Item 7 on our agenda is this afternoon is a statement by the Minister for Housing and Regeneration on investing in early intervention and cross-Government approaches to tackle youth homelessness. And I call on the Minister for Housing and Regeneration, Rebecca Evans.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. As a Government, we have demonstrated our commitment to tackling and preventing all forms of homelessness through new policy initiatives and significant investment. This includes an additional £10 million of funding in the next financial year, as previously announced by the First Minister, to specifically address youth homelessness.

Today, I'm setting out how that funding will be allocated to support a suite of cross-Government measures, offering a mix of evolution and space for innovation, providing opportunities for new approaches to housing solutions and support, as well as opportunities to build on existing services and tools to better recognise and respond to young people at risk of homelessness.

To strengthen our evidence base and to inform our funding and future policy decisions, the Wales Centre for Public Policy was commissioned to deliver a report into the causes and prevention of youth homelessness. One overarching message from the report was the need for cross-Government action, something I fully recognise, and why, earlier this year, I established a cross-portfolio and cross-sector ministerial task and finish group to advise me on both youth homelessness and housing first. I am grateful for the work of that group, which, alongside discussions with ministerial colleagues and my engagement with the End Youth Homelessness Cymru campaign, and my discussions with young people with experience of homelessness and the risk of homelessness, has informed the allocation of the funding that I am announcing today.

The WCPP report sets out a complex set of interrelated factors that can culminate in causing a young person to become homeless. The report then sets out a five-part typology of prevention: structural prevention, systems prevention, early intervention, eviction prevention, and housing stability. A further report from WCPP then uses this typology to map current provision in Wales, providing a strong basis for informing the allocation of funding I'm announcing today, as well as future policy development. 

The report makes it clear that, if we are to eradicate youth homelessness, we need to tackle its root causes by identifying those who are at risk earlier, and putting in place measures to reduce risk factors. It highlights strong evidence to support co-ordinated, multi-agency approaches, including the Geelong Project, which centres around a collaborative model between schools and youth services, using a screening tool to identify those at risk, and then providing a flexible and responsive practice framework. Many of the Geelong principles are already visible within the education system and youth service in Wales, where we have a track record of successfully taking forward this kind of early intervention approach. Our youth engagement and progression framework has allowed earlier identification of those at risk of not being in employment, education or training, the brokerage of appropriate support, and the monitoring and tracking of progress.

The actual numbers of young people who are not in employment, education or training are the lowest they've ever been, reducing every year since the framework was introduced. The First Minister visited the Hanger Youth and Community Centre in Aberbargoed yesterday to see how it works in practice. We know the same warning signs of young people potentially becoming NEET are also good indicators that a young person may be at risk of family breakdown or youth homelessness. There is, therefore, a clear rationale for building on this approach and working with partners to explore the considerable potential to strengthen the framework for a wider purpose.

I'm therefore pleased to announce that £3.7 million of funding will be allocated to the youth support grant to further evolve and strengthen the existing systems and services, with a focus on youth homelessness prevention, drawing on the principles of the Geelong model and adapting them for the Welsh context. The funding will also provide for training and resources to support school-based counsellors, education welfare officers, youth workers and other front-line staff to ensure they are equipped with wider knowledge of homelessness and the links to other risk factors in order to better prevent young people falling into homelessness.

It is imperative that the Geelong principles are embedded throughout existing services to ensure the seamless identification of young people at risk of homelessness and the services available to them. The £3.7 million of funding will therefore also be available to fund a youth homelessness co-ordinator within each local authority to drive forward this collaborative agenda.

The WCPP report recognises that an essential component in tackling youth homelessness is housing stability, which requires the provision of a variety of support and suitable accommodation options for young people. The Supporting People programme currently funds a range of projects to help young people access and sustain accommodation, and the affordable housing review is considering some of the wider structural questions.

However, the WCPP report tells me that there is a clear need to promote and encourage new and innovative options to both house and support young people. I'm therefore pleased to announce £4.8 million of funding to establish a brand new innovation fund to develop suitable housing and support options for young people. These might, for example, include housing first for young people, or projects specifically for young people leaving custody or leaving care.

It is vital that we understand the current landscape of housing options available to ensure that this investment is driven by the needs of young people. As such, I'm in the process of commissioning a short piece of work to assess current housing options for vulnerable young people, with a view to better understanding the gaps, and seeking to build on and develop the options available.

Another aspect highlighted in the WCPP report is what they describe as systems prevention. We know that children leaving the care system are at increased risk of becoming homeless. Many care leavers report being unsure how to manage household budgets or problems, feeling lonely, and, like many young people, they need support to transition to independent living. In recognition of this, the Welsh Government supported the development of the care leaver accommodation and support framework, through Barnardo’s Cymru, specifically for young people leaving care in Wales.

