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INVISIBLE WOMEN How can we improve the support available for homeless women - and realise one size doesn’t fit all? EVERYTHING TO PLAY FOR The Homeless Football Association on how the national sport can be so much more than just a game. 21 VISIONS 1 DEBATE What did 21 of your colleagues from across the sector say about ending homelessness? HOW DO WE END HOMELESSNESS? JOIN THE DEBATE CONNECT JULY 2012, ISSUE 46 | WWW.HOMELESS.ORG.UK 8-10 17-28 38 & 39 CONNECT THE MAGAZINE OF THE HOMELESSNESS SECTOR ISSN 2046-2921

CONNECT 46 - how do we end homelessness? Join the debate

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21 Visions, 1 debate -what did 21 of your colleagues from across the sector say about ending homelessness? Invisible Women - improving the support available for homeless women - and realising that one size doesn't fit all. Everything to Play For - the Homeless Football Association on how the national sport can be so much more than just a game. And much more...

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INVISIBLE WOMENHow can we improve the support available for homeless women - and realise one size doesn’t fit all?

EVERYTHING TO PLAY FORThe Homeless Football Association on how the national sport can be so much more than just a game.

21 VISIONS 1 DEBATEWhat did 21 of your colleagues from across the sector say about ending homelessness?

HOW DO WE ENDHOMELESSNESS?

JOIN THE DEBATE

CONNECT JULY 2012, ISSUE 46 | WWW.HOMELESS.ORG.UK

8-10 17-28 38 & 39

CONNECTTHE MAGAZINE OF THE HOMELESSNESS SECTOR

ISSN 2046-2921

WELCOME CONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46

PASSION, SKILLS& CREATIVITY:PATHWAYS TO WELLBEINGOne-day conference supporting homeless people to improve their wellbeing through sports, arts and outdoor activities.

Looking after our wellbeing isn’t always easy, especially for someone experiencing

homelessness.

But the path to independence can be assisted when someone is helped to feel more

positive about who they are and the future they’re able to achieve. There are practical

steps you can take to help improve the wellbeing of the people you support.

This event will give you the tools to plan and run a range of sustainable, inclusive activities

to help your clients improve their wellbeing.

25 SEPTEMBER 2012 | BIRMINGHAMhomeless.org.uk/event-wellbeing | 020 7840 4461

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WELCOMECONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46

IN CONNECT 46UPFRONT

Matt Harrison - Director of Business & Enterprise.

SECTOR ROUND-UP

Recent news from the sector.

NAC SPOTLIGHT

National Advisory Council update from Jon Cox.

INVISIBLE WOMEN

One size doesn’t fit all in homelessness services.

Jane Bancroft asks how can we improve the support available for homeless women.

NOT WORKING

Paul Anders revisits the theme of CONNECT 45

and asks what we can learn from the results of

our new survey of homeless people who have

experienced the Work Programme.

MEET RICK HENDERSON

We invited members, clients and colleagues

to interview him Homeless Link’s new CEO Rick

Henderson. Here’s what he told us...

THE IMPLICATIONS OF CHANGE

Kathleen Caper looks at four key Welfare Reform

issues and what you need to do about them.

21: WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO END HOMELESSNESS?

A 12 page special with 21 opinions from across

the sector on ending homelessness - and an

invitation to join the debate

A CURE FOR HEALTH

Poor hospital admission and discharge has been

a problem for homeless people for too long. While

some hospitals are getting it right, Helen Mathie

asks what will it take for the rest to follow?

BETTER ENGAGEMENT, BETTER OUTCOMES

Jon Bramley of Two Saints reports on their recent

personalisation pilot.

RECIPE FOR A PERFECT NSNO

What ingredients do you need for a ‘perfect’

NSNO approach? Lisa Reed explains.

THAT’S THE WAY THE MONEY GOES

One year on from the launch of the £20m

Homelessness Transition Fund, Samantha Rennie

steps back to see how it’s working.

THE SHORTLIST

Meet the shortlisted entrants from this year’s

Michael Whippman Award - in pictures.

EVERYTHING TO PLAY FOR

In the Olympic year, Lindsey Horsfield looks at

another exciting sports development that is

happening right here in the homelessness sector.

TAKE A STEP - THE HOMELESS HACK

Shaun Forde took part in one of the more tech-

savvy steps we’ve heard about to date.

MANAGING PEOPLE

In her regular column, Helen Giles looks at what

we need to do to keep the creative juices flowing.

MISSING PEOPLE

A new helpline service can help homeless adults

to reconnect.

WHAT’S ON?

RESOURCES

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www.homeless.org.uk/connect

NEXT IN CONNECT: In CONNECT 47, as 2012 draws to a close, we’ll look how efforts to end rough sleeping and

homelessness have evolved during the Olympic year. Story to share? Get in touch - [email protected]

SUBSCRIPTIONS: to subscribe or take out additional subscriptions, please email [email protected]

EDITOR: Martin Reed COVER IMAGE: Choir With No Name singing at the Royal Opera House in With One Voice.

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UPFRONT CONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46

Sometimes we need to forge ahead, stubbornly confident that we’re on the right path. As a sector, it’s something we’ve become good at – especially in recent years – knuckling down and getting on with things, in the face of adversity.

But sometimes we should pause for a moment. We need

to look at where we’ve come from, look ahead to where

we’re going. We have to step back and make sure we

have the right blue print to achieve our ambition of

ending homelessness.

We’ve arrived at one of those moments now. In 2010, we

published ten steps to ending homelessness in England,

but much has changed since then. Homelessness has

risen as a result of the recession, services across England

have faced unprecedented cuts to funding and

Government has embarked on a massive programme of

welfare reform.

With the arrival of Rick Henderson to take the reins as CEO

of Homeless Link, it is a good time for us to take stock and

refresh our plan to end homelessness.

WHAT MATTERS?We have started running regional and national

discussions with Homeless Link members about their

priorities and ideas – tapping into the expertise,

experience and passion that drive you. How can we

prevent people from becoming homeless and, if they

do, ensure they get the support they need to regain their

independence? What services do we need in place?

How can we fund them? These are just some of the

questions we want to answer.

