Improving Care Leavers Housing Pathways

Overview

The Youth Homelessness Prevention Pathway: Improving Care Leavers Housing Pathways provides guidance on how housing, social care and wider support systems can work together to prevent homelessness among care-experienced young people.

Developed by the Scottish Government in partnership with CELCIS, the A Way Home Scotland Coalition, the resource sets out practical approaches to ensuring young people leaving care can access safe, stable and sustainable accommodation.

The guidance recognises that transitions out of care can be a particularly vulnerable period for young people. Without coordinated support and clear housing pathways, care-experienced young people face a significantly higher risk of homelessness.

This resource outlines how services can respond earlier, plan transitions more effectively, and ensure young people leaving care receive the housing and support they need to thrive.

What the guidance covers

The resource explores the key factors that influence housing stability for care leavers and highlights approaches that can reduce the risk of homelessness, including:

• Planning transitions from care early, ensuring housing and support arrangements are in place before young people leave care.
• Continuing Care and Staying Put arrangements, allowing young people to remain in stable placements where appropriate.
• Clear pathways into settled accommodation, including supported housing and independent living options.
• Rapid support responses, when young people are at immediate risk of homelessness.
• Better coordination between services, including housing, social work, youth work and homelessness services.

Together, these approaches aim to ensure that no young person leaving care experiences homelessness because of gaps in support or planning.

Why this matters for youth homelessness

Care-experienced young people are significantly more likely to experience homelessness than their peers.

Without safe housing and consistent support during key transitions, young people leaving care can quickly face instability, isolation and financial hardship.

Preventing youth homelessness means ensuring care-experienced young people:

• Have a clear housing plan before leaving care.
• Can access safe and appropriate accommodation.
• Receive ongoing support into adulthood.
• Are not forced into homelessness services because systems fail to work together.

Improving housing pathways is therefore a crucial step towards ending youth homelessness.

Rock Trust’s perspective

Supporting young people through transitions into adulthood is central to preventing youth homelessness.

Rock Trust works with partners across Scotland to ensure care-experienced young people can access safe housing, personalised support and opportunities to build independent futures.

Resources like this help strengthen the systems that surround young people, ensuring housing pathways are planned, coordinated and focused on long-term stability rather than crisis response.