Building Futures Before Barriers Begin: How supported accommodation helps 16 to18 year olds prepare for independence and work.
- danield613
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Before the Benefits System, There’s the Belief System
At Oasis Care, we work with young people aged 16 to 18 who are learning to trust again, rebuild routines, and imagine a future that feels both safe and possible.
For most of them, “employment pathways” aren’t yet about wages or work allowances — they start much earlier: with confidence, belonging, and the belief that the future can be different from the past.
That’s why, two years after the YMCA’s Breaking Barriers to Work report, we’re reflecting on what “barrier-breaking” really means for young people who aren’t yet in the workforce but are already navigating the systems that will soon shape their lives.
Policy Talks About Employment — Practice Starts with Stability
The YMCA’s 2023 report focused on young adults aged 18–25 and the barriers they face once they begin to claim benefits or seek work. For 16–18-year-olds in supported accommodation, those barriers take a different form. They don’t begin with Universal Credit, they begin with instability:
Moving between placements or schools.
Navigating new professional relationships.
Carrying trauma from loss, neglect, or separation.
Before a young person can think about jobs or apprenticeships, they need safety, consistency, and connection.That’s where trauma-informed supported accommodation plays its most vital role.
“Our job isn’t just to get a young person into work, it’s to help them reach a place where work even feels possible.”— Chantelle Rotherham, Registered Manager, Oasis Care
Understanding the Real Barriers for 16–18-Year-Olds
The same themes identified by the YMCA for older care leavers already show up in the lives of younger residents — just in different ways.
Barrier | What It Looks Like for 16–18s | What’s Needed |
System complexity | Education, housing, and social care operate under separate frameworks. Young people often fall between them. | Joined-up commissioning and clearer transition planning. |
Limited access to work | Age restrictions, limited transport, and patchy ESOL or vocational training make participation difficult. | Early partnerships with colleges and youth employment programmes. |
Economic pressure | Many rely on local authority allowances or small learning grants that don’t match real living costs. | Practical budgeting support and financial literacy training. |
Trauma and trust | Fear of failure, past instability, or emotional dysregulation can limit engagement. | Consistent staff relationships and trauma-informed approaches. |
These barriers aren’t about lack of motivation, they’re about unreadiness that policy hasn’t yet learned to recognise.
A Welsh Perspective: The Transition Gap
In Wales, legislation such as the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 requires local authorities to prepare young people for adulthood.In practice, this transition planning can happen late or unevenly due to resource pressures.
That’s where providers like Oasis Care step in, building independence, promoting education, and bridging the space between care and self-reliance.
Government programmes like Jobs Growth Wales+ and the Young Person’s Guarantee aim to create employment routes post-18, but without early support, too many young people are unready to benefit.
Our experience echoes national data:
As of October 2025, only 41% of care-experienced young people aged 18–25 in England and Wales were in education, employment, or training (DfE & StatsWales, 2025).
Those outcomes don’t begin at 18.They start years earlier, when young people are still learning to trust adults, regulate emotions, and picture themselves in a classroom or workplace.
What Works in Early Independence Support
At Oasis Care, we believe the work of “breaking barriers” starts years before employment — by giving young people the tools, trust, and stability that make independence possible.
Through our trauma-informed model, we focus on:
1. Routine and Stability Predictable routines that create safety, helping young people build confidence through daily structure.
2. Education and Learning Access Strong links with colleges and ESOL providers so learning becomes achievable, not intimidating.
3. Practical Independence Embedding budgeting, cooking, and healthcare navigation into everyday support, so skills become habits.
4. Consistent Relationships Small, skilled teams that stay consistent, because trust doesn’t grow in turnover.
5. Community Belonging Connecting young people to local clubs, activities, and volunteering to build confidence and social identity.
Every milestone achieved before 18 makes the transition into adulthood less traumatic — and more sustainable.
Why Policy Still Matters
Even though most 16–18s don’t yet claim Universal Credit or PIP, the systems they’ll inherit are being shaped now.
Without targeted investment in trauma-informed supported accommodation, and without consistent transition planning, those same “barriers to work” identified by YMCA risk becoming lifelong.
Prevention has always been better than repair, but prevention requires funding, recognition, and partnership between care providers, education, and commissioners.
Building Futures, Not Just Fixing Problems
For Oasis Care, success doesn’t start with a job offer. It starts with a young person feeling safe enough to believe they can have a job, that they can live independently, make choices, and belong somewhere.
We’re not just helping young people survive systems, we’re helping them outgrow them. 💜
Join the Conversation
We welcome collaboration with commissioners, educators, and community partners who share our goal:to make supported accommodation a launchpad for independence, not just a safety net.
#SocialCare #SupportedAccommodation #TraumaInformedCare #ChildrenInCare #Wales #YouthDevelopment #OasisCare #CareLeavers
References
YMCA (2023) – Breaking Barriers to Work: Removing obstacles for young people in supported housing. Published August 2023. Available online
Department for Education (DfE) & StatsWales (2025) – Care Leaver Outcomes and EET Statistics: October 2025 Update.
Welsh Government (2024) – Housing Support Grant Guidance and Funding Allocations 2024–2025. View on GOV.WALES
Jobs Growth Wales+ (2024) – Programme Overview and Impact Evaluation. View on GOV.WALES
Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 – Welsh Government legislation guiding transition planning for young people.
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