This debate is continuing throughout the summer –

and we want you to take part. We know that of all the

staff and clients across our 500 member organisations,

everyone has their own ideas of what it will take to end

homelessness. We know that some are optimistic about it,

while others are less positive. We’re a diverse group – and

we hope to hear a diverse range of solutions.

Do get involved. It’s essential that we hear from all

quarters – because ultimately this will help to steer our

own work and how we campaign on your behalf.

To join the debate, turn to our special 12 page feature

on ending homelessness, starting on page 17, to find out

what other members are saying.

A SHARED VISIONOur vision must not change. We want an England where

the right help prevents homelessness before it begins,

where no one lives on our streets and where anyone who

has been homeless is supported to take control of their

future.

But why shouldn’t we take it a step further than that?

MAKE THE EXCEPTION THE RULEI think sometimes we presume there’s a limit on how much

we expect people to move on with their lives. We put

a lid on their potential. This struck me when we heard

about the richly deserved OBE awarded to Jimmy Carlson

recently.

Jimmy, a former soldier, slept rough for 23 years – but

since turning his life around in the late 1990s he has

dedicated his life to improving services for homeless

people. We were overjoyed for him, many of us at

Homeless Link having been involved with him through his

work with Groundswell – and you can read more about

him over the page.

But as I looked through the other names on the honours

list – all the Kate Winslets and Gary Barlows, all the leaders

and heads of organisations, the sort of people everyone

expects to see on an honours list – I couldn’t help but

question whether, on balance, there should only be one

person on the list who has experienced and recovered

from homelessness.

Perhaps as a society, there’s room for us to rethink how we

gauge and acknowledge real achievement – and how

UPFRONT

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NEWSCONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46

we judge what people are capable of.

I’m writing this on 2nd July, and in a few hours some of

us will be preparing to head to the Royal Opera House

for With One Voice. Presented by Streetwise Opera and

part of the London2012 Festival, this concert showcases

the skills of 300 performers who have experienced

homelessness. It’s the first time that homeless people

have been featured at the heart of an Olympic event.

It’s a celebration of their talents and a reminder that we

shouldn’t presume a limit on people’s potential.

MEET RICK HENDERSONI have spent the last 7 months holding the fort at

Homeless Link, and I shall now be handing over to

Rick Henderson. Rick comes to us from the national

membership organisation Action for Advocacy that he

set up in 2001 and led for 11 years. He brings a wealth of

experience and skills to Homeless Link. However he won’t

know many of you. I know he’ll be spending as much

time as possible over the next few months getting out

and about across the country visiting your projects and

meeting as many of you as possible. He’ll also be at all

our national events and as many regional ones as he can

fit in. In the meantime, you can find out a bit more about

him in his interview on page 12.

Homeless Link is a great organisation to work for. And a

large part of what makes it great is the connection with

our members. Your dedication and determination to end

homelessness provides us with the energy to sustain our

vision.

Matt Harrison Director of Business & Enterprise Homeless Link

We’re staying positive in this edition’s Sector Round-up – focusing on two stories that have inspired us over the past few weeks.

THREE HUNDRED PERFORMERS, ONE VOICEOn 2 July, 300 performers who have experienced

homelessness took part in a concert at the Royal Opera

House, Covent Garden. Presented by Streetwise Opera,

the aim of the event was to ensure that the talents of

homeless people were showcased at the heart of London

2012.

Between acts, we caught up with Matt Peacock, founder

of Streetwise Opera and one of the organisers of the

event. He said: “It’s amazing to be in the Royal Opera

House – it feels like it should have happened many, many

years ago, but it’s great that we’re here.

“What’s been amazing is that the performers have just

been so courageous. There’s been such great humour

– in spite of some of them having to get up at 5am this

morning to get down here. We’ve all felt very united.

We’re doing something that’s changing people’s

attitudes towards homelessness. It feels significant that

we’re doing it at the London 2012 Festival. We’re telling

another story about homelessness – one of achievement

and celebration. What I’d like people to take away from

seeing tonight’s show is respect, understanding - and

perhaps that homelessness is something that can happen

to anyone.”

That sentiment was echoed by Streetwise Opera

SECTOR ROUND-UP

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NEWS CONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46

performers Craig Williams, Jo Williams and Darren Power

after the show. Craig, who met his wife Jo through the

group, said: “We’ve all been homeless, we’ve all been on

the streets. We’ve all had people walk past us, pretend

we weren’t there. I think something like this can make

people open their eyes to something they couldn’t see

before.”

The concert featured solo and group artists from all over

the country - from choirs and theatre groups, to singer

song-writers and poets.

Following on from the event, Streetwise Opera has

launched a petition to the International Olympics

Committee, calling on them to make sure that homeless

people have a presence in all future Olympics.

Sign the petition online - go to: bit.ly/olympic-petition

AN OBE FOR JIMMY CARLSONCongratulations to Jimmy Carlson, who spent nearly

quarter of a century living on the streets and in hostels

– but is now set to receive an OBE for his services to

homeless people.

Jimmy spent 23 years addicted to alcohol, before

becoming abstinent in 1996 and dedicating his life to

improving homelessness services.

Over the past fifteen years, the 64 year old Londoner

has advocated the importance of listening to the

experiences of homeless people and involving them in

overhauling services and improving policy.

He has set up numerous client involvement groups

inspiring thousands of homeless people to transform their

lives and the lives of others. Through his involvement with

Groundswell, Jimmy has brought homeless people into

contact with ministers from both the New Labour and

Coalition Governments.

Most recently, he was a member of the Homeless People’s

Commission which collected the views of homeless

people and presented their policy recommendations to

the House of Lords.

Much of Jimmy’s involvement work was done in

collaboration with Mark Flynn (another inspirational

former service user, who went on to carve a successful

career as a social researcher, before he sadly passed

away in 2010) who was the lead in creating the Haven

Club – a social space where people in recovery from

substance misuse could meet in an alcohol and drug free

environment to help each other get their lives back on

track. Starting with a £500 grant, Jimmy has now raised

over £100,000 to keep the club going.

We asked Jimmy what advice he would offer to services

about giving more voice to homeless people. He told us:

“I’ve always advocated that you need to listen to what

homeless people are saying. There’s a vast knowledge

and experience there. The only people who really know

what it’s about are the people who are going through it.

