A Comparative Report on Youth Homelessness and Social Exclusion in the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
A comparative Report on Youth Homelessness and Social Exclusion in the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK A preliminary study for the European research project ‘ Combating Social Exclusion among Young Homeless People (CSEYHP) ’ Date 27th July 2009 © This comparative report was compiled by Joan Smith (UK) based on national reports principally written by the following team members: Anna van Deth (NL), Filipa Menezes (PT), Selma Muhic Disdarevic (CZ), Joan Smith with Nora Duckett (UK), with contributions from Peter Rensen (NL) and Romana Sloufova (CZ) This report is one of the deliverables of the CSEYHP project: Combating social exclusion among young homeless populations: a comparative investigation of homeless paths among local white, local ethnic groups and migrant young men and women, and appropriate reinsertion methods. The project is funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under the Social- economic Sciences and Humanities theme. 1 Table of Contents Page Introduction 4 Objective 1 - - To describe the national contexts in terms of homeless populations: including ethnic, gender, non-national groups and those with different parental statuses. Section 1: The national context of our study 1.1 Country profiles for the Czech Republic, Netherlands, Portugal and the UK 7 1.2 Ethnic minorities, foreign-born populations, asylum seekers and unaccompanied minors 7 1.3 Government policies towards youth 12 1.4 Youth insertion into adult life 16 1.5 Issues with insertion into adult life – youth/ key worker interviews 19 Section 2: Youth at risk of social exclusion and homelessness 2.1 Concepts of importance in understanding the ‘at risk’ and excluded youth populations 23 2.2 Risk of poverty associated with leaving home and becoming independent in our four countries 24 2.3 Young people at risk: individual risk factors 26 2.4 Youth people at risk: social exclusion factors 27 2.5 The representation of young people in the media 29 Section 3: Youth Homelessness 3.1 The responsibility of local services 30 3.2 Definitions of homelessness and youth homelessness 30 3.3 Amount and profile of young homeless people 34 3.4 Youth at risk of homelessness and patterns of youth homelessness 38 3.5 Changes in the youth homeless populations in four countries – youth key/worker interviews 44 3.6 Working with young people from different youth homeless populations to aid their social inclusion - youth key/worker interviews 46 Objective 2 - To analyse the role of different social partners – statutory services, NGOs, charities (not reliant on government funding), religious and ethnic organisations in each partner state, young people’s organisation . 2 Section 4: Provision of services for the young homeless and methodologies of work 4.1 Pattern of services 57 4.2 Early intervention and prevention services 58 4.3 Services for young people who appear on the streets 64 4.4 Access to other services such as health, drug and alcohol, counselling services 66 4.5 Provision of supported accommodation 68 4.6 Methodologies of key working in supported accommodation 70 4.7 Reinsertion services – housing 75 4.8 Reinsertion services – employment and training 79 4.9 Reinsertion through income support 81 4.10 Reinsertion into family life. 83 Objective 3 - To identify issues for the European social model and values; Section 5: Issues for the European social model and values 5.1 Housing and homelessness as a national responsibility 88 5.2 The importance of Lisbon, 2000 and OCM 88 5.3 The perspective on social inclusion in the National Inclusion Plans of the four countries 90 5.4 Issues for European Social Values with regard to the inclusion of Young Homeless Populations 95 Selected Bibliography 99 3 Introduction This report is on the welfare and social situation for young people at risk of homelessness and social exclusion in four European countries including young people born outside the country and/or unaccompanied minors. This paper reports the conclusions reached at the end of the first stage of the European Commission Framework 7 funded project, ‘Combating Social Exclusion among Young Homeless Populations’, (CSEYHP). MOVISIE (Netherlands) is the lead partner for this study, working with London Metropolitan University (UK), Charles University (Czech Republic) and CIES (Portugal). This paper is based on four national reports submitted by each national team, using an agreed format to collect relevant data at the national level, but designed to highlight the issues experienced in each country. The objectives of CSEYHP are as follows: 1. to understand the life trajectories of different homeless youth populations in different national contexts; 2. to develop the concepts of risk and social exclusion in relation to the experience of young homeless people and to the reinsertion process; 3. to test how different methods of working contribute to the reinsertion process for young people; how do care providers (both in the voluntary and the statutory sectors) work with young homeless people and with unaccompanied minors and young refugees? 