For social workers & Personal Advisers
Refer a young person — and get an answer in two hours.
A referral to Milestone is quick to make and quick to answer. Send us what you have; we give you a written decision within two hours, and from day one the reporting is built to lift straight into your statutory recording.
How to refer
Four steps, most of them ours.
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Send the referral
Email us the young person's details and what you know. If something is missing we will tell you the same day, rather than sitting on it.
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Same-day acknowledgement
Every referral is acknowledged the day it arrives, with confirmation of anything we still need to reach a decision.
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A written decision within two hours
With enough to work from, you get a clear accept or a reasoned decline within two hours — and, where we can, a suggestion of a better-matched service.
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Placement and start report
On acceptance we agree a start, help the young person register with a GP and dentist and lodge a Housing Benefit claim, and send you a placement start report within 72 hours.
What to send us
Enough for us to check age, scope, needs and matching. In practice:
- The young person's details and evidence they are 18 or over
- Their current situation and why a move is needed now
- Known needs — health, mental health, substance use, finances, education or work
- Known risks — to self, from others, to others — and any exploitation or offending history
- Relationships and anyone who should, or should not, know where they live
- The funding authority, your contact details, and the Pathway Plan or PEP if you have them
We work from what you have. A gap in the paperwork is a reason to call, not a reason to decline.
Emergency & same-day
A safe bridge tonight, a home within days.
When a placement breaks down at 9pm, or a young person is leaving custody or hospital with nowhere to go, you need an answer now — not a waiting list.
Our bridging option gets a young person somewhere safe the same day and works to a planned move into one of our houses within 72 hours. It is held to exactly the same discipline as a planned admission: 18 or over, in scope, properly risk-assessed — never a placement made in haste and regretted at leisure.
The bridge, in short
- Same-day safety for a genuine emergency
- Age and scope verified before anyone is placed
- A target transition into a house within 72 hours
- A spot rate quoted transparently up front
The Social Worker Interface Pack
Nine reports that do half your recording.
Every output is designed so the provider does half the reporting work a placement generates for you. Each report arrives pre-formatted to slot straight into your statutory duties — mapped to the Pathway Plan dimensions, with the young person's voice quoted, and ready to forward without reformatting.
All nine reports auto-populate from the same needs, risk and support assessment, so there is no double-keying. They align with — but never replace — the Pathway Plan.
Referral Decision Report
A written accept or decline within two hours, with the professional rationale set out: age verified, in scope, needs we can meet, matching and compatibility, risks and how they are managed. A well-reasoned decline is written to the same standard as an acceptance.
Placement Start Report (72-hour)
Sent within 72 hours of arrival and written to lift straight into your placement record: settling-in, an initial needs and risk summary by domain, and the practical set-up checks — GP, dentist, optician, Universal Credit at the correct rate, Housing Benefit, bank and ID.
Monthly Placement Summary
One page plus appendix every month — progress set out by Pathway Plan dimension so it pastes across with attribution, a clear safeguarding and incidents line, the young person's voice, and an entitlements tracker. The report that does half your monthly recording for you.
Pathway Plan Contribution Report
Pre-filled provider input for the six-monthly statutory review, with a distance-travelled table and a recommendation against each of the eight Pathway Plan dimensions — so the review is largely drafted before you sit down.
Incident / Safeguarding Notification
In your authority's format, with the safeguarding routing made explicit: a factual chronology, immediate action, whether the Care Act threshold is met, the leaving-care and exploitation routes, and any police reference. Where the adult threshold is not met, that is never treated as "no action".
Missing Episode & Return Conversation
Risk-based rather than a fixed clock, and formatted to discharge and feed your own return-interview duty — including a voluntary, trauma-informed return conversation that updates the risk picture.
EET Progress Report
Each term: current education, employment or training status, progress and barriers, and a bursary and entitlement checklist — because part of our job is making sure a young person gets every pound of support they are entitled to.
Move-On / Transition Report
A closing summary that doubles as outcomes evidence: tenancy-readiness scored against the intake baseline, distance travelled, forwarding actions, and our retained trusted-adult "open door".
Weekly Digest
A five-line, emailable touchpoint per young person — a RAG rating, one highlight, one ask, and the young person's voice — so you stay in the loop with almost no reading. Anything rated red is followed by a full notification; the digest never replaces one.
Referral questions
Before you send it over.
How long does a decision really take?
Two hours from a referral with enough information to work from. If we are missing something, we tell you the same day rather than leaving you waiting — and the two-hour clock runs from when we have what we need.
Who can you accommodate?
Care-experienced adults aged 18 and over, principally aged 18 to 25. We provide housing-related and developmental support only; we do not accommodate anyone under 18, and we do not provide personal care. Where a young person's needs cross into personal care, we arrange a registered domiciliary provider alongside the placement rather than absorbing the need.
What if you have to decline?
You get a written rationale to the same standard as an acceptance, and — where we can — a pointer to a better-matched service. A decline is a professional judgement, explained, not a silence.
Do your reports replace my recording?
No — they feed it. Each report is mapped to the Pathway Plan dimensions and written so you can lodge or paste it with attribution. They align with your statutory duties; they never claim to discharge them for you.
Have a young person to place?
Send us what you have. You will hear back the same day, with a written decision within two hours of us having enough to work from.