“People need to be involved in their support. They

shouldn’t be mollycoddled. Most of my adult life I was

institutionalised – in the army, on the streets, in hostels.

Independence was taken away from me.

“The best you can do for homeless people is to let them

make a contribution. Do that, and it can lead to great

things. Once I started helping out and volunteering, my

confidence and self-esteem just grew. I had a voice.”

LEFT: Merger performing at With One Voice RIGHT: Matt Peacock of Streetwise Opera

Jimmy Carlson (right) with Mark Flynn

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NACCONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46

The March gathering was

an extraordinary event that

highlighted the significant voice

and influence Homeless Link

affords its members.

We were joined by a wider group

of members, from across the

regions, to a consultation with

DCLG’s Interministerial Working

Group on Homelessness. We discussed the role of the

voluntary sector in homelessness prevention, the need

for practical commissioning, and provision based on an

integrated health, social care and housing response.

In their concluding remarks members hammered home

the value of housing related floating support in the role of

community based homelessness prevention.

In June, we were asked ‘Where next for homelessness?’

and discussed at length what the end of homelessness

will look like – how do we know when we’ve achieved

it? Will the sector need to reconfigure to achieve this –

and if so how? And what are the pros and cons of using

the word ‘homelessness’ as a banner for the sector?

You’ll find some of our thoughts on those questions in the

special feature “Green Paper for a blueprint’ on page 19.

WELFARE REFORMWe cannot avoid talking about Welfare Reform at the

moment – although many might wish we did not have to.

We talked about...

Universal Credit: we discussed the devastating effect

direct payments to clients might have on evictions and

abandonments, clients’ resettlement options, and levels

of debt. Accommodation based services represented

at the meeting said this could make their services

economically unviable. Move on providers suggested it

might reduce the level of private rented sector tenancies

available to our clients by as much as 70%.

Review of exempt accommodation: we considered the

potential impact of the proposed changes and the key

messages we would like Homeless Link to take forward.

These included a plea for any tiered system of payments

for eligible service charges to be heavily consulted on,

and that it be sophisticated enough to recognise the

often legitimate differences in running costs of seemingly

similar services. Allowances have to be enough to meet

actual and necessary costs for services to remain viable.

Related client and organisational needs: we looked

at how Homeless Link can continue to help clients, staff

and senior managers - through its critical influencing

work and by providing timely information via its regional

managers, best practice tools, consultancy, and targeted

training as final decisions are made.

THE MEMBERSHIP DEALIndependent consultant Colin Sherriff is conducting a

review of how Homeless Link is working for its members.

He would particularly like to hear from members on what

they think ‘the deal’ should be between members and

Homeless Link - including expectations from either side.

To feed into that, please email him at:

[email protected]

On a similar note, I have asked for a review of NAC

membership. We want to make sure that all types and

sizes of service are represented, as well as the specific

regions. For that reason, we’re mapping the diversity of

Homeless Link’s membership and comparing it to the

current NAC mix. Once we’ve identified any gaps, we will

target recruitment to fill them.

WELCOMING RICK HENDERSONThe council felt that unity behind a clear vision and

leadership is the way forward at this critical time for

homelessness services. For that reason, we eagerly

welcome the arrival of new CEO Rick Henderson.

Jon Cox, Two Saints - NAC Chair

NAC SPOTLIGHTHomeless Link’s National Advisory Council (NAC) have met twice since my last column - in March and June - two very different meetings that really made the most of the experience of Homeless Link’s members. www.homeless.org.uk/contact-nac

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CONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46FEATURES

INVISIBLE WOMENThere are plenty of examples to demonstrate how a ‘one

size fits all’ doesn’t work in homelessness services. I’d

argue that there’s nowhere it can be more clearly seen

than for women who find themselves homeless.

A women’s journey into homelessness will often have

different characteristics to that of a man’s. There is

frequently a history of domestic violence, traumatic loss

of children/family and a childhood characterised by

unstable housing and often abuse or neglect.

Women’s homelessness is also characterised by a lack

of contact with statutory homelessness services. CHAIN

data in London shows that on average 10-15% of rough

sleepers are women and over half of those living in

temporary accommodation are women.

St Mungo’s Battered Broken Bereft report 2011 recorded

that 19% of their female residents have slept rough, but

anecdotal evidence points to that figure being much

higher. A survey carried out by Crisis in 2006 found that

62% of women who responded to the survey had slept

rough, some for long periods, often in places where they

would not be visible and away from sites of male rough

sleepers.

THE UNSEEN ISSUEHomelessness amongst women is often a hidden

problem, which explains the wide variation in reported

figures. Women frequently take extreme measures to

avoid the dangers of sleeping rough – living in squats,

returning to an abusive partner, engaging in sex work,

living in crack-houses, sofa surfing – even committing

minor crimes in order to be taken into custody.

These situations often intensify the woman’s situation.

It keeps them hidden and without access to services

that can help. A Women’s Aid Federation of England

report published in 2009 identified that the majority

of refuge clients did not seek advice from their social

housing landlord before leaving home to escape

domestic violence. Many women are missing out on the

opportunity of support, especially at an early stage.

The current approach to annual street counts may also

miss counting some homeless women. Counts often occur

in the early hours of the morning, which will exclude

women who sleep rough at different times of day and in

different locations to men. There’s a very real chance that

this might distort the figures, with fewer women appearing

in the counts – and giving the perception that rough

sleeping is largely a male phenomenon.

COMPLEX NEEDSHomeless women often have extremely complex support

needs, including alcohol and substance use, as well as

physical and mental health problems. Due to perceived

challenging behaviour, they often find themselves

actively excluded from services, many of which do not

have the resources or expertise to support them – or even

adequately acknowledge the gender differences in

mixed gender services.

Here’s a snapshot of female clients in St Mungo’s services:

• Two thirds have a mental health problem

• More than half have a substance use issue

• Half have a significant physical medical condition

• More than a tenth have a history of being in social

services care

In the wake of an event organised by Homeless Link, Women’s Resource Centre and St Mungo’s, highlighting the needs of homeless women, Jane Bancroft looks at some of the issues – and asks what we need to do to make sure Homeless Link’s members are able to properly support women through their services.

