Councils focus on tackling multiple problems

A £64m fund for dealing with multiple disadvantages is being shared by 15 local authorities, some of which – Bristol and Westminster councils – have chosen to spend a portion of the money on helping vulnerable young people.

The three-year Changing Futures programme is a joint initiative by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the National Lottery Community Fund.

It aims to break the cycle of multiple disadvantage by strengthening local partnerships that work to tackle often linked issues such as homelessness, domestic abuse, unemployment, substance abuse, poor mental health and experience of the criminal justice system.

Rough sleeping and housing minister Eddie Hughes MP, says: “Working in partnership in local areas and across government, Changing Futures will test innovative approaches and seek to drive lasting change across the whole system to provide better outcomes for adults experiencing multiple disadvantage.”

The work seeks to:

• Stabilise and then improve the life situation of adults

• Transform local services to provide a more person-centred approach and to reduce crisis demand

• Test a different approach to funding, accountability and engagement between local commissioners and services, and between central government and local areas.

The fund is mainly focused on tackling issues for adults, but here we profile the work that is planned by two councils targeting support at young people and young adults.

Westminster City Council

The inner London authority is to spend half its £3.3m grant on an “innovative” intensive support programme for young adults.

It will target 18- to 25-year-olds affected by multiple disadvantage, after the council identified gaps in service delivery for this age group.

It builds on an existing trauma-informed approach that has been successful within Westminster’s children’s services.

The team aims to work with up to 50 young adults in each of the programme’s three years, providing one-to-one sessions over a 12-month period or more, depending on need.

The sessions, which will take place several times a week, will include compassion-focused therapy to help young people explore causal factors in their backgrounds, with most likely to have suffered adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

Heather Clarke, Westminster’s head of housing needs, who was involved in putting together the bid, says: “We have a comprehensive programme of work with young people of school age but we also recognise that some gaps exist in the 18 to 25 age group; once they’ve moved out of that system, they can get lost.

“We’re also very mindful that although there’s a lot of services, how joined up and collaboratively we work, in terms of the delivery and our outcomes for those young people, can improve.”

Gavin Barker, service manager for intensive support and edge of care, adds that the targeted approach could be particularly effective at catching those with significant challenges, but who do not meet the current high bar for accessing support.

“In Westminster, and throughout the country, there are services for 18-plus [people], but the threshold for those services, in particular mental health support, is actually quite high,” he adds.

Barker explains that when some young people turn 18, particularly those with a history of trauma and multiple vulnerabilities, they feel overwhelmed by the “frustrations of life”.

He explains: “Young people who have had these difficulties in life often present with very low levels of frustration tolerance and they get angry very quickly.

“When going to a job centre or having a discussion with someone in housing and they’re asked to wait, that can trigger an emotional response which might result in further barriers to getting services.

“This approach encourages them to explore the causal factors of their difficulties, develop self-compassion and understand how their bodies respond to stress and to develop self-regulation.

“We can support them to develop the skills to manage that and move forward.”

Social deprivation

As an area of significant social deprivation – it is the 21st most deprived authority in England – the team anticipates that there are high numbers of young people who would be eligible for the service – there are an estimated 180 young adults experiencing multiple disadvantages.

Both internal and external referral pathways will be used once the service starts later this year, with recruitment ongoing of two project leads, five case workers and two clinical psychologists.

Clarke believes that the investment will “pay for itself” in terms of preventing future needs.

She adds: “It may well reduce demand but for me it’s about what happens when the demand hits the front line. We hope the improvements are qualitative.

“Changing Futures is very much about system change as well. It’s about how local authorities, the third sector, various organisations work together to deliver outcomes.”

Bristol City Council

Bristol City Council will spend a portion of its £3.3m grant on helping 16- 25-year-olds from minority ethnic communities.

This demographic is among three priority areas chosen by council officers who found that Bristol had made “least progress against entrenched systemic inequalities and system barriers” and which also have “greatest system readiness and opportunities for whole-system learning”.

According to its delivery plan, Bristol has “significant, growing numbers of adults experiencing multiple disadvantage” – an estimated 5,750 adults – a rate 69 per cent higher than the national average.

The city’s population of minority ethnic young people aged 16 to 24 is projected to increase significantly in coming years.

Significant disproportionality has also been seen in youth homelessness services, with 41 per cent from minority ethnic backgrounds.

The plan states that the young people being targeted have suffered adverse childhood experiences, which undermine their coping mechanisms, compounded by the effects of racial inequality.

Change for Good

The funding will build on the city’s existing Change For Good programme, which was set up last year by Golden Key Bristol – an organisation tackling multiple disadvantage in the city, Bristol City Council and the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group.

It draws on Golden Key’s youth diversion model, and Street to Boardroom initiative, developing culturally appropriate interventions and preventing life-long disadvantage.

Starting in November 2021, a series of “deep listening” exercises with young people will look to identify the key issues and services and interventions to be prioritised, states the council.

The impact of the project will be assessed by measuring young people’s progress against a series of personal statements that reflect their individual support needs.

“At a service and system level we will be measuring the impact on the workforce and reflecting on system change and learning that results from doing things differently,” states the council.