Public reports pack PDF 3 MB - Blaby District Council

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Prevention and Demand at Blaby District Council
Each young person who approaches Blaby for help with housing presents a unique set of challenges which are resource intensive
to meet. Failure to meet these challenges has the potential for a wide reaching impact for the young person and for the Council.
Blaby’s Housing Option Team of five staff are proactive and the following practices and principles guide their work. In short they:
• never turn anyone away.
• now work from the Blaby Service Shop as well as the Council offices
• work closely with landlords on Private Sector promotion
• use Stonham to support homelessness placement. (Stonham has recently come to the end of its funding and can no longer
take on new host households in the County. Existing hosts will still be used, if suitable for the young person’s needs, but
availability is patchy).
• provide all 16 and 17 year olds, at risk of homelessness, with a comprehensive service which is focused on enabling the
young person to remain at, or return home, where appropriate. Where this is not appropriate services arranges suitable
accommodation and/or access to statutory services.
• Foster or Care Home option is unlikely to be used for 16-17 year olds, typically, supported lodging providers are used. The
majority of homeless resource is in the City and Blaby’s Health & Community Services Group Manager, on behalf of the
Districts is liaising with the City to see if any provision can be secured for county residents.
The issues that hamper their effectiveness in the support they provide to young people include:
• Lack of suitable temporary accommodation – there is no specific supported accommodation in the County, low availability at
generic supported accommodation projects. (Bed & Breakfast accommodation is avoided wherever possible. The difficulty
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