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CONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46 FEATURES

• Over half have experienced violence or abuse from

a partner or family member

• Four in ten of those who have slept rough have been

involved in prostitution

• Almost one in ten are pregnant, have given birth or

have had an abortion in the last year

• Almost half of St Mungo’s female clients are mothers.

A GAP IN PROVISIONOn the Homeless UK website, of the 8395 services listed

only 672 (8%) are women only. 143 of these services are in

London.

In London there are only two women’s specialist projects

for women with high support needs: one run by The AVA

Project, the other run by St Mungo’s.

According to a six monthly report from London’s No

Second Night Out, 19% of people supported by the

service were women - higher than the percentage

identified in official street counts and estimates. The report

notes: “A small number of women (five) have abandoned

the hub because they do not wish to stay in a room with

many men, and a number of other women have reported

feeling uncomfortable about this. The hub is therefore

not fully accessible to all women, nor appropriate to their

needs.”

The Battered, Broken and Bereft report underscores the

lack of support services to help women, especially those

who have slept rough after fleeing domestic violence or

have more complex support needs. It found that 35% of

women who have slept rough left home to flee domestic

violence – and that on average, they have more support

needs than those who don’t sleep rough.

ADDRESSING NEEDSSome services are beginning to respond to the needs of

this group. With the London wide roll out of No Second

Night Out, a women-only hub has been created.

While the East London Housing Partnership, is in the

process of launching a project that can support women

who have a local connection to East London. Crucially,

they will be able to offer specific support for multiple

needs - including substance misuse, physical ill health,

mental health issues, and survival of abuse or involvement

in prostitution.

The project will provide support for rough sleeping or

homeless women who need intensive support, including

a pathway of diminishing support to prepare them to live

independently.

Meanwhile, St Mungo’s has carried out a detailed review

of women using its services, based on outcomes data.

The review found that while women scored well in the

areas of self-care and physical health, the main areas

of need were substance use, social and emotional

Image copyright Georgina Cranston, from her www.wherefromwherenow.org project

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CONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46FEATURES

wellbeing, offending history and their use of time. On first

arriving in a service, women are more likely to score lower

on the Outcomes Star than other groups – for instance,

women scored 2.9, older male drug users scored 5 and

clients waiting for a flat scored 8.7.

What St Mungo’s realised was that their approach and

methodology were not always appropriate for women.

The result is that they have developed their three year

Women’s Strategy, overseen by a coordinator, to evolve

and improve what they are able to provide.

REBUILDING SHATTERED LIVESBut they also acknowledge that the same difficulties are

being faced by women across the homelessness and

social care sectors.

Their response is Rebuilding Shattered Lives. This new

campaign will run for 18 months and aims to raise

awareness of women’s homelessness, to showcase good

practice and innovation and, ultimately, to improve

services and policy for the future.

The campaign will look at nine themes as it builds a

comprehensive national showcase of innovative and

successful practice and policy driving lasting change for

women in need.

St Mungo’s would like to hear from organisations, front-

line workers and especially homeless women themselves,

about how best to prevent women’s homelessness and

support their recovery. These might include services

that meet the complexity of needs of homeless and

vulnerable women, women’s homelessness prevention

services, move-on housing for women and examples of

good cross-boundary working or innovative funding for

services.

The deadline for submissions for the first theme - housing

and homelessness services for women with complex

needs – is the end of July. The second theme, to be

launched in August will be on domestic abuse and

women’s homelessness.

FUTURE APPROACHESThe specific practical solutions to women’s homelessness

might be as complex as the problems – but the principles

are not.

Based on what we know about what has helped and

what has hindered homeless women to rebuild their lives,

we need to focus our efforts around a number of key

principles.

We need high quality services that can meet the

person, emotional and social needs of women, as well

as housing, health and work. We need to make sure

staff are equipped to understand women’s needs, and

develop partnerships with other agencies and sectors to

guarantee this. We need to increase opportunities for the

involvement of female clients in evolving the services that

help them – and we need to keep talking to them, using

peer research to investigate why women are currently

achieving poorer outcomes than men, and what can be

done about it.

And returning to the fact that one size really doesn’t fit all,

we need to encourage the development of dedicated

projects for women.

Jane Bancroft is Homeless Link’s London Development Officer homeless.org.uk/women

For further reading, turn to the Resources section on the back cover.

Image copyright Georgina Cranston, from her www.wherefromwherenow.org project

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COMMENTCONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46

NOT WORKINGIn the March edition of CONNECT, I expressed concerns

that the Work Programme - a key strand of the Coalition’s

“Get Britain Working” initiatives - isn’t geared up to meet

the needs of those furthest from the job market.

To improve our understanding of this, we carried out a

survey of clients in homelessness services. We plan to

publish the results soon but the themes coming through

from responses so far echo our concerns.

FOUR ISSUES, FOUR SOLUTIONS

Barriers are not being assessed: many members feel

that the housing needs of clients are either not being

considered even if not in permanent accommodation.

We recommend a change of practice, rather than a major overhaul – providers of the Work Programme should ask how effective their diagnostic tools are.

Quality of service: many members question whether

their clients are getting enough support with some

reporting that clients never attended any training or

employment activities.

We recommend providers make their minimum service offer more specific. What can clients expect?

Sanctions: Some services are reporting that clients have

been sanctioned and lost some or all of their benefits.

We recommend extending the duty to consider the vulnerability of clients – because the same things that disadvantage people in the job market will make it difficult to engage in a structured two year programme.

Incorrect referral route: We are concerned that many

homeless people are being referred to the wrong group -

as JSA “mainstream” rather than JSA “Disadvantaged”.

Referral via the wrong group is to nobody’s benefit: we recommend a quick review process for providers to return a case to JCP for reassessment.

THE ALTERNATIVESBased on DWP’s own estimates, around two thirds of

Work Programme customers will not get a job. This may

disproportionately include homeless people and others

furthest from the job market.

By not helping homeless people to find work there will

be significant costs later - estimated to be in the region

of £26k per year per person. By comparison, the level

of payment available for contractors support someone

in the JSA Disadvantaged group looks low - a nominal

maximum of £6,600 over 2 years.

