We clearly have a big challenge coming up. We are hearing from the Conservative Party conference that there might be a proposal to stop housing benefit for 18 to 21-year-olds. I urge the Conservatives to think that proposal through very carefully, as it could have some difficult unintended consequences for people who are in the situation that we have been describing and for young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
It is worth pointing out that young people who have had no contact with the social work department and who fall out with their families in one way or another are hard to help, because the department and the council have no background on them and do not know much about them and because the young people might not know much about the services that the council can provide.
The homelessness prevention and strategy group had a presentation from Shelter’s safe and sound project, which happens to be based in Dundee but which Shelter hopes to roll out more widely. That project seems good at plugging young people into the services that are available.
The work at housing options hubs is skilled. I know that the committee has heard from the Scottish Housing Regulator, which has pointed out that not all hubs are as effective as each other. It is still early days, everyone is still learning and best practice is still being shared.
I imagine that, if I was a young person who went to the council and I heard Janine Barrett say, “We’d like to get you back to your family,” I might panic and not want to go back to the family where I had been abused or whom I had just completely fallen out with. A young person might go away and say to all their friends, “All they want me to do is go back home—they’re no use.” That would be a complete misconception because, as Janine Barrett said, the intention is that we will provide a range of services and try to find a solution for the young person. How we communicate with the people who use our services—whether they are young, middle aged or old—is important.
The homelessness and housing situation is complicated—it involves understanding a new market. In any city or other part of the country, the housing market is complicated. Unless someone has been exposed to it before, they will not necessarily understand it easily.
When people go to the doctor, they forget half of what they are told and, when they go to any council service, the risk is that they will also forget half of what they are told and go away with a misconception. People might go away without realising that they are entitled to temporary accommodation and that, if they are entitled to it, there is usually a way of paying for it.
How we communicate with the people who come to our service is hugely important. I would write things down, so that people can look at the points later and remember what they have been told. Those are simple, basic things. We must spread the good practice. The national guidelines that are coming on housing options will help, and we support their introduction.
That was a bit of a ramble. To get back to young people, I think that it is important to get things right. If committee members are aware of examples of poor practice, it would be helpful to draw those to the attention of the relevant local authorities, which would want to respond.