At a time when we are closely watching our household budgets and see stories of families not being able to cope with the rise in the cost of living, and an increase in homelessness, organisations like Bedspace, have an important role in society supporting vulnerable people in their pathway towards independence and the daily pressures of running a home.

I caught up with Managing Director, Nick Thornhill, to hear more about how Bedspace is expanding across the North, supporting the rising number of vulnerable people in local communities.

Nick tells me that Bedspace has been 23 years in the making and was originally set up to support asylum seekers and unaccompanied young people seeking new lives in the UK. It provides high-quality housing and support services to people in need.

“Supporting these asylum seekers and unaccompanied individuals led us to start working with indigenous young people offering an integrated service. We now support about 80% indigenous young people and 20% unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

“We help young people prepare to live independently in society. It starts with them relocating into accommodation as part of our services pathway, with each stage of the service offering varied and tailored levels of support. These include the Group Living service where an individual will be housed with 3 or 4 young people, to Trainer Flats where they live in self-contained accommodation with 24/7 on-site support from a member of staff.

“By offering support, as opposed to care, we empower them to do more for themselves rather than it being done for them.

“That may take many forms but primarily teaching life skills such as cooking, making their own bedrooms, and taking care of bills, whilst we watch over to help and assist when needed. In a care environment all this would be done for them and it’s these little stepping stones and consistent support which allows the young person to progress at their own pace along the independence route, which makes an impact. We call it going through the Bedspace Pathway to ultimately independence,” Nick explains.

Outreach, Nick tells me, or Supported Tenancy as some authorities term it, is where an individual has their own one-bedroom house with anything from 10, 15 or 20 hours of support. That is the stage before full independence.

“We are helping young people to stand on their own two feet and thrive in their lives going forward.“

Bedspace moved across the Pennines, it initially started in Blackpool, to Yorkshire and has eight projects mainly in Leeds as well as Wakefield and Hull with big plans for expansion in Bradford and Sheffield where the organisation secured tenders to open a number of Group Living alongside the Trainer Flat model and supported tenancies.

According to Nick, Trainer Flats tend to be about five, six or seven flats all located in a block.

“We have the whole block where we are able to place young people into one of those flats, supported by a member of staff.

“I suppose they are like micro flats, and by having a staff member on site to manage the door to the block it protects vulnerable young people.

“It is these stepping stones which gives them an opportunity to see how they would live in a small independent dwelling on their own with higher level supervision. The next step from there would be into supported semi-independence followed by full independence.”

As we chat, it becomes evident how Bedspace is making a difference in helping young people manage their own home, keeping it clean and managing money and relations all accompanied by a support mechanism.

The age group Nick and his team work with are in the main, 16 to 18-year-olds, but Bedspace also provides support to all people at any age who are vulnerable with accommodation.

There is a Bedspace Pathway, which I am informed is really important in supporting and accommodating vulnerable people.

“It pulls together various different services. Briefly, it starts with the Ofsted regulated Children's Residential service, from there it leads to Group Living, similar to a residential home,” and here Nick reinforces an earlier point, “it's not about care it’s about support.”

“After that there are Trainer Flats - the step before young adults can go semi-independent or into supported accommodation then fully independent. It is important to note that not all steps are required for every young individual, and that Solo Tenancy Support can be implemented at any stage. It is this tailored support that the Bedspace Pathway encourages, that allows us to transform lives.”

Nick tells me that a charity has been set up to complement the work of Bedspace, The Bedspace Trust. Its prime function will initially help support post-18 vulnerable adults.

And it is clear to Nick that Bedspace must step in with this solution to prevent the cycle of homelessness. He hopes that other organisations in the sector will follow Bedspace’s example, and begin to provide support for post-18s.

We start talking about how Government can help, “Universal Credit and other policy initiatives have to be looked at. Saying to a young person, it is now your 18th birthday, and you are fit to stand on your own two feet, is preposterous. There may be the small percentage that can, but we need that safety net in place for those who cannot. A vulnerable person that doesn't have any family, that’s not been told how to manage life, would it seems, have been forgotten.

“That’s why we have a planned pathway highlighting how to get from A to B, C to D.”

I want to learn more and wonder if I am stereotyping when I ask if the demographics point to more of the male population seeking Bedspace assistance. It turns out it used to be predominantly males but increasingly more females are presenting as homeless. Roughly it is about two-thirds male compared to a third female.

And for Nick it is unacceptable. He tells me there are 170 young people his teams are currently supporting, trying to keep them in accommodation that could be lost as they have reached their 18th birthdays.

”We currently fund that to the tune of about £300,000 per annum, that's our charitable contribution otherwise 170 young adults would effectively be homeless.”
For a moment Nick digresses and talks about his wonderful team who he recruits not just on academic ability but personality too.

“It’s a vocation. I am looking for that disposition; you can teach the qualification, but you can't teach that caring personality.”

The organisation has achieved its goal of hiring 100 new employees, a year ahead of its 2024 target across distinct roles from support workers, admin assistants and senior leadership staff.

Around 20% of the new staff have been hired in Yorkshire, whilst another 20% of new employees are based in the Greater Manchester and Preston region, 32% in Liverpool, and 23% in regional support function or management roles.

Nick also supports his team through a recognised qualification ASDAN, which helps staff to teach about independent living, budgeting, managing tenancy contracts and dealing with relationships whether it be family or outside.

“Building these positive relationships are so important to us in getting people ready for short term tenancies. If we can keep a roof over their head, we can dissipate some of the emotional trauma.

“Through the Post-18 service alone, we’ve helped 170 people across the North to stay off the street and to feel safe.

“I am massively proud of that.

“Society is broken. You only have to look at Leeds and Manchester rental prices, crazy, crazy, crazy.

“There is an enormous lack of understanding. These young people didn’t choose their environment, the environment chose them. So, someone has to be there for them.”