Goal 4: Access and sustain long term accommodation

Enfield Care Leavers Service can support you with appropriate accommodation depending on your age and circumstances, up to your 21st birthday.

If you are in employment or in receipt of Universal credit, once you become 18 years old, you are expected to contribute towards the rent of the placement you are living in if it is provided via the Care Leavers Service. This is in preparation for when you live independently in the future and fully responsible for paying full rent. Your Social Worker or Personal Advisor will be able to provide you more information on this matter.

By your 21st birthday or when you are ready to leave the accommodation provided by the Care Leavers Service, you will have an assessment of your long-term accommodation needs and plans. This will be also part of your Pathway Plan.

If you are still in foster care when you reach 18 you will be supported to remain leaving with your foster family if you, your foster carer(s) and your Social Worker/Personal Advisor feel this is the best option for you. A foster placement for a young person age 18 and over is called a Staying Put arrangement and can last up to your 21st birthday.

We will work hard to prevent any Care Leaver from becoming homeless. If you are over 21 years old and facing homelessness, we will work with your local  housing department so that assistance can be provided.

Before you can live independently we want to make sure you have the skills necessary to do so. In doing this you will benefit from accessing:

ENFIELD’s PATHWAY PLAN CHECK LIST

This checklist has been produced to aid discussion, planning and assessment in relation to your preparation towards independence. It has been developed in conjunction with young people and professionals.

It is hoped that this checklist will help you to recognise the knowledge, skills and types of support youmay have already, plus skills and goals you may need to think about, as you move towards independence and adulthood. There are no set ways to undertake tasks, or right or wrong answers to many of the questions. The questions have been set as a guide to aid and promotediscussion and to help you think about issues that all young people need to be aware of, regardless of whether they are in care. If you have difficulty answering some of the questions, or have not had experience of some of the tasks, don’t worry; it takes everyone a long time to become independent. Talk to your Social Worker or Personal Advisor about this and begin to think about tasks you can work on and which ones are important to you.

RIVERSIDE: ENGAGE ENFIELD

Riverside is one of our Partners. Through their project Engage Enfield they are able to provide you with housing related floating support when you access your own accommodation.

They also carrying out monthly workshops within the Care Leavers Hub to best prepare you on how to manage your own tenancy before you attend our Tenancy Nomination Panel.

CARE LEAVERS TENANCY NOMINATION PANEL

If you are 18 or over and you and your Social Worker/Personal Advisor agree that you are ready to move into your own tenancy, your nomination for a Tenancy with Enfield Housing Department can be discussed at the monthly Care Leavers Tenancy Nomination Panel (commonly known as Housing Panel). You are very welcome to attend the meeting in person. Agreeing to nominate you for your own Council property will be the Panel’s ultimate decision based on your readiness to manage your own tenancy. The panel will consider your ability to budget, to sustain a regular income and not to engage in anti-social behaviour.

Young People who are in living outside the Enfield Area may not be able to get priority access to LocalHousing Services accommodation in the area they are living. If this is the case your SocialWorker/Personal Advisor will explore your options, which could include local private accommodation, or even a return to the Enfield area if that is your choice so that local Council Housing can be offered.

SETTING UP HOME ALLOWANCE

We will provide you with a setting up home allowance of up to £3,000 when you first move into your own independent accommodation. Your Social Worker/Personal Advisor will help you to think about what you need and how to make the best use of the money. In some circumstances you may be able to use some of the setting up home entitlement when you move into semi-independent accommodation for small things like a TV, a rug or lamp, so that you can personalise your living space.