Protecting young people from the trauma of homelessness

Member blog

24 Apr 2025

For over 35 years, Scottish charity the Rock Trust has been advising, educating and supporting young people to build the personal skills and resources required to make a positive transition to adulthood. However, with recent figures showing over 10,000 children living in temporary accommodation in Scotland, the charity’s work has never felt more urgent.

Ahead of presenting a workshop at Children in Scotland’s Annual Conference next month, Policy and Public Affairs Officer at the Rock Trust, Lara Balkwill, explains how a pilot project is working to prevent young people from entering the cycle of homelessness and experiencing the trauma that comes with it.

Today in Scotland we are facing a very real homelessness crisis; with over 10,000 children living in temporary accommodation, and 16–24-year-olds making up 21% of the homeless population, despite making up just 13% of the Scottish population. We can all agree that Scotland’s children and young people deserve so much better.

And at Rock Trust we are more committed than ever to achieving our mission to end youth homelessness in Scotland. We are doing all we can to ensure that young people under 25 across the country can access youth-specific services and support when they need it. And if we can do this then we can help young people to avoid, resolve and move on from homelessness. We also know that investing in prevention as early as possible is critical if we are going to prevent young people entering the cycle of homelessness and experiencing the trauma that comes with it.

Introducing Upstream Scotland

In November 2023, we launched our three-year pilot of Upstream Scotland, our schools-based prevention programme, which we believe can help to stop young people in Scotland from becoming homeless by preventing it from ever happening in the first place.

Inspired by the successes of our international Upstream partners, we are running Upstream Scotland in seven schools across four local authorities: Edinburgh, Perth & Kinross, West Lothian and now Fife.

Whilst at Rock Trust we normally support young people from 16, we know that effective prevention work needs to start even earlier - and so our Upstream pilot is currently working with children in S3-S5, aged from 13 upwards.

What is the survey showing us already?

Over 2,000 young people have completed our survey this year, with results showing;

Over 7% are at risk of youth homelessness
Over 6% are at risk of family homelessness
Over 25% are reporting high levels of conflict at home

We also know that many of the young people who are at risk are flying under the radar - Upstream is successfully spotting the very real support needs of young people who aren’t in touch with other services. On top of this, over half of the young people who have been offered support have accepted it - young people are keen to engage with person centred 1:1 support, recognising the benefits it can bring them.

How are we supporting young people?

Our expert project workers are delivering a broad range of emotional and practical support, as well as referrals and signposting to relevant local services. And whilst it is still early days for the pilot, our Upstream project workers and education partners are already noticing signs of improved wellbeing and are supporting young people to reach their personal goals.

One project worker shared; “Watching the young people grow in confidence and resilience has been really rewarding. From completing prelims, applying to college or getting a part time job each young person has worked really hard towards their goals.”

We look forward to sharing more evidence and case studies of Upstream Scotland enabling young people to reach their goals and improve their outcomes as the pilot goes on.

What next?

Throughout our pilot, Upstream Scotland is being independently evaluated by the Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Equalities Research at Heriot-Watt University, and our first-year evaluation has recently been published - check out the executive summary here

We are adapting and learning throughout the pilot, to ensure Upstream Scotland is the best prevention tool it can be. Currently we are looking at whether a whole family approach to support should be explored, as we know that family conflict is a key driver of youth homelessness.

What does the future of Upstream Scotland look like?

We believe Upstream Scotland has the real potential to be an impactful prevention tool in every school across Scotland. We believe that each evaluation will strengthen the argument as to why every school should have access to prevention programmes like Upstream Scotland- so watch this space or get in touch!

Interested in learning more or rolling out Upstream in your school or area?

Read more on our website, and check out Heriot Watt's independent first year evaluation
Stay engaged by subscribing to the Rock Trust's email
Contact Lara Balkwill, Policy and Public Affairs Officer, to arrange a chat