Reaching out to help young people

The progress of a project to remodel residential care for Perthshire’s young people has been praised by council committee members.

In August 2017, the lifelong learning committee approved a plan to transform support for the over 12s, young people who are ‘on the edge of care’.

The idea was that in future, instead of being offered a stay in a small residential unit, there would be a multi-disciplinary team, which would offer “intensive and flexible support, 24/7” while these youngsters remained at home and attending school.

It aimed to improve the outcomes for young people from Perth and Kinross who are ‘looked after’ or at risk of becoming looked after.

At first referred to as the “HUB” model, this was renamed as REACH.

The idea was to reduce the number of young people being placed in external residential placements, many of which are often a long way from their family home.

Council committee members heard on Wednesday that REACH will have made a full transformation of how ‘at risk’ young people are engaged with and will be “fully online” from January 2019.

Going forward, the team will be available to help young people and steer them away from risky behaviour and build “more resourceful, more resilient, flourishing young people.” Councillor Willie Willson, vice convenor for the lifelong learning committee said: “This has been an exciting progress report on an exciting project. It will expand our capacity to respond to a variety of situations.”

Councillor John Rebbeck added: “My only reservation is that there is no emergency accommodation on offer.

“But overall, the officers’ work on REACH should be commended.”