WE’RE ASKING THE GOVERNMENT TO RETHINK

DWP should create a new client group with higher

payments for Work Programme contractors, to avoid

those supporting JSA Disadvantaged clients earning as

little as £800 for two years of support under payment by

results.

The funding model needs to be varied, attracting income

from other government departments or local authorities

via Community Budgets. This might fund additional

services, wage incentives or specially created temporary

jobs for this client group.

Outcomes of disadvantaged clients must be measured

on the ‘distance travelled’ towards being ready for work.

We strongly support efforts – from government or

elsewhere - that support people into work, but based on

what we have seen so far, we are concerned whether

the Work Programme will work for homeless people.

In particular, the use of sanctions will always present

a significant risk to people already living in precarious

situations.

We await the publication of the government’s own Work

Programme performance figures later this year with

interest.

Paul Anders is Employment Manager at Homeless Link homeless.org.uk/get-britain-working

In CONNECT 45, we looked at what the government is doing to support homeless people into paid employment. Paul Anders revisits this theme and asks what we can learn from the results of our new survey of homeless people who have experienced the Work Programme.

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COMMENT CONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46

You’ve come to Homeless Link from your previous role as CEO of Action for Advocacy. Can you tell us about your work there?

Action for Advocacy is the umbrella body for advocacy

groups in England and Wales, with over 500 members.

We did lots of the same kind of work as Homeless Link:

promoting quality; training and capacity building; policy

and campaigning. We also established an advocacy

specific quality mark called the QPM. Before that I

worked in community development and also managing

residential care services.

So it’s your first day at the Homeless Link offices. You’ve got your coffee, settled in behind your desk. What’s first on your to do list?

Well I’ve already had my first day as I’ve been coming

into the office to do my induction before I officially start

full-time. My initial priorities are meeting the team and

Trustees; reading up on the great work of the organisation

and hopefully meeting as many members as possible.

How do you plan to get to know the sector, the people who work in it and the people it supports?

There’s no substitute for legwork! I plan to visit as many

member organisations as I can during the first few weeks,

to see how services are supporting homeless people and

how they are implementing No Second Night Out. I also

want to ask people how the cuts are affecting their ability

to help people.

How do you think your experience of advocacy might translate into your work at Homeless Link?

First and foremost I am passionate about human rights

and about people having a voice and having choice

and control over their lives. I want to help create a

society where every individual is valued regardless of

their circumstances. Advocacy

enables people to access

services and support but it also

empowers, by giving people

the confidence and skills to

speak up for themselves. I

think there is a real need

for advocacy for homeless

people and I’d like to see

more developments in this

area in the coming years.

How should homelessness services be advocating for homeless people? How should Homeless Link be advocating for our members?

It’s all about giving people a

voice, listening to what they say

and taking it seriously. Advocacy is

also about being non-judgmental:

accepting other peoples’ points of

view even if they differ from your own

– that’s true for homeless people and

of course Homeless Link members!

It’s a challenging time for the homelessness sector – with increased demand for reduced services. Members have had to make difficult decisions to keep providing services. How do you see Homeless Link’s role in supporting them through that?

I think in two key ways: firstly,

continuing to lobby Government

MEET RICKHENDERSONAt the beginning of July, Rick Henderson took the reins as Homeless Link’s new CEO.We invited members, clients and colleagues to interview him. This is how he answered...

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COMMENTCONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46

for increased resources to tackle homelessness and its

causes. Secondly, by supporting frontline organisations to

make the most of opportunities that arise and be more

effective with the resources they do have.

How can we make sure that the most excluded people - those with multiple needs - remain at

the heart of Homeless Link’s work and at the top of the political agenda?

Well, the Making Every Adult Matter

(MEAM) work that we are doing

in partnership with Clinks,

DrugScope and Mind has led

the way in this respect. Now

we’d like to see coordinated

approaches rolled out across

the country and this will be

the focus of our work next

year. We all know that timely,

coordinated, person centred

support may cost more in

the first instance but can

save money and improve

outcomes in the long term.

The challenge will be getting

local commissioners to invest

in the work but I think the

evidence speaks for itself.

What are your first impressions of how the

homelessness sector is working? Should we carry on

as we are, should we lobby for more of the same? Or should we

radically redesign ourselves in order to survive the cuts and better serve growing demand?

My first impression of the sector is that

it’s a very broad church, with lots of

different approaches being adopted.

That can be a good thing if it’s being

driven by the diverse needs of local

communities but I think that individual

service users should be able to expect a

certain level of quality and consistency

from any service they access. I also think

that as a sector we should embrace

personalisation much more than we

currently do and that’s something I want

Homeless Link to lead on.

Two newspapers publish an article about homelessness. One focuses on costs, facts and figures – looking to learn from the trends. The other focuses on personal experience – looking to learn from the human impact of homelessness. Which do you read first? And why? Personally I’d be drawn to the human interest story every

time, although I understand the importance of producing

statistical evidence in support of a particular cause.

We’re going to end homelessness. Discuss. Yes we are! But it may take a while. Ending rough sleeping

is a first step towards that ultimate aim and of course

there has been significant progress in the past few years.

The only cloud on the horizon is the current cuts that our

member organisations are facing locally which threaten

to reverse the trend and put more people on the streets.

That’s why we need to keep pressure on Government

at all levels to maintain their commitment to end

homelessness as well.

As part of our Take a Step campaign, we’re inviting everyone to tell us the step they’re taking to help end homelessness. What’s your step? I’m helping to end homelessness by ensuring that

Homeless Link continues to provide a strong and effective

voice for our sector.

We hear you’re lead singer in a band. What discounts can you offer Homeless Link members on tickets for upcoming gigs?

Actually I’m the lead singer and guitarist in a Stranglers

tribute band! I doubt if any CONNECT readers are old

enough to remember the Stranglers though...

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CONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46FEATURES

THE IMPLICATIONSOF CHANGE

Prime Minister David Cameron told us in June that the

whole thrust of his government’s welfare reform is about

“transforming lives - helping people walk taller.”

