To ask the Minister of Health for his assessment of how partnership working between his Department, the Department for Communities, Health and Social Care Trusts and the Housing Executive can be enhanced to improve transition planning for young people in care and help prevent homelessness among care leavers.

In seeking to improve transition planning for young people in care and to help prevent homelessness among care leavers, as reflected in the draft Programme for Government, the NIHE is working collaboratively with my Department and other statutory sector partners, to develop a strategic ‘New Foundations’ action plan. This plan will aim to assist young people leaving care and to prevent homelessness by improving the support and opportunities available to each young person leaving care, recognising that each young person is an individual and will require tailored options to meet their individual needs and aspirations. It will enable all relevant government departments and statutory agencies to act together as the Corporate Family for children and young people preparing to leave care and making the transition to adulthood, in line with the approach set out in the strategy for looked after children, ‘A Life Deserved – ‘Caring’ for Children and Young People in Northern Ireland’.

In tandem, my Department is also working with the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) in its partnership with Homewards NI—as part of a programme put in place by the Royal Foundation to demonstrate that it is possible to end homelessness—to develop proposals to focus specifically on early support and interventions which will prevent homelessness occurring for young care leavers. This work is ongoing.

In addition, the 2021 Review of Jointly Commissioned Support Accommodation (i.e. accommodation for young people which is commissioned jointly by the NIHE and HSC Trusts) reported that the complexity of needs of young people placed in supported accommodation challenges the capacity of current models of provision to effectively meet the needs of care leavers and suggested that trauma-informed enhanced models of provision are required. Work to address the Review’s recommendations will improve transitional planning, with local planning partnership groups now in place to support collaborative planning by HSC Trusts, NIHE and others of services to care leavers.

Further, my Department is working to progress implementation of The Northern Ireland Framework for Integrated Therapeutic Care (NIFITC) for all settings for looked after and adopted children, and for care leavers. NIFITC consists of 11 building blocks and there is one which specifically addresses transitioning to adult life. The Framework has a clear focus on collaborative working across sectors and professions and, when implemented, will improve transition planning by supporting young people leaving care to maintain and access appropriate services and build their relational networks as they transition out of care. Information on the Framework, and the individual building blocks, can be found on the Department of Health’s website at: The Northern Ireland Framework for Integrated Therapeutic Care (NIFITC) for Care Experienced Children and Young People | Department of Health.