4. to investigate the roles of and relationships between the young people, trusted adults, lead professionals, peer mentors and family members in the delivery of these programmes across all four countries. CSEYHP focuses on three groups of homeless youth populations: young people native born of white ethnic groups; young people native born of black, Asian and national minorities and young migrants. Consequently, this report reviews the ethnic background of young people in all four countries as well as focussing on issues of welfare, social exclusion and homelessness. It reviews the general policy framework for young people in each country and considers specific measures with regard to young people in state care and unaccompanied minors. It considers the policy area for young homeless people as articulated on the general youth policy area. The objective of this report is to provide information and an insight into high-risk situations for young (homeless) people and unaccompanied minors/ refugees in four European countries. Each partner has carried out their own national literature study on social exclusion, homelessness and youth and this is placed in context by means of statistical comparison derived from OECD, Eurostat and other pan European data sets. Although OECD and Eurostat report at one decimal place, their figures have been rounded up to full percentages (.5 and above up, .4 and below down) because this report is concerned with very broad trends across the four countries. As part of the work for this review of the situation in each of the four countries each team has also carried out interviews with professionals, managers and key workers who work with young homeless people. Using a common list of topics all 4 interviewees were asked to express their opinions on high-risk situations for young people, issues of social exclusion, any changes in the profile of young homeless people, the transition from under to over 18, the value of social support, early intervention and prevention strategies and their method of working with young people. In addition, selected interviewees discussed specific case studies and their responses show the options available to professionals to tackle specific problems. These are discussed where appropriate. The report is also concerned with the issues that are raised by the four preliminary studies for the development of the European social model among different youth populations in the EU-27 countries. Reader’s guide Section 1 compares the composition of the four populations of the Netherlands, the UK, the Czech Republic, and Portugal, the main routes into adulthood and national policies in the field of youth. Section 2 explains the various concepts of importance in the national context including that of transitions, risk, vulnerability and social exclusion and contains a description of high-risk situations for children and young people in relation to social exclusion and the role of youth and young homeless people in public opinion. Section 3 details the definition of young homeless people, their profile and subgroups among them. Section 4 compares the range of assistance options to young homeless people, and types of applied methods and interventions. Finally, section 5 discusses the issues raised by this interim report for European social policy in relation to youth and considers the next stage in our work. Following convention in relation to reported statistics, the Czech Republic will be referred to as CZ, the Netherlands as NL, Portugal as PT and the United Kingdom as UK except where the statistics refer to only three of the countries of the UK; England, Scotland, Wales are together known as GB. It is important to note that the term UK refers to four countries with distinct legal and administrative frameworks. Scotland has always had a different legal system to England and Wales but following devolution in 1997 there has been considerable transfers for domestic powers to the Scottish Parliament leading to different policies in relation to housing, homelessness, education, social care and youth. Increasingly Wales is also diverging as its National Assembly creates new legislation. Much of the future work for this project will be based in London as nearly half (45%) of all people born outside the UK live in London and therefore the legislation referred to in this report is that of England. The European Partners: MOVISIE Knowledge and advice for social development, Utrecht, Netherlands MOVISIE is the Netherlands centre for social development. It’s mission is to promote the participation and independence of citizens. MOVISIE does this by supporting and advising professional organisations, volunteer organisations and government institutions in the field of welfare, care and social development. Five themes are central to its work: Informal Care, Vulnerable Groups, Volunteer Effort, Domestic and Sexual Violence, Social Cohesion. 5 For further information www.movisie.nl or go to http://www.movisie.nl/homelessyouth/ for ‘Combating Youth Homelessness’.