It’s an easy bit of rhetoric that probably fits better as a

description of the work you do than as a summary of a

government directive – and for that reason, it’s relevant

here.

As the reforms kick in, we need to keep asking what we

can do to make sure the changes don’t hold clients back

from transforming their lives and walking taller – and that

they don’t hinder the work you do to support people –

because there’s a very real risk that they will.

We need a welfare system that prevents homelessness,

supports recovery from it, doesn’t disadvantage

vulnerable people – and that works with homelessness

agencies to help them provide the services that people

need.

Whether or not that’s how the Government sees it, we still

need to be aware of what the changes mean, and when

and how we’ll feel their impact.

UNIVERSAL CREDITCentral to the reforms is Universal Credit. It is the broad

umbrella that covers many of the most significant

changes for clients and services. Under this system,

claimants will receive all elements of their benefits – Job

Seeker’s Allowance, housing benefit, child benefit, etc – in

a single monthly payment. The individual and cumulative

effects for you and your clients could be profound.

2 IMPACTS ON SERVICESAN END TO THE EXEMPT ACCOMMODATION RULEThe current Exempt Accommodation Rule allows eligible

service charges to be covered by housing benefit.

It recognises the higher cost of providing hostel and

supported accommodation – and that these costs should

be met by housing benefit.

The Department of Work and Pensions believes the

Exempt Accommodation Rule is incompatible with the

fully centralised decision making model of Universal

Credit.

One of the proposals debated in a consultation last

autumn was to replace the Exempt Accommodation

Rule with a Local Housing Allowance for basic rent, with

local authorities administering the payment of additional

costs through an allocation from the DWP. The risks are

that a vacuum will be created, where there is no explicit

responsibility for meeting the higher housing costs of

vulnerable people. The DWP have been very clear that

their plan is for any change to the system to be ‘cost

neutral’ and that it is not seeking to reduce funding

WHAT CAN YOU DO?We need your suggestions on possible ways in

which the payment of eligible charges in supported

accommodation can still take place given the

centralisation of housing benefit under Universal Credit.

The next 18 months will see the introduction of a raft of new caps and systems, as the Government pushes ahead with the biggest changes to welfare benefits in some 60 years. Kathleen Caper looks at four key issues and reviews the far-reaching impacts that each will have on your service and clients – and what you need to do about them.

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NO DIRECT PAYMENTS OF HOUSING COSTS TO LANDLORDSUnder Universal Credit, most working-age claimants will

no longer be able to choose to have the housing benefit

component of Universal Credit paid directly to their

landlord. It will be paid to them personally as part of their

monthly credit.

The DWP have accepted that there are some people for

whom direct payments to landlords should still be made.

This has led to a mechanism within Universal Credit that

can except people identified as ‘vulnerable’ from one or

all the aspects of the Universal Credit payment model. As

a result, they might be paid more frequently than once

per month, or have housing costs paid direct to their

landlord.

Our concern is that people will be left to slip into arrears

before anyone identifies them as vulnerable. Or that

clients will not be correctly assessed as vulnerable.

The consequences for individuals and services could be

devastating.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?We need your help to gather evidence to demonstrate

the impact this method of benefits payment will have on

you and your clients. How do your clients manage their

finances now? What issues do you have with arrears on

personal service charges under the current system? What

levels of personal debt do your clients have – from crisis

loans and previous arrears, to pay day loans and other

expensive credit?

2 IMPACTS ON INDIVIDUALSMONTHLY BENEFIT PAYMENTSThe Universal Credit system of a single monthly payment

to cover all benefits will present many clients with real

challenges.

The DWP says that no one will be permanently excepted

from the system. Some people will be excepted for an

extended period – perhaps twelve months or more -while

others will be ‘deferred’ over a shorter period to give

them time to build skills, and others will be supported -

potentially by third parties on behalf of the DWP - through

the transition to a single payment.

We are exploring the use of ‘housing type’ as a trigger

for an exception. We’d like to see those who receive this

exception getting at least a further six months deferral

after moving into independent accommodation – a

breathing space which, in those crucial first months of

independent living, might mean the difference between

keeping or losing a tenancy.

WHAT CAN YOU DO? Again, we’re looking for evidence to present to the

DWP, so please feed back. In particular we’d like to

knowWhatat barriers to self-managing their finances do

IS YOUR ORGANISATION READY?

ARE YOUR STAFF READY?

• What contingency plans do you have in place

for changes to the exempt accommodation

rule and payment of eligible charges under

Universal Credit?

• How are you going to tell staff and clients about

the changes – and when?

• Can you provide evidence on behalf of current

or past clients for Shared Accommodation Rate

exemptions when needed?

• How will you help clients with budgeting when

Universal Credit is introduced?

• Do they understand the changes and can they

explain them to clients?

• Are they ready to help clients to access Local

Welfare Assistance instead of the Social Fund?

ARE YOU INFLUENCING?• Do you know what your local council is doing

about the Social Fund/Local Welfare Assistance

or Council Tax Benefit?

• Are you making the case for access to

localised support for your service and clients?

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clients experience?What budgeting support or training

has been effective for clients?

ABOLITION OF THE DISCRETIONARY SOCIAL FUNDFrom April 2013,the centrally administered Discretionary

Social Fund – Crisis Loans and Community Care Grants

– will be replaced by local authority administered Local

Welfare Assistance.

Local authorities will then have the job of delivering

support to vulnerable people in the way they deem most

appropriate to meet local needs. This might be in kind

support, such as food vouchers or furniture, rather than

cash.

Crisis Loans and Community Care Grants have been

vital sources of support for homeless people at key points

in their transition to living independently and keeping

tenancies.

If there is no access to cash in an emergency, there

is likely to be an increase in the use of pay day loans

and other expensive credit – potentially leading to rent

arrears, eviction and repeat homelessness.

There is no ring fence on this budget. Nor is there a

statutory duty to provide support. In practice, this may

turn the effectiveness of Local Welfare Assistance into a

local lottery for homeless people.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?Talk to your local authority now and ask what provision

they are making to deliver Local Welfare Assistance – and

in particular how they see its role in supporting homeless

people in the area. Offer your experience in designing

the scheme.

