Thomas Bridges makes a mean curry. He has worked out that he can cook one for himself for a fraction of the cost of a takeaway. And it tastes better. In fact he has got so interested in cooking that he is going to apply for a catering course at a local college and his dream is to be a chef.

When you’re rich and famous and on TV, I ask, will you remember Action for Children? “Aye!” says Thomas with a laugh. “Aye, I might.” He’s 17 and one of more than 30 homeless young people in Easterhouse, Glasgow, most of them care leavers, who are being supported in tenancies by the charity. The scheme, called GenR8, finds flats for homeless young people and mentors them in the arts of independent living. They learn about budgeting, cooking and - the major issue - door management: in other words, why the neighbours will get annoyed if you have parties every night.

Thomas describes growing up in care as “murder”. He says: “Getting shipped about, different homes, nowhere settled. I was 11 or 12 when I went into care, things were tough. It’s not nice being in care, not being around your family. You grow up with young people you don’t know, and you have nae privacy, basically.”

He left care at 16 and started “sofa-surfing” with friends, or living with his gran. Then GenR8 found him a tenancy. “The best thing was my house. It’s my house. Now I can shut the door. It feels a lot better.”

Yvonne Russell, Thomas’s project worker, says: “What we have found is that you can give young people the key to a house, but what you are doing is just setting them up to fail. An extremely high percentage of young people getting tenancies are brought down by door management and rent arrears.”

GenR8, which has been running for five years, has never had to issue an eviction notice. “If the young people know there is an organisation there that really cares for them, it makes a difference,” Ms Russell said.