North-West Care Leavers Service

The North-West Care Leavers Service consists of colleagues working across the North- West of England. Their aim is to help young people develop the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to secure and maintain independent accommodation.

We offer 2 types of care leaver services:

• Floating support with Accommodation
• Floating support

Floating Support with Accommodation

This service provides semi-independent accommodation in the community with visiting support. It is suitable for young people who have the skills needed to live independently with support and do not necessarily need colleagues on site 24 hours a day.

Stepping Stone Projects provides fully furnished dispersed accommodation with an enhanced landlord service that includes responsibility for arranging all repairs. Properties are sourced in consultation with the young person and their Social Worker in the areas of their choice. Our colleagues provide support to enable the customers to maintain their tenancies and also focus on teaching them the skills needed to manage their own tenancy when the support we provide ceases.

Floating Support

Floating support is provided to support young people who already have accommodation or are in the process of moving into a property. The service supports young people to further develop their independent living skills and to sustain their tenancies.

What the services deliver

At Stepping Stone Projects, we realise that each young person is unique and therefore the support they receive needs to be tailored to meet their individual needs.

By including young people with each step of their support, we find out their views and learn how we can assist them best in achieving their goals. We focus on supporting young people to acquire the skills necessary for living independently, experiment safely with their increasing freedom and develop responsibilities associated with adulthood.

The service will enable young people, via the support delivered, to move on from a permanent, full-time care setting and increase the likelihood of them maintaining future independent accommodation.

In addition to housing-related support, we also work with our customers in the following areas:

Health and Well Being

• Enabling the young person’s individual development in relation to emotional resilience.
• Assisting in promoting the young person’s self-esteem and sense of worth.
• Encouraging the young person to increase their social skills, problem solving skills, behaviour management, communications skills and self-care skills.

Staying Safe

• Providing support and guidance to the individual young person in relation to their potential vulnerability with special regard to issues around living in a safe community.

Relationships

• Providing support and guidance to the individual young person in relation to the development and maintenance of friends, family and work/education relationships.
• Developing positive peer group relations and appropriate relationships with authority figures.

Identity

• Providing support and guidance to the individual young person in relation to their sense of identity to promote emotional well-being.
• Promoting the maintenance of contact with the young person’s family and others in line with the Pathway Plan/Local Authority agreement.

Enjoy and Achieve

• Ensuring a positive proactive approach is taken to the young person’s educational placement, training or employment.

Participation

• Listening to the other person’s opinion so that any decisions take account of their wishes and feelings.

Independence

• Providing direct support to the young person in relation to financial budget management tailored to each individual e.g. assisted shopping trips/information about financial management and budgeting for household bills/grant applications.
• Ensuring the young person has access to guidance and support with job applications.
• Supporting the young person to reduce offending behaviour where appropriate.
• Supporting the young person to increase their awareness and use of local leisure facilities.
• Encouraging the young person to utilise their spare time in a constructive manner.
• Supporting the young person to develop a sense of responsibility and consequence for socially acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.

Multi-agency work

Stepping Stone Projects has built up strong relationships with other agencies and will often work alongside them to provide the best support possible.

Agencies we work closely with, include:

• Education and training providers
• Social housing providers
• Counselling services
• Drug and Alcohol services
• Youth Offending Teams
• Private Landlords

How to access the service

Referrals to the service are made by contacting our Central Referral Team on 01706 359600 or via e-mail at crt@stepping-stone.org.uk – an electronic e-mail referral form will be sent for you to complete.

Once a referral form is received, we will arrange a Needs Assessment interview with the applicant; if they meet the criteria they will be placed on the waiting list for the service.

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