We are keen to hear what they tell you. We need help to

monitor people’s experiences of Local Welfare Assistance

– so please send us any case studies, both positive and

negative. We also welcome input directly from service

users.

Kathleen Caper is Senior Policy Officer at Homeless Link

homeless.org.uk/wr2012

TIMELINE FOR CHANGESUMMER 2012 Benefit cheques end – claimants who receive cheques

will be encouraged to use bank or post office accounts,

or given a reusable token to collect cash via PayPoint

outlets.

OCTOBER 2012Main regulations published for Universal Credit - the

practical details of the Act.

APRIL 2013• Local Welfare Assistance replaces the Discretionary

Social Fund, administered by local authorities.

• Total Benefit Cap comes into force - £500 per week

for families and £350 per week for single people with

no dependents, with some exceptions.

• Personal Independence Payment introduced as

Disability Living Allowance ends. Current working age

DLA claimants need to reapply and be reassessed.

• Under-occupancy penalties applied to social

housing. In practice this means a 14% cut to housing

benefit if 1 room is deemed to be spare, or 25% if

there are 2 or more spare rooms. The cut will be a

percentage of the eligible rent.

• Council Tax Benefit: overall budget cut by 10% and

LAs to administer

• Local Housing Allowance to be linked to Consumer

Price Index (CPI) and not by market rents in each

area

• Universal Credit Pathfinders launch in the North

East and North West, with a six month run to test the

system.

OCTOBER 2013Universal Credit rollout: the first phase will see some

new claimants, as well as existing claimants with major

changes in circumstances, moved to the new system.

Most people actively seeking work are expected to be on

Universal Credit by April 2014.

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and any potential solution. We need a co-ordinated

response across the country that breaks down these

barriers and ensures everyone takes responsibility, rather

than maintaining a system that seeks to move people

and costs around.

We should aim for seamless services that ensure a ‘no

wrong door’ approach to access. We need to focus on

prevention and on providing immediate solutions that

help people off the streets. Regardless of where they have

come from, or what their issues are, they are homeless

and we should be able to support them.

OLIVER HILBERY PROJECT DIRECTOR, MEAM COALITION

Ending homelessness is something you shouldn’t have to

do alone. Too often, services can end up feeling like they

DAVID CARTER CEO, THE WHITECHAPEL CENTRE, LIVERPOOL

We will never be able to end homelessness while we have

to struggle against the artificial barriers we know are in

operation in some authorities across the country. If we

are only able to support people assessed as having a

“priority need” or who have a “local connection” we will

continue to fail many others who need our urgent help.

We need to make it easier for people to access services

and get off the streets.

Persuading an entrenched rough sleeper to come

indoors is difficult at the best of times. Having to fight with

services or authorities to prove a local connection or a

vulnerability that defines a priority need not only delays

the process, but it can sabotage working relationships

That’s the question we put to 21 people from across the sector in June. The next 12 pages are filled with their responses - from services, local authorities, government and people who have lived it. We’re a diverse and passionate sector. We don’t agree on everything - but we have more in common than not.

We don’t just want you to read. We want you to share your vision too. Alongside the opinions, you’ll also find questions that we all need to think about. So please, join the debate - tell us your own priorities and ideas. Help shape the way we think about homelessness.

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are the only ones supporting those hardest to help. The

willingness to act is admirable but ultimately exhausting;

particularly when we know that sustainable solutions

require input from a range of agencies such as substance

misuse, mental health, criminal justice, housing and social

care.

The best cross-sector partnerships can create a shared

responsibility for people facing multiple needs and new

ways of working that are beneficial to all.

Of course, building such partnerships is never easy, but if

they are vital to ending homelessness, shouldn’t we all be

doing more?

Working better together across sectors is a ‘must-do’ not

a ‘nice–to-do’ for the future. Let’s start now.

PROFESSOR STEVE FIELD CHAIRMAN NHS FUTURE FORUM AND NATIONAL INCLUSION HEALTH BOARD

The NHS alone won’t end homelessness, but it will play

an essential role. The new health commissioning structure

shouldn’t just focus on diagnosing and treating the

medical conditions of homeless people. It must also

become a leader in creating coordinated services that

work for vulnerable groups.

We need to advocate on behalf of vulnerable people.

The Secretary of State has an obligation to make sure that

they remain a priority for the NHS and has supported the

important National Inclusion Health Board that is charged

with championing the needs of the most vulnerable,

including the homeless. At a more local level, Health and

Wellbeing boards will also have a key role challenging

commissioners to allow levels of service flexibility that

ensure no one is left out.

Time and time again, I hear about GPs turning homeless

people away, denying them access to essential care. But

the NHS belongs to everyone – that’s in its constitution. It

has a duty of care to every social group.

Health Education England has a big responsibility in this –

educating the health professionals of the future to make

sure they understand the needs of homeless patients

and the risks they face. I’m always pleased to hear about

positive work that is making a difference – but just as

importantly, I want to hear fewer stories of people being

let down.

The future depends on collaboration. We need

integrated health, social care, housing and third sector

initiatives, with a subgroup in every local Wellbeing board

representing the needs of the vulnerable groups in their

communities.

There are beacons of hope out there, but right now

they’re the exception - and they shouldn’t be. My role is

to challenge what we’re doing – to make sure we keep

aspiring to the best.

DAVID FORD CHAIR, HOMELESS LINK’S EXPERT ADVISORY PANEL

Having experienced homelessness, and since then

worked for and with local authorities, paid providers, faith

groups and service user groups within the sector, I really

feel that we could be at the start of an incredibly exciting

time.

At the moment we are going through a period of turmoil,

of change. It’s a time for evaluating and reorganising

ourselves as a sector. It is full of frustration and disruption.

Pressure on services increasing while funding is

decreasing.

But when I look at the resources that we have between

us – leadership from local authorities, technical skills and

ability from paid providers, time, space and good will

from the volunteer organisations and the experience of

service users – I believe that we can become better than

we have ever been at tackling homelessness.

If we work in partnership together and maximise the

resources that we have available, we can go a long

way to tackling homelessness. This does not mean we

have to lose our individuality as organisations. Far from it.

What it does mean is that we should share our resources,

collaborate on joint projects, work as one team and rise

to the challenges that we face.

