Upstream UK wins Homeless Link Excellence Award for best partnership

A four-nation initiative tackling youth homelessness before crisis point has won the Homeless Link Excellence Award for best partnership, in recognition of its growing impact across schools and communities in every nation of the UK.

Upstream UK is chaired by Llamau and delivered in partnership with Centrepoint, The Rock Trust and MACS. Working across Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, it helps identify risk early, strengthen family relationships and prevent homelessness long before a young person reaches crisis.

Yvonne Connolly, Upstream UK Chair, said: “This award is recognition of what is possible when organisations work together around a shared commitment to end youth homelessness. Upstream UK is helping shift the focus away from crisis response to earlier, targeted intervention, giving young people and their families support before problems escalate.”

In just over four years, the programme has grown from a single school in Wales to 37 schools across the UK, showing how an evidence-led prevention model can scale while maintaining consistency and quality.

The initiative draws inspiration from the Geelong Project in Australia and operates within secondary schools across the country, utilising a universal screening tool to uncover hidden risk early, often before crisis occurs or teachers would otherwise be aware. The programme then works in partnership with local organisations to deliver a series of tailored interventions from family mediation, health support and homelessness education.

Across all four nations, 98% of young people supported through Upstream have remained safely at home, while 85% of families have achieved personal wellbeing goals, including improved communication, reduced conflict and stronger relationships.

This demonstrates the power of early, relationship centred intervention delivered through genuine collaboration.

Centrepoint Chief Executive Seyi Obakin OBE said: “We are proud to be part of a partnership that is showing what national collaboration can achieve. By working together across systems and places, we can identify hidden need earlier and help change young people’s trajectories before homelessness takes hold.”

Alistair MacDermid, Head of Services, Rock Trust said: “This award means a great deal to everyone who has worked on Upstream across all four nations. What Llamau, Centrepoint, MACS NI and Rock Trust have built together isn’t just a programme running in parallel in different places; it’s one shared model, one evidence base, one set of standards. This allows it to be effective, scalable and delivered consistently from Wales to Scotland to England to Northern Ireland.

“The results speak for themselves. Across the UK, 98% of young people supported through Upstream have remained safely at home. That’s what happens when you stop waiting for young people to reach crisis and start reaching them where they are, in school, before things fall apart.”

About Upstream UK Upstream UK is a four-nation partnership focused on preventing youth homelessness through earlier identification and intervention. Chaired by Llamau and delivered with Centrepoint, The Rock Trust and MACS , the programme works with schools and local services to identify hidden risk, strengthen family relationships and prevent homelessness before crisis occurs