to meet immediate need, or ‘spot purchased’, through the private sector.

Spot purchases of placements for looked-after children are made by the Town Hall if it is not safe for a young person to be housed within the borough, if a young person has complex or special needs, or if there is not available space in the block contract.

The changes to how places are sourced will now be made to end the “overdependence” on spot purchasing, which the Town Hall accepts makes it hard to ensure places “at the right time, the right price and the right quality”.

Further complicating the picture, the existing contractors do not allow emergency admissions, meaning homeless young people or young people entering the system that way are privately accommodated, mostly outside of Hackney and, according to a council report, “at a significantly higher cost”.

The report concludes: “This contracting arrangement will enable the council to develop a longer-term relationship with providers who will be expected to work with the council and other providers in the pathway to continuously improve services and outcomes for children and young people.”