My department has been working closely with the social services department to identify barriers to effective implementation of the pathway and other measures that might be needed to support care leavers. A joint housing and social services led group is being established to sit under both the ministerial homelessness task and finish group and the looked-after children ministerial advisory group, which is chaired by David Melding, to strengthen the arrangements in place to successfully transition young people from care into independent living.

I'm also pleased to announce that £1 million of funding will be allocated to the St David’s Day fund, with the effect of doubling it and strengthening the availability of direct financial support for care leavers to support them to transition to and sustain independent living and help prevent them falling into homelessness. This funding seeks to provide some of the practical financial support to care leavers that others might expect from mum or dad, enabling their successful move towards adulthood and independence.

Successful systems prevention also involves a wider awareness amongst all professionals working with all young people about the risks of homelessness and the services and the interventions available to support young people. As such, I am allocating £0.25 million for new, targeted communications and engagement work. This will take two forms, one specifically for young people and the other for professionals who work with young people, to raise awareness, understanding and the take-up of services available. We'll work closely with the End Youth Homelessness Cymru campaign, whose expertise will be invaluable to test and advise on the approach.

The WCPP report highlighted the complexity of navigating the information available to young people. Therefore, in addition to targeted communications, I am also allocating £0.25 million for tenancy support work, including work with Shelter Cymru and its existing helpline, to ensure young people have wide access to information, advice and support services.

Deputy Presiding Officer, there is already a plethora of work going on underpinning this agenda across Government, including work on adverse childhood experiences, the whole-school approach to mental health, and a wider focus on emotional and well-being support for young people. It is important we continue to complement, align and strengthen existing pieces of work through joint working, and this funding is deliberately a mixture of innovation and evolution in order to do just that.

The funding allocations I have announced today take a collaborative and preventative approach to this complex issue, and demonstrate our cross-Government commitment to tackling youth homelessness. Thank you.

I am very pleased to welcome this statement. In particular, I would commend the following elements: I think the focus on NEETs is absolutely right, that is a major risk indicator. As the Minister said, this is a complex problem, but it needs an approach that really ensures that young people have as full lives as possible. Therefore, they need to be doing something constructive with their lives as well as having a secure home. So I think the NEETs issue is absolutely right as a key indicator. 

I'm pleased to hear about the £4.8 million that's going to be invested in an innovation fund, which will support measures like housing first. I have to say I think the housing first model is particularly relevant in terms of youth homelessness and enabling young people to keep tenancies going with that sort of support, and the fact that we don't give up on them. So, if things happen and there are issues to be resolved, we don't evict and they're given a second or third chance, whatever it takes. That housing first model, with the wraparound support from various agencies, is key. So I do welcome that aspect of the announcement particularly.

Can I thank the Minister for the reference to care leavers? I also commend the work of Barnardo's in this area. I'm also pleased to see a doubling of the St David's Day fund to help independent living. Carl Sargeant was determined that the St David's Day fund would establish this concept of the bank of mum and dad and apply it in this key area. 

I also think that, for care leavers, it is usually housing that becomes the most dominant need for them. I think educational attainment is a really important thing for young people in care, but when they leave care—although they may still be in some form of education—housing is then very, very pressing. And there I think corporate parenting really means a sort of housing first approach. I also welcome what you said about the need for all public agencies to be aware of the risks of homelessness that face some young people. And, again, we have that approach for looked-after children, that corporate parenting, that it belongs to everyone, it's not just children's services, but it goes across all public agencies. So I welcome that reference in your statement. 

However, there are a couple of things that I think I should press for an answer on, just to see what the Welsh Government's thinking may be. There's no target in your statement for the ending of youth homelessness. Now, I know when we make those sorts of announcements, they are declaratory, but I still think they set important objectives. Now, in Scotland, they have halved youth homelessness since 2010. In England, there's a target to halve homelessness by 2022, and to eliminate it by 2027. I think we should set some targets as well. I don't expect you to do that in your reply, but I think you could find there's an all-party approach to this and that we would all sign up to that commitment and to the priorities and the financial costs that would then have to be met. And I think that would set a very clear vision of when we want to end this scourge. But there's much that is useful in this statement, and I'm pleased to commend it. 

I thank very much David Melding for his contribution and for his welcoming of the announcements today, and I really would like to begin by thanking David for the work that he does, and he has done for many years, as a real champion for children and young people in care and leaving care. I commend him and, again, thank him for the work that he does on the ministerial advisory group as well.

