On the 8th of November, the National Association of Supported Accommodation Partners (NASAP), held their annual conference for provider of supported accommodation.
Two asphaleia service managers went along to the event in Birmingham and you can read about their experiences below.
It was a good event and useful to be in a supportive and collaborative environment with other providers. There were a number of stands from different organisations and a range of different talks to attend.
There was a keynote speech from Ofsted. They discussed progress in starting the review of providers, which began in September, they have not released the reports yet but will do soon. They discussed the grading system and said that this will be reviewed in line with schools and care providers but that we should expect the current grading system to be in place for the next three years.
I attended a talk from the regional care cooperatives. There is going to be greater integration and cooperation between local authorities in sourcing provisions of children’s social care services. Longer term they are looking at providing their own services to fulfil unmet needs across the region. From what was said, this sounds like direct provisioning and provision of services by the RCC’s will be for specialist services for young people with unmet complex needs. They are, however, looking at establishing a regional framework for supported care providers.
There was an interesting talk on transitional safeguarding. The talk focused on the transitional period between childhood and adulthood and that we do not go from being a child to an adult suddenly on our 18th birthday and that there is a need to have a phased approach to safeguarding.
There was a talk from a group of young people who have all left care, called Catch22 – they discussed their experience of leaving care and the results of a nationwide survey of other young people who have left care. They discussed universal challenges such as housing, paying for food and the difficulty living on limited budget. They are advocating for an increase in UC for care leavers so that it matches over 23’s.
The sessions I attended included a presentation from an ex young person in care who shared his history and the challenges he faced and he now works with young people. I came away feeling very motivated and thinking about the energy we bring to conversations we have with young people.
Another session I attended on transitional safeguarding talked about the 'cliff edge' of YP turning 18 and over night losing access to services they may have been recieving. It reminded me of how much change and anxiety there is for the young people we support and that risks do not disappear over night because of a change in age.