Decision

To Deliver in-house supported accommodation
with both 24/7 provision and floating support.

Reasons for the decision

• To be able to control our own
placements and decision making and provide supported accommodation
on a wider scale ensuring our most complex young people are not
declined a service from contracted providers.
• Quicker referral and decision making processes and a more
responsive service
• The service can confidently work with safe uncertainty and
complex risk in a positive and pro-active way which will open the
service up to a wider range of young people and result in no young
person under 18 experiencing evictions. Instead, a process will be
put in place to support young people who are found to require care
rather than support to transition positively into a care placement
if Supported Accommodation isn’t meeting their needs.
• Deliver faster decisions and access to placements through
in-house provision reducing homelessness and short term emergency
placements.
• Safe Stay beds will allow young people 16/17 in crisis to
remain in their accommodation and receive support from staff during
the day unlike Provider 1 emergency provision that requests young
people leave the placement and offer no support between 9am –
5pm.
• To provide a more cost effective use of financial resources
and potential savings to the child placement budget of around
£140k
• Safe stay beds will provide an increase in the number of
available bed nights
• The in-house provision will provide a regulated placement
option that will divert some 16/17 year olds who are assessed as
requiring support rather than care from high cost and highly sought
after placement options such as a NWD children’s home
placements or bespoke packages of care. This means that those beds
can be kept available for the use of the children and young people
who require them the most. This will also lead to cost avoidance as
some external provision won’t be required as a result