I'll address immediately the issue raised regarding targets. When the First Minister announced the additional £10 million last year, he said it would be his intention to eradicate youth homelessness in Wales in 10 years, so that would be by 2027. I am under no illusions as to how difficult a task that is going to be.

In the first instance, it's very hard to grasp a figure of how many young people are homeless, because many of them don't necessarily identify themselves as being homeless. If they feel unable to stay within the family home and are sleeping on a friend's sofa, for example, they don't identify as homeless, but we would certainly consider them to be so. Equally, young people can become homeless as a result of the family losing their home as well. So, we understand that the estimate of young homeless people is around 7,000, and that figure is a figure given to us by the End Youth Homelessness Cymru campaign. I think that really does give us an idea of the magnitude of the job ahead of us.

David Melding referred to the St David's Day fund. I'm really pleased that we're able to add additional funding to this, because we have seen the impact that it's already been making. Since its launch just last year, it's helped over 1,900 care-experienced children and young people to receive funding to support their transition into adulthood. Case studies show that the funding has been really used very flexibly and creatively by local authorities to meet the needs of those young people in the same way that birth parents might support their children.

So, for example, the fund has been used to pay for driving lessons to enable care leavers to access employment and education; bridging payments to enable continuity of tenancy and residence, or due to an unexpected shortfall in benefits, for example; enrolment on courses; materials for study; laptops for further and higher education studies; and also clothing and uniforms for work as well—so, all the kinds of costs that young people can incur in their move on to adult life. So, it's a really exciting fund, and I'm glad to see the difference that it's already making.

One of the really exciting parts of the statement today for me, I think, is that innovation fund. I really do want to have that space where we can come forward with good ideas, because one thing I've learned in the year that I've been working closely with this sector is that it is a sector brimming with good ideas and a desire to move forward and look at solutions and opportunities. So, I'm really looking forward to the kind of schemes that will come forward.

Just for clarity, there'll be a bidding process for that funding, and the criteria are currently finalised for that. The funding sits within the homelessness prevention grants, and there'll be a panel within the Welsh Government to assist us in determining which will be the successful programmes, but, absolutely, housing first could be one of those of kinds of programmes.

I was really pleased to have the opportunity to visit the Rock Trust in Scotland, which was the first ever housing first project in the UK. It started in 2017, so it's still early days there, but they are very enthusiastic about what's being achieved there. I liked it when David Melding used the phrase 'whatever it takes', because that, actually, is the Rock Trust's approach to housing first—it is about whatever it takes.

I've also been very clear with local authorities that our housing legislation must be seen within the spirit of it as well, rather than just discharging the duties to the letter of the law. An example would be a young person who risks homelessness. There's an immediate intervention by the local authority to try to prevent that homelessness, but, for one reason or another, it doesn't work out. Well, they've discharged their duties, but, actually, the spirit of the law would mean that they keep going back to ensure that that young person doesn't become homeless. So, we've been very clear with local authorities on that.

Again, the point that David Melding raises about wide-ranging understanding of the risks of youth homelessness and how to identify it is important, and is, again, something that has been identified as suitable for further funding in my statement today. Thank you. 

Homelessness is a political choice; it is the consequence of several policies and it can be solved through policies. Indeed, the numbers of people rough sleeping were a lot smaller a decade ago, thanks to policies that aimed to support people being in place and a social safety net that was, in fact, better than it is today. I appreciate the statement that you've given us. We've waited over a year for this information, and I don't want to undermine the work of Wales Centre for Public Policy, but they do tell us things that we already did know. For example, tackling the root causes, reducing the risk factors, cross-Government working—these are things that should have been put in place before now, and are things that we already knew. So, I want to frame my response in relation to that.  

Now, you attended a Crisis conference, and I know that you spoke at that conference. I wanted to know whether you would be in support of the recommendations specifically made for your Government, some of which I'll read out here today. So, 

'Place a duty on all relevant public bodies to prevent homelessness and to cooperate with local housing authorities in relieving homelessness.'

Introduce strict time limits on the use of temporary accommodation of no more than seven days, and this should apply to all homeless households.

'Abolish the priority need criteria.

'Introduce a duty to provide immediate emergency accommodation to all those with nowhere safe to stay until priority need is abolished'.

Abolish the local connection criteria for rough sleepers, and ensure it no longer presents a barrier to assistance for anyone threatened with or experiencing homelessness. These are many suggestions that have been put in place by the sector, and I believe should be responded to. 

Now, I know that you've said that you want to put finance in towards housing first. My portfolio has changed, but I don't know whether you have announced the results of the pilots, or is this new money an intention to scale up the housing first initiative, given that you've analysed that it is a good thing? 

