Influencing policy
Centrepoint campaigns to influence national and local government
policy affecting homeless young people. We focus on three areas of
policy:
- Housing and benefits
- Family and health
- Education and skills
We meet with key government ministers, civil servants and other
elected officials to work with them to improve parliamentary
bills and departmental guidelines, and to argue for the best
possible financial settlement for services for homeless young
people.
Click to enlarge
Our campaigns draw on the experiences and views of the young
people we support and from the Centrepoint Parliament.
We support our public policy work through research, which
sheds light on the situation on the ground in Centrepoint services
in London and the North East, as well as in our partner services
across the country. We also commission broader academic studies
from leading universities, and hold events to highlight our work
and research with policymakers. Browse our recent research publications.
How are we doing?
Have a look at our campaign successes and see the
effect our policy influencing work has been having on homeless
young people accross the country. Recently, we have:
- Benefited 19,200 homeless young people per year by persuading
the government to exempt them from the extension of the shared
acccommodation rate restriction on housing benefit to 25-34 year
olds.
- Secured guaranteed financial support for 23,000 homeless and
other vulnerable young people aged 16-19 every year to replace the
education maintenance allowance (EMA).
- Forced the government to drop their plans to cut housing
benefit by 10% for anyone out of work for more than year,
benefiting thousands of young people every year.
Want to find out more?
Have a look at our catalogue of responses to
government consultations and the policy
briefings that we have given to MPs and Peers to find out what
we think about government policy.