Supporting independence? Evaluation of the teenage parent supported housing pilot - final report

The Teenage Parent Supported Housing (TPSH) pilot involved seven local authorities providing ‘enhanced support packages’ for teenage parents, with a particular emphasis on those aged 16 and 17 and those not living with parents/carers (including those living in their own homes or supported housing). The pilot projects were operational from early 2009 to March 2011. Research was commissioned to evaluate the TPSH pilot, the aims of which were to assess the effectiveness of enhanced support packages in terms of the impact on outcomes for teenage parents (mothers and, insofar as possible, fathers) and their children; provide greater understanding of what the key components of an enhanced support package should look like; and, assess the cost effectiveness/value for money of each pilot authority’s enhanced support package delivery model. The evaluation employed a multi-method approach and involved: analysis of project-level monitoring and costs data; interviews with project co-ordinators and service providers; focus groups with service users; a longitudinal survey of service users; and telephone interviews with the parents/carers of service users. It also compared pilot outcomes with outcomes recorded for other teenage parents accessing alternative services recorded via the Supporting People database.