When you say that there will be £3.7 million funding available to fund youth homelessness co-ordinators within each local authority to drive forward this collaborative agenda, what discussions have you already had with local government in this regard? I'm getting countless e-mails from local government saying that they're stretched to the limit. Have they had any intervention as to where or how they would use this money to best effect?

And I'm a bit confused as to what the targeted communications and engagement work will be with the £1 million put towards that. How will you be engaging with young people? How are we going to be able to track the development of progress in this regard, and what work will you then be doing with—? You only mention one organisation here today. How will you be working with the wider sector to ensure that everybody in this field will be able to partake in it?

You say that it's hard, potentially, to reach the target in 10 years' time, but we've been waiting a long time for a target to end youth homelessness. We need to be able to have intermediate targets to understand how you will be able to reach that goal, how you will be involving the sector and how, ultimately, you will be involving young people who are actually homeless? Because time and again, they feel disenfranchised, they feel as if they're not being listened to and they feel isolated. How can we ensure that they are key to the delivery in this regard?    

Thank you very much for those questions. It is a shame that they do fail to recognise the huge amount of work that has already been going on that has been supported by Government over a long period, not least through the Supporting People grant, which I know both our parties have a particular interest in. So, one example would be the Swansea Young Single Homeless Project. That is an organisation where young people are valued for the contributions they make, and they have fixed-site services called Drws Agored, providing an emergency service for nine homeless young people. So, that's very much at the sharp end of preventing those young people from turning to rough sleeping. And they also offer floating support services to vulnerable young people up to the age of 25, who require some support to maintain their tenancy. That's just one example. I've been to see Llamau also to see the fantastic work that they're doing, also funded by Welsh Government.

So, I think it is unfair to suggest that, all of a sudden, we've woken up to the challenge of youth homelessness. Actually, work has been going on in the area of youth homelessness for many years, and we've seen a youth engagement and progression framework every single year, reducing the number of children and young people who are not in employment, education or training. So, I think it does do a disservice to the people working day in, day out in this sector to try and ensure that young people don't become homeless, and the investment that Welsh Government has been making in this agenda for a long period.

So, in terms of how we would want to measure those targets, actually I think we need to be realistic and expect, potentially, an increase in the number of people we do identify as being homeless in the short term. That would be as a result of that communications activity that we would be doing and the awareness raising that we would be doing in terms of helping those people working in youth services, in schools and so on, to identify the risk signs that a young person might be rough sleeping. I know many of us were at the launch of the End Youth Homelessness Cymru campaign and we heard there very much and very directly from young people with personal experience of rough sleeping how they felt that the signs that they could be rough sleepers weren't even noticed by those people working most closely with them. 

On the issue of priority need, I've already committed to commissioning a review of priority need—I understand very much the issues there relating to priority need. However, I would say that young people are very much already considered to be in priority need. So, young people aged 16 or 17, by definition, are considered a priority need, and those between 18 and 20 who are at particular risk of sexual or financial exploitation are also considered to be priority need, as are those people up to the age of 20 who've spent time in care. I'm very interested in what our review of priority need will show us, but those young people are currently considered priority need. And also the issue of local connection will be considered as part of that wider review of priority need, as I've already told the Chamber previously. 

In terms of input from the wider sector, the ministerial advisory group—or the ministerial task and finish group, I should say—has representation very, very widely across the sector from all organisations, from the youth justice sector to local authorities to the End Youth Homelessness Cymru campaign, and police and so forth. So, it is widely represented in the sector and does very much respond to that point that tackling youth homelessness does have to be a cross-sectoral responsibility. 

In terms of housing first, those pilots are ongoing. We have now identified additional funding, which I announced recently, for some trailblazer projects that are taking that housing first model to the next level by ensuring that they are working very closely with mental health services, with domestic violence services and with substance misuse services as well, to try and ensure more of an integrated approach to meet those needs of people.

Just to finish on this particular point, the housing first network has produced a housing first standards document, which we have agreed now in Welsh Government. So, for a service to consider itself as housing first, it must meet all of those standards, because one of my concerns was that there are some excellent projects out there calling themselves housing first, not adhering to the Welsh Government's housing first principles, and that was a concern. So, whilst rapid rehousing models are very much in need, housing first isn't for everyone, but we do need to stay true to those principles of housing first if we intend to call those projects housing first. 

