Cordis Pulse: January 2018
January 2018
'What works' in ending rough sleeping
It seems slightly incredible that at the start of 2018 Crisis need to publish a report on ‘What works’ in ending rough sleeping. The report is highly detailed and addresses a wide range of different strategies that can be adopted and ends with a clear and detailed set of evidence-based recommendations. The trouble is that in the 1990s we knew what worked in reducing rough sleeping: the target set in 1990 was to reduce rough sleeping by two thirds by 2002. The target was reached, and for most of the 2000s rough sleeping remained low and fairly constant, before increasing dramatically from 2010 onwards.
A clear account of this successful process can be found in the Commons Library briefing on Rough Sleeping published this time last year.
Although there are many lessons that can be learnt from research into best practice, perhaps the biggest lesson is that back in 1990 the level of rough sleeping was a key concern of government, and that it is only when this issue rises up the top of the political agenda that it gets the attention and, more importantly, the funding it requires.
Children and young people's mental health
The Green Paper on children and young people’s mental health provision is right to take a multi-tiered approach, combining public and population-based mental health approaches with more targeted service improvements. A lot of our work is currently focused on supporting local authorities and their partners on finding ways to effectively address gaps in provision for looked after children with complex and escalating needs. This shortfall can often result in a range of knock-on effects such as high rates of placement breakdown, higher propensity to use out-of-area provision, higher social worker turnover – all of which have human and financial costs.
We have recently published a short report exploring some of the initiatives that are being developed and are working to expand this research to include a larger number of local authorities. If you would be interested in participating then please contact Yvette King, Head of Safeguarding on yvetteking@cordisbright.co.uk.
