Supported Lodgings
Most young people are not ready to move on to independent living at the age of 16.
This is why we need Supported Lodgings providers to offer a home and support for our young people aged 16 to 21 years old. With the view of helping them make that big step toward independent living.
There are lots of young people aged 16 and up who, for a variety of reasons, cannot live with their immediate families and yet are not ready to live independent lives.
As a supported lodgings provider, you and your home will become a stable environment for them. They can develop their life skills and their confidence to cope with everyday life.
There are many different reasons for young people needing Supported Lodgings. Some may have been living with their own families but find it impossible to continue because of challenging circumstances.
Others may be former foster children or have been living in a children’s home or other institution. Others have learning disabilities or mental health problems.
In Supported Lodgings young people can learn how to take responsibility for their own lives, whilst living in a safe and caring environment.
For all sorts of reasons, some young people have missed out on learning vital life skills and need guidance to go on to thrive as adults. We know from experience that, for vulnerable young people, the Supported Lodgings scheme is the ideal bridge between being cared for and taking care of themselves.
The supported lodgings arrangement can be for a period until you, the young person, and Hull Fostering agree it is time to try independent living.
Hull City Council have a legal duty to support young people making the transition from care to adulthood.
The Children and Social Work Act 2017 have 7corporate parenting principles -
- to act in the best interest of young people and promote their physical and mental health and wellbeing
- to encourage young people to express their views, wishes and feelings
- to take into account young people’s views, wishes and feelings
- to help young people to gain access to, and make the best use of, services provided by the local authority and the organisation it works with
- to have high aspirations for young people and help them to achieve the best outcomes they can
- for young people to be safe, and to have stability in their home lives, relationships, education, work and financially
- to prepare young people for adulthood and independent living
As a Supported Lodgings provider, you may need to show and build a young person's confidence in -
- cooking skills
- using public transport
- managing their own health
- finances
- timekeeping
Most of these skills are the kind of things that we as adults take for granted and were acquired ‘naturally’ through growing up as part of a stable family. With your help, our young people can learn how to take responsibility for their own lives and will discover practical skills from living with kind and caring people.
Hull Fostering take a great deal of care in matching a young person to our Supported Lodgings providers and will involve you in the matching process. You will have the final say in who shares your home.
There is a severe shortage of supported lodgings providers in our area, and yet we know from experience that for vulnerable young people the scheme is vital to prepare them for adulthood and independent living.
Funding
Hull Fostering are not-for-profit. This means all the funding we receive directly supports the young people in our care, our foster carers and supported lodgings providers.
As a supported lodgings provider you will have responsibilities and the money given to you by Hull Fostering will cover your continued commitment and cost of adding an extra young person into your home.
Rates for allowances and expenses are set annually by Hull City Council and are above the recommendations from the fostering charity, Fostering Network, which estimate the real costs of looking after someone else’s child.
Like foster carers, supported lodgings providers receive an allowance for each young person they provide for. The amount depends on a number of factors like how many young people you care for, and for how long.
As a supported lodgings provider, you will receive a generous weekly allowance to support the young person in your care and is intended to cover the cost of looking after the young person in your home.
The weekly allowance per young person, aged 16 and over is £287 plus £25 young person contribution. This comes to a total of £312.