I very much welcome the attention you're giving to this important subject and the joined-up approach that you're giving to it. I absolutely agree that NEETs are a real indicator of potential youth homelessness, and one of the things we need to do in conjunction with the Cabinet Secretary for Education is ensure that all our schools are paying attention to the well-being of all their young people—in some of our schools I'm afraid they're all too keen to get rid of people who require extra support and that is really something we need to stop happening. 

At one level, I'm quite surprised that you're having to invest so much money in training and resources to support school-based counsellors and education welfare officers, because I would have thought that they would already be pretty familiar with the complexities of this problem. But on the other hand, reflecting on the inability of some schools to support appropriately young people who are having difficulties, maybe that is what's required. 

Yesterday I visited the Grassroots project in Cardiff, which is in Charles Street in the city centre. This is a youth project that's been going for nearly 40 years. There was clear evidence of the excellence of their work—a joined-up approach, just opposite the youth housing office and literally down the road from the Jobcentre Plus where people had to go and claim their benefits. But, in addition to that, I met several young people who'd clearly been involved with Grassroots for several years, and this has obviously become an organisation that they've come to trust. And, in many cases, it's an excellent success story, and the quality of their work is really outstanding.

I was very pleased to meet a young man who has only recently been diagnosed with autism, aged 25, so we obviously weren't doing the right thing when he was in school. He's at the moment struggling, he's between jobs, but I was very pleased to hear that Autism Initiatives is helping him get some independent housing. At the moment, he's living with his mother, but obviously he doesn't want to go on doing that, so it's great that another organisation that specialises in autism is available locally to help him with that aspect.

Another was a young parent who was living in truly appalling private sector housing. I know that it's not in my constituency and I know the Assembly Member is aware of it. And she obviously was making a really good fist of being a parent of a child who looked very contented and was thriving, so good luck to her after many years of being supported by Grassroots.

And thirdly I met a vulnerable young woman who simply is not ready for going into independent housing. If we gave her a tenancy, it would break down almost immediately. And therefore I'd like to ask you, Minister, what work we are doing to focus on the supported housing that many young people who fall homeless actually need to enable them to subsequently be able to successfully support a tenancy? Because it seems to me that we need foyer accommodation, such as is provided by St Basils in Birmingham, where they've got 29 different hostels to support young people, including some with families, to ensure that we put them on the right path before they go into their own homes, which then fall down. It's exactly the same housing first principles as we apply to people with addictions and people with mental health problems of all ages.

I know that Llamau do some work and they have some hostel accommodation, but I just wondered how much focus there has been on ensuring that it is available across Wales, because, obviously, the work done by Grassroots—their street-based outreach work—identifies that at least one third of these young people are coming from elsewhere outside Cardiff because nobody wants to be the only trans person in the village and people who are just getting judgmental attitudes rather than empathy are bound to come to our cities. So, I think if we could just focus on the sort of supported housing that is needed to ensure that the most vulnerable of our young people are successfully enabled to get back into living a successful life.

Thank you very much for those comments. I'm particularly interested in the Grassroots project in Cardiff, so I'll be sure to try and have a visit there to find out more about what's happening and again will look to the example that you've given of St Basils in Birmingham, because I think it's important that we do look to best practice wherever we can find it.

You mentioned the young man with autism who was being supported into independent living. I'm pleased to see that that individual now has the support that he needs. I've been keen within this portfolio to reflect on previous responsibilities I've had, and one of the things that we have introduced is some new guidance on housing specifically related to how best to offer support to people with autism, and that is as a result of the work that we've been doing more widely through the ASD strategic action plan—again, a piece of work that we work on right across Government.

You also referred to a young person just not being ready to move on to independent living, and that very much does reflect the kind of discussions we've had within the ministerial task and finish group, where we heard of young people who thought they were ready but weren't. And again that's the kind of example I gave to David Melding where an individual needs that second chance, a third chance or however many chances it takes to get support in order to be able to move on to independence and adulthood.

One of the pieces of work that is going on across Government, again, is some wider work regarding the 'When I am Ready' policy, but not looking at it just in terms of young people within the foster care environment, but actually residential care more widely. So, I think that that will be an important piece of work moving forward as well. The Llamau example that you gave, I'm very familiar with that. I've been to visit them in Cardiff and had the opportunity, again, to speak to some of the young people who've been very positively impacted by the services that they've been able to have.

I will say, the innovation fund that we've announced today, I'm keen to see how we can link that up with Welsh Government's capital funding, so there could be potential for further services of that foyer type that you described potentially coming forward as projects under that. The foyer model very much does inform some of the Supporting People work that already goes on at the moment, and it certainly does bring forward those Geelong principles that I referred to earlier on in my statement.

Thank you very much, Minister, and apologies to those who already were on the list to speak, but we have run out of time.