‘Returning home — what should we demand of our next Prime Minister? A focus on our Policy, Research and Campaigns Team and how they use PIE in their work’…
23.09.2022: As I write this week’s PIE blog, as the lead for Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE), at the national youth homeless charity — Centrepoint, I am very glad to be ‘home’ after a period of annual leave (hence the gap in the PIE blog over recent weeks). I was very lucky to spend some time with my family in our VW Campervan travelling across France. It was great to be on the ‘road’ but after three weeks, it felt important to get home (and not just because school was starting and I have a job to return to!) after sleeping in a different location most nights and constantly having to pack up and move on. On reflection, it made me consider how it might feel for a homeless young person who is ‘rough sleeping’, ‘sofa surfing’ or in temporary accommodation that requires them to ‘keep moving on’. Of course, travelling on holiday is different from this situation; I do have a ‘home’ to eventually return to, it was for a finite time-period, and I was not alone or in potentially vulnerable situations on a campsite. However, what was similar was the constant moving on, the inability to set up a consistent and secure space and having no easily accessible bathroom or cooking facilities. That was unsettling, and the psychological relief to be back in my own bed at the end of the trip was immense — and perhaps something many readers of this blog can relate to post annual leave even despite any post-holiday blues!
Returning to the UK has also been interesting, as we now have a new Monarch: HRH King Charles III, a new Prime Minister: Liz Truss and a new government cabinet, new government minsters and possibly therefore a new approach to the current issues facing the UK. Whilst this new government has positively made some further commitments to homeless young people under their Rough Sleeping Strategy 2022 (c.f. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1102408/20220903_Ending_rough_sleeping_for_good.pdf), including ending rough sleeping by 2024, any significant change can bring about uncertainty or anxiety for the future.
In Centrepoint, we have a fantastic Policy, Research and Campaigns team who focus on areas of policy including housing, family and health (see here: https://centrepoint.org.uk/what-we-do/policy-and-research/). They also campaign to ensure homeless young people are getting the right support when it comes to their benefits and finances, education, skills and employment opportunities. As a result, they are always working with new leaders, politicians and political parties, as well as government ministers and departments. Their approach is psychologically informed or PIE, and I have great pleasure in handing over the remainder of this week’s PIE blog to Alicia Walker (Head of Policy Research and Campaigns), who has written a reflection on what we should be demanding of specifically our new Prime Minister, highlighting PIE within this…
‘As half of all young people go to bed hungry (c.f. https://centrepoint.org.uk/media/5435/d297-food-insecurity-report-a4-v6-screen-singles.pdf) the UK braces itself for a recession, and our sector prepares to welcome the 13th housing minister in 12 years (c.f. https://twitter.com/10DowningStreet/status/1567247526587236356), I wonder what your thoughts are on political leadership? What tools do you think our political leaders need, in order to safely steer the ship that takes us to a version of the UK in which there is no youth homelessness?
I have recently had a few conversations about the cost of living crisis in which the sad reality has been raised that, for far too many vulnerable and homeless young people, this is not a “cost of living crisis” at all — it is just life. Vulnerable young people continue to live at the sharp end of a world in crisis, a world in which inflation rates are soaring and a country in which too many people simply do not know how they will pay their bills. Yet, despite evidence demonstrating heightened exposure to poverty, destitution and homelessness in young people living independently, they continue to face amongst the lowest entitlements to financial support through the social security system. Moreover, last year’s removal of the £20 universal credit uplift resulted in a loss of more than a quarter of the income of under 25 year olds living independently, many of whom will have become homeless during the pandemic.
However, it is not all bad. The government succeeded in its goal of halving rough sleeping by 2022 — thanks in no small part to “Everyone In” and the enormous efforts of colleagues across the homeless sector. The 2021 Spending Review settlement and recent Budgets have promised good news for people sleeping rough and vulnerable renters, and just last weekend the government announced an updated cross-government rough sleeping strategy backed by £2bn (see above). However, whilst these are undeniably important achievements, we also know that achieving rough sleeping targets is just the tip of the iceberg in ending youth homelessness. With homeless young people struggling to access the private rented sector and seeing average rent across the UK reaching record highs when they do, and with 1 in 4 (26%) young people left with just £5 a week to survive after paying their rent and bills, are the wins we hear about in mainstream political discourse enough for the homeless young people we work with every day? To ask a topical question, what demands do we need to make of our new Prime Minister to ensure that young people are properly protected now and in the future?
As I write this, I am sure that there are multiple think pieces being written on the merits and pitfalls of the new government’s plans to get the country back to “normality”. However, a normality in which 50% of young people are going to bed hungry is not good enough. The next generation needs — and deserves — a much more transformative vision. Far too often, young people are left out of mainstream political discourse, and well-meaning rhetoric can fall short when we do not centre those very same young people in the solutions that we propose to societal problems. It is time that our political leaders — whoever they may be — take responsibility for the young people who are falling through the gaps. To coin a phrase, government policy needs to “be more PIE”, and meaningfully reckon with young people’s lived reality and the challenges they face.
As Helen importantly and regularly notes, “PIE is all about people”. Therefore, social and economic policy work that impacts upon vulnerable and homeless young people must be psychologically informed. It must be ‘people-first’ and as per a PIE; ‘co-produced’ with the individuals that it affects. At Centrepoint, we therefore research and campaign on issues that we directly hear about from young people and their keyworkers, and we must push this new government to follow our lead. In short, we need to make the policy space a psychologically safe space and make ample room for homeless young people’s voices to be heard.
To answer my own question posed at the start of this blog (‘what should we demand of our new Prime Minister’?), I believe that one of the greatest tools any of our political leaders have at their disposal is an inspiring and energised generation of young people who deserve to be heard, and who must be engaged in the policy process. We have a responsibility to continue to ensure that homeless young peoples’ voices are amplified (see some of those voices here: https://twitter.com/centrepointuk/status/1567162561463783424) and to advocate for the systemic changes, which will reduce and then end youth homelessness (c.f. https://centrepoint.org.uk/youth-homelessness/the-solution/). As we continue to support homeless young people living at the sharp end of multiple crises at Centrepoint, let us continue to make the case loudly for meaningful PIE informed policy changes that will transform their lives once and for all…’
