The Positive Transitions (PT) Pathway was set up in 2018 to provide tailored, intensive tenancy management and life coaching for young people leaving care to help them become successful tenants and positive contributors to the community.
Prior to our involvement, most young people who moved into independent living failed in their new tenancies. Indeed, social workers anticipated that a young person leaving care would fail in their tenancies on average 5 times and almost all young people would be moved into the private rented sector with the potential of often poor-quality housing and tenancy management. At BCH we thought that it shouldn’t be acceptable for a young person to fail in their tenancy, let alone fail on several occasions, and therefore we developed, in partnership with Blackpool Council, a housing led support service, Positive Transitions.
Over the past five years, 130 young people have been supported by the Positive Transitions Team. Positive Transitions aims to enable young people to be completely independent, thrive and manage their own tenancies. However, even after they are housed and successfully managing their tenancy, young people are always able to contact their Positive Transition Officer for advice, guidance, reassurance or, more seriously, in times of crisis. This ability for officers to ‘scoop’ a young person back up is integral in long term tenancy sustainment.
A small number of these young people have moved on with our help and in a planned way, for instance to move out of the area, but the majority continue to live successfully in their homes. The team has also been instrumental in offering a continuation of support as some young people have had babies; working closely with the Family Nurse Practitioner service and Social Care, young people have been supported to move from their one bed property to a two bed property, ensuring suitable, quality housing, crucial for the well-being of both mother and baby.
Maggie Cornall, Director of Operations for BCH said, "I am exceptionally proud of our team and how they have responded to the needs of young people and supported them with their journey after leaving care. The service aims to set our young people up for the best start to independent living and therefore live fulfilled lives becoming positive contributors to the community. Our approach is to support our care leavers in the same way as any caring parent would do with a young person leaving home for the first time.’’
One of the first young people to be supported by the service was John*, who was housed in January 2018 and still lives in his property to date. His support has been stepped down but over the years he has still contacted his PT Officer in times of need.
I’ve found the extra support really helpful. My Positive Transitions Officer has helped with loads of different things and also encouraged and supported me to apply for an internship; I got the job which has made a massive difference to my finances. I’ve been able to pass my training course and get a small motorbike so I’m more independent. I think Positive Transitions really helped my transition to adulthood and made living alone a lot less overwhelming.John speaking about his experience
The service has gone from strength to strength over the past 5 years, and was crowned winner at the CIH Northern Awards 2021 with the New Ideas, Approaches and Innovation award. The recent 2023 Ofsted report further highlights the great work and commitment of the service and cited, “The support for care leavers is strong and has significantly improved since the last inspection. Planning for care leavers who are vulnerable, including those in custody, is robust and effective.”
The figures below demonstrate the work completed by the Team:
| Status | Figure |
| Housed and actively working with | 30 |
| Awaiting property and actively working with | 9 |
| Awaiting assessment/under assessment phase | 12 |
| Housed and successfully managing their tenancy | 56 |
| Planned move from BCH | 22 |
| Evictions | 1 |
*Name has been changed to protect young persons’ identity