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Strategy and partnerships

Successful work with individual young people and their families to prevent homelessness and to promote a sustainable transition to adulthood draws on a wide network of disciplines, services, funding streams and sectors. Unless a local structure of effective communication, joint working and strategic target-setting is in place - and senior local policy-makers, commissioners and strategists are committed to it - services from the young person's perspective (where they are visible at all) are likely to appear disconnected from each other and from their own concerns.

Critical to successful working are partnerships at strategic and frontline levels between

• local authority Housing Options teams, Children's Services, Supporting People commissioners and Benefits teams;
• practitioners and commissioners from Health and Justice agencies;
• public sector agencies, housing associations and voluntary organisations;
• service commissioners, providers and users (young people and their families).

It is rare to find formal or informal networks which are equally inclusive of all: illustrated in this knowledge base are partnerships where some of the above are effectively engaged, together with suggestions for strengthening and expanding local networks to provide a more accessible and holistic prevention and support service.

On 1 April 2010 DCSF published revised statutory guidance for children's services authorities and local housing authorities about their respective duties under the Children Act 1989 and the Housing Act 1996 to secure or provide accommodation for homeless 16 and 17 year old children, following the House of Lords' judgment in the case of R(G) v London Borough of Southwark (2009).

In May 2008 Communities and Local Government and the DCSF published guidance specifically relating to Joint working between Housing and Children's Services: Preventing homelessness and tackling its effects on children and young people. A number of additional case studies and useful contacts are contained in this guidance.

In this section

• Being strategic