Seven projects have been awarded a share of up to £15 million Fair Chance Funding over 3 years from January 2015.
Up to 7 new Social Impact Bonds to help turn around the lives of the most vulnerable young homeless people.
Funding comprises £10 million from Department for Communities and Local Government and £5 million from the Cabinet Office Social Outcomes Fund.
The winning Fair Chance Fund bids are led by:
- DePaul UK – working in Greenwich, Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale
- Fusion Housing – working in Kirklees, Calderdale and Wakefield
- Home Group – working in Newcastle, Northumberland, South Tyneside, North Tyneside, Gateshead, Durham and Sunderland
- Local Solutions – working in Liverpool and Knowsley
- P3 – working in Gloucestershire, Tewkesbury, Forest of Dean, Stroud, Cheltenham, Gloucester City and Cotswold
- St Basils – working in Birmingham, Coventry, Solihull, Walsall and Wyre Forest
- The Y – working in Leicester, Leicestershire, Derby and Derbyshire
Outcomes payments will be made according to whether young homeless people with complex needs can:
- sustain settled accommodation for 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and 18 months
- achieve National Vocational Qualification equivalent qualifications
- maintain volunteering
- sustain full time or part time work for between 6 and 26 weeks
The detailed Fair Chance Fund eligibility criteria for young people are as follows:
Providers can only claim outcome payments for young people who meet all of the following criteria:
- aged 18 to 24 (21 and over if they are care leavers)
- not in employment, education or training
- homeless as defined in the homelessness legislation but not in priority need under that legislation
- a priority for local authority support but unable to be accommodated in a supported housing scheme due to eg:
o      previous difficulties in, or eviction from, supported accommodation indicating that available supported housing provision is unlikely to succeed
o      security issues eg for young people involved in gangs or those who have committed serious offences
o      their needs are deemed too high/complex to manage within a supported housing scheme because of eg substance misuse, significant mental health issues, low/medium learning disability or personality disorders but not reaching the threshold for adult social care services
o      lack of specialist supported accommodation