"A chat may be all that's needed to prevent a disagreement escalating into a matter for social services"

“A chat may be all that’s needed to prevent a disagreement escalating into a matter for social services”

‘Breathing Space’ is a pilot project that has been set up by Lancashire County Council and funded by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to prevent and reduce youth homelessness in East Lancashire. The project aims to make it easier for young people to get the help they need before they find themselves with nowhere to live.

Sarah Shorrock, Project Coordinator at Breathing Space, tells us about how the project is having an impact on youth homelessness in the area.

You’ve worked with more than 500 young people to prevent them becoming homeless. How have you done this?

At Lancashire County Council, we knew that youngpeople were finding themselves on the street or sofasurfing because they were reluctant to ask for help fromstatutory services or they didn’t know where to turn.

We applied for government funding to enable us to takea different approach to preventing youth homelessnessand set up Breathing Space as a result. It offers a singlepoint of advice for people aged 14 to 25 who are at riskof homelessness, and their families or carers.

Breathing Space has been designed to feel as littleas possible like a statutory service. The name, style,tone and contact methods all aim to break down the

psychological and practical barriers that can preventpeople accessing help when they need it the most.

Our website provides information about the range ofservices available to young people in East Lancashire,depending on their circumstances and where theylive. Prospective service users can contact us by SMS,instant messaging or phoning us for further advice, tobe referred to contact service providers directly.

As you are engaging with young audiences through digital methods of communication, how does this work and what has been the impact?

Traditionally, accessing homelessness support wouldinvolve a potentially daunting meeting at the counciloffices with a service provider or social worker. But,

walking into council offices to register yourself as homeless is intimidating, especially for young people who are used to doing everything online. We know parents and carers can also hesitate to reach out when they need help.

Because of this, we offer online chat and SMS as a method of contact so service users can get in touch easily and confidentially, even when other statutory services have closed.

The informality of an instant message or text breaks down barriers: young people don’t seem to feel as much pressure as they may do approaching a service face-to-face or during a traditional assessment.

The beauty of instant messaging and texting is the privacy that they allow. Our advisors are available until 8pm, and beyond if possible. Having someone to share

a problem with immediately can help to calm a situationand prevent a knee-jerk decision. We can build up trustby offering advice and options with no obligations.

The challenge is the time it takes to gather information– but we have learned to be creative so that we canmake a comprehensive assessment through ourconversations with service users.

By providing support out of normal working hours – how effective is it in de-escalating situations amongst young people and their families to prevent them from becoming a social services situation?

By being available during the day and evening, serviceusers can often speak to our advisers when they arestruggling with an issue. A chat may be all that’s neededto prevent a disagreement escalating into a matter forsocial services.

Where it’s appropriate to do so, we work with youngpeople and their families to offer mediation to preventrelationship breakdown – the leading cause of youthhomelessness. The work we do at this early stage canprevent referrals for lower-level statutory services suchas the involvement of family support workers.

Where young people and their families are alreadyaccessing statutory support, we have been ableto reduce workloads of social workers by directintervention through our partners and their services.

You’ve proven that the project works in relation to youth homelessness. What could colleagues working in similar areas (such as mental health or substance misuse) learn from your experience? Could a similar method of communication work in other areas?

The core principle of what we’re doing is easilytransferable; it’s about ensuring that we’re fullyaccessible to young people wherever they may be. Thismeans other teams can easily replicate this across otherservices – it’s all about delivering a service which iseasy to find, easy to use and accessible by mobile.

Young people can be reluctant to talk on the phone,particularly on sensitive subjects, so the anonymity andconfidentiality offered by text-based contact methodsare important.

Before you began the pilot, you were clear that your overall look and style needed to be different to traditional ‘care services’. This is because you wanted to remain accessible to those on the edge of care, or those transitioning into independence who may have had negative connotations with the care sector. As a profession, how can we continue to choose the right brand ‘style’ to improve engagement with these hardto-reach audiences?

Sadly, young people can be wary of approachingstatutory services, particularly if they find themselves atrisk of homelessness upon leaving care.

A key step in creating a brand that felt different to ausual statutory service was our decision to work with anexternal digital and marketing agency.

We selected Lancashire-based agency Hotfoot Designbecause of their expertise in engaging young peoplein not-for-profit services, as well as their privatesector experience. Their insight into young people’scommunication preferences helped to shape the look,feel and functionality of both the website and offlinepublicity materials.

We worked with them from the outset: choosingthe Breathing Space name because it felt fresh andapproachable. The brand and website then built uponthis, with bright colours, relatable images and friendly,plain-English language. Hotfoot were instrumental in usopting for the online chat and text messaging services.

There can be trepidation in the public sector ininvesting in marketing, but our branding and contactmechanisms have been fundamental to the project’ssuccess.

Want to find out more?

Find out about Breathing Space and how it’s engagingyoung people, visit breathingspacelancs.org.uk