Housing Support linked to Short Term Accommodation

The Authority's current Short Term Accommodation Support Service is designed to meet a range of housing support needs presented by young people across the county and is due to end 31st March 2020.

The Authority currently commissions 69 units of supported accommodation. Between April 2016 and 31 March 2019 the Authority received a total of 1226 referrals of which 656 (54%) were accepted. Of those young people receiving housing related support, 51% were aged between 16-17 years; 41% were aged 18-21 years; 8% were aged 22-24 years. Twenty six young people in the services were care leavers and of those 12 were aged 16-17 years.

Under the Children Act 1989, the Authority has a statutory duty to provide suitable accommodation to a 16-17 year old who requests help; it also a duty to provide support in finding and keeping accommodation to formerly looked after children until they are 21 years old (or 25 if in education or training). The Authority has no statutory duty to offer housing related support to people who are not in these groups.

Having conducted a thorough review of Short Term Accommodation services, Cumbria County Council has concluded that in addition to its statutory responsibilities, it will continue to offer provision to young people to whom they do not owe a statutory duty as an early prevention measure to reduce the need for support or intervention in the future.

In response to the findings of the service review, the Authority has adopted the principles of the St Basil's Positive Pathway model to meet the needs of young people in Cumbria. As a result there are significant changes to the Service Specifications which now reflect an increased emphasis on:

These changes are taking place within a national context of reduced central government funding to local authorities.