Upstream Scotland First Year Evaluation

A year into our three-year pilot, Upstream Scotland report highlights that one in ten young people* are at risk of youth homelessness, in line with UK-wide results (*results from 1,225 young people across six pilot schools). And three-quarters of the young people identified as at risk of youth homelessness are flying under the radar; these young people are not accessing support despite reporting worryingly low levels of wellbeing and resilience.

That’s why prevention programmes like Upstream Scotland, are so critical in identifying and delivering person-led support to young people at risk of youth homelessness. Because every young person deserves access to the support they need at the right time, and if we can get this right then we can prevent young people from experiencing the trauma of becoming homeless and stop the cycle before it begins. This is vital now more than ever as Scotland faces an ever-growing homelessness and housing crisis which demands a cross-sector response through a national roll out of early intervention and prevention.

To do our part, in November 2023 we launched the three-year pilot of Upstream Scotland, our schools-based prevention programme, which we believe can make a real difference to stop young people in Scotland from becoming homeless. We started in six schools across three different Local Authorities; Edinburgh, Perth & Kinross, West Lothian, and Fife joining the pilot in January 2025. This was inspired by an international Upstream community, working to end youth homelessness through schools-based interventions across the world.

Rock Trust’s schools-based programme is prevention and early intervention in action, which involves surveying whole year groups in school to identify young people at risk of both family and individual homelessness, before collaborating with schools to offer support to those pupils who will benefit.

Upstream Scotland is being independently evaluated by the Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Equalities Research (I-SPHERE), so we can gain a comprehensive understanding of what difference Upstream Scotland can make to prevent young people becoming homeless across Scotland. As Rock Trust plan to roll out Upstream Scotland to more schools and Local Authorities, we take this moment to share our first-year evaluation.

“The findings of the interim evaluation report will help us refine our approach and ensure we are reaching young people at risk of homelessness. We look forward to working with partners across education, housing, and local and national government to drive the Upstream Scotland prevention programme forward.” Alistair MacDermid, Head of Services

What have we learnt so far?

• One in ten young people taking part are at risk of youth homelessness, in line with Upstream results in England and Wales.
• Those at risk are under the radar – over three-quarters of those flagged as at risk of youth homelessness were engaging well at school.
• Youth homelessness is distinct from family homelessness – only 18% of those at elevated risk of youth homelessness were at an elevated risk of family homelessness.
• Link to low resilience and wellbeing – pupils experiencing any degree of youth homelessness risk had lower levels of resilience and wellbeing.
• Overall high engagement – two whole year groups in all six schools took part, with few young people or parents/carers opting out.
• Survey well understood – most found questions easy to understand and respond to.
• 50% of young people offered support took it up – with those turning it down due to support elsewhere, feeling they don’t need it, or circumstances have resolved or changed.

The report has evaluated Upstream from conception to delivery over our first year, to show a comprehensive understanding of the pilot so far, and highlights our ways of working:

• Collaboration and partnership are key – the Upstream team has established strong relationships with local authorities and educational partners in diverse partner schools
• Holistic approach to understanding young people – survey data and a broader insight of young people is considered when deciding who may benefit from interventions.
• Broad range of person-led support: the Upstream project workers are delivering a broad range of emotional and practical support, signposting and referrals, depending on the support needs of the young person.

What next?

As the pilot progresses, the report recommends:

• Considering a ‘whole family’ approach so that support workers can work with whole families.

• Refining policies and processes – a focus around data protections and ethics and survey platform improvements.

• Supporting a UK-specific ‘fidelity’ statement on Upstream; developing in collaboration and justifying any departures from this approach.