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This paper presents data from a survey of 283 out‐of‐school youth conducted in New South Wales, Australia, supplemented by interviews with a separate group of out‐of‐school youth. Overall the data indicate that those adolescents who leave school early for “home reasons” generally enjoyed their school experience, but that family problems or dysfunction resulted in them having to leave. Once out of school, and in many cases out of home, they are a highly vulnerable group, more likely to participate in health‐damaging behaviours, and to experience more mental health problems than adolescents who left school early for other reasons. This group of early school leavers have enjoyed their school experience and have some “connectedness” to school that is severed when they leave. Schools have not demonstrated their capacity to identify and support students in such adverse circumstances. These results suggest that schools need to be better equipped to identify and manage adolescents who are having difficulties at home, and who may need to leave home as a consequence of abuse or neglect. The results also point to the need for accessible counselling and advisory services within school, and school protocols for crisis management, especially for students who leave their family home.

Understanding and predicting the behaviours of households within a community is a key concern for fire services as they plan to deliver effective and efficient public services. In this paper, an agent-based modelling approach is used to deepen understandings of changing patterns of behaviour within a community. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This “Premonition” model draws on historical data of fire incidents and community interventions (e.g. home safety checks, fire safety campaigns, etc.) collated by South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, UK, to unpack patterns of changing household behaviours within the region.

Findings from simulations carried out using the Premonition model, show that by targeting close-knit groups of connected households, the effectiveness of preventative interventions and utilisation of associated resources is enhanced. Furthermore, by repeating these interventions with the same households over time, risk factors within the wider area are further reduced.

The study thus shows that annual repeat visits to fewer and more targeted high-risk postcodes increase the overall reduction in risk within an area, when compared with a scattered coverage approach using one-off (i.e. not repeat) household visits within a postcode.