There’s no place like home

09 June 2008

A groundbreaking initiative piloted by Lambeth Council’s housing division is keeping families together when family rows and conflicts threaten to break them up.

The Time Out accommodation – a newly refurbished four floor building is a neutral haven for young people to stay, providing time and space away from the family home, for troubled teens. The first set of ‘tenants’ are currently making use of mediation services on offer.

Debbie*, 16, was on the verge of leaving her parents’ home because of constant arguments and the tensions between them.

“I wanted to get away from my parents,” says Debbie. “I thought life would be better on my own.”

Her mother Shannon* said: “We were constantly at loggerheads and she made a decision that she was going to leave.”

Instead Debbie was persuaded to go into the Time Out centre for six weeks. She was assigned a family liaison officer and the family would come to the centre for regular mediation sessions.

After six weeks, Debbie moved out of the centre and back into the family home. “The centre was very useful for me,” she says.

The service has been set up by Lambeth Housing in partnership with Supporting People and run by Look Ahead Housing and Care and Alone in London.

The Time Out building houses three mediation rooms, where trained family mediators can work with the young people and their parents in a neutral environment away from their home. The rooms have been designed and colour themed by specialists to provide a calm and relaxing environment for ‘arbitration’ to take place.

The ‘bed-sits’ are available free of charge for up to six weeks while the family works with trained officers to repair their damaged relationships enabling the youngsters to return home. Follow-up mediation sessions are offered after the young person has returned home to help prevent them from falling back into dispute.

Lib Peck, cabinet member for housing and regeneration said: “It is easy for family conflict to escalate to a stage where young people leave home. They can end up living on the streets with all the attendant dangers of street life. The Time Out accommodation service provides a necessary ‘buffer’ at a time when raised tempers can lead to negative life-changing decisions. The accompanying mediation service can put families on the road to a more positive and enduring family relationship”.

Referrals to the service are made through the Family Support Service on 020 7926 5135 or familysupport@lambeth.gov.uk