How much better would it be if we shared our skills, time,

space, goodwill and experience amongst ourselves? How

much more efficient as a sector would we become?

This is a time of opportunity, not of despair, and through

collaboration we can overcome the old perceptions of

homeless and build a future full of hope.

CAROL HAMLETT DIRECTOR, TRANSFORMING CHOICE, LIVERPOOL

Ending homelessness isn’t just about finding

accommodation. We all know that. I’m not saying we

aren’t short of affordable and suitable homes. But it’s

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more complicated than that.

The number one priority for the voluntary sector should

be creating environments for individuals to begin to

strengthen their own foundations. This might sound

grand, but it’s actually very simple. It’s about having the

right people to implement a person centred approach.

Understanding and implementing it are two very different

things. Less is always more.

We can’t end homelessness without prevention. Through

research we know that schools and colleges should be

able to identify children and young people who may

need extra support – and this support must be provided

at the earliest opportunity. The same goes for adults

who become homeless, through family breakdown and

financial issues – again, that support has to be there for

them, at or before the point of crisis.

Ending homelessness will involve a lot of changes. Some

won’t be popular.

If an individual has reached a point where they are so

overwhelmed that the best they can do is get drunk all

day and sit in the street, then someone comes along

and starts feeding and clothing them so they are able to

spend all of their benefits on cider – what motivation do

they have to change? What do acts of charity like that

really say about a person’s worth. Who gains the most

from the act? The giver or the receiver?

I think to really end homelessness we have to look at how

we validate each other as human beings. We have to ask

the question: how can we really help?

EWA SADOWSKA CEO, BARKA UK, LONDON

Ending homelessness is achievable, but how quickly

we get there depends on an evolution of political and

administrative culture. We need to improve the training

of employees both within the sector and in related

disciplines.

We need to develop accessible housing projects created

by civil society organisations, and self-help projects for

excluded groups. We need to see social and vocational

reintegration centres for migrants and refugees –

embracing both European and non-European migrants.

Central government has an obligation to enable and

support local partnerships for social inclusion.

We need to break down current perceptions of homeless

people – both amongst the general public and across

TAKE A STEPTO ENDHOMELESSNESS

WE NEED YOUR HELPTO PUT THE VISIONINTO PRACTICEIt’s time to articulate our vision of an end to homelessness.It’s time to make sure that all our influencing, policy and practice work is relevant in the current environment, given the rise in homelessness and the funding cuts that you have had to manage.

Why?

We need to be ready for the next general election. We need to have answers ready for Government should the opportunity arise to think big.

And we don’t plan to do this alone. You’re the experts. You know the local situation. We need your views and ideas – whether you’re a frontline worker or a CEO or if you have experienced homelessness directly and had to rely on the services of our members.

The issues that matter

On the pages that follow, you’ll find questions that we believe are key to the future of the sector. You don’t have to answer them all - but we need to know what you think about the issues that matter to you.

JOIN THE DEBATE ONLINE...

www.endhomelessness.org.uk

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the sector. We need to abandon the perception that

homeless people do not want to change. And within

the sector we need to stop perceiving homeless people

as service users – but rather as citizens who have

experienced difficulties that could happen to anyone.

The relationships with homeless people shouldn’t be

about filling in forms, but about real interactions that lead

to real and long-term positive change.

The success of Barka’s work depends on peer to peer

support. We believe the role of people who have

experienced homelessness is crucial. By speaking

from experience and sharing the story of overcoming

homelessness and social exclusion, they can bring hope

and demonstrate that it is never too late to return from

the darkest parts of human existence.

GARY STANIFORTH CEO, THE HIDDEN HOMELESS LTD, BRADFORD

We can’t end homelessness without dropping priority

status. It’s a discriminatory, biased and blind approach

– a 30 year old ideal for a 30 year old problem, and too

many subsection fixes are just not working. Having been

on the receiving end of this legislation I know full well the

implications for someone in crisis who just needs help.

Scotland’s 2012 homelessness commitment, introduced

in 2003, places a duty on every council to provide every

homeless person with a settled home. This means that

by the end of this year, councils need to have abolished

the distinction between priority and non-priority need,

extending the same right to all unintentionally homeless

households. If Scotland can do it, why can’t we? Many of

us have been saying this for years.

What gives anyone the right to say one person deserves

to be looked after over and above another, when at the

point of crisis? No duty of care because you’re single?

That has absolutely nothing to do with the trauma of

finding you have nowhere to go and no one to turn to.

Empty properties in the hundreds of thousands, skilled

men and women without jobs, a youth unemployment

figure of over a million, a building trade waiting for

the market to grow. We need to train young people to

develop properties – offer the same training to homeless

people in hostels – professional training from building

tradesmen currently sitting about with nothing to do.

Take the broken, unused buildings and donate them to

schemes that will regenerate them.

Support homeless people to do this. Give them a sense

of ownership and pride in something they have earned

WHO?WHO ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

To achieve our vision of an end to homelessness, we need

to have a shared understanding of who we are talking

about. Our focus in this paper is single homeless people

and couples without dependent children. This is because

as a group they have very limited statutory protection,

unlike families with children, and are often a low priority

for mainstream services.

Homelessness covers a wide range of individual

situations, from those in purely housing need through

to those with the most complex and multiple needs

facing chronic exclusion. Some groups of people are

more vulnerable to homelessness because they have

particular support needs or have fewer rights. There are

specific minority groups, who are more likely to be hidden

or have their needs over-looked – for instance: women;

young people; and those from Black and Minority Ethnic

communities.

Whatever a person’s needs we believe that no one

should ever be in a position where they are without

somewhere safe to live.

QUESTIONS...

How do you describe homelessness?

Who is homeless in your area?

Should we have a greater focus on the various minority groups within the homeless population? Who do you think there should there be a greater focus on?

What do you think of the Ethos approach described below?

ETHOS, a European Typology of Homelessness and

Housing Exclusion, classifies people who are homeless

according to their living or “home” situation. There are 4

main concepts:

• Rooflessness – without a shelter of any kind, sleeping

rough

• Houselessness – with a place to sleep but temporary

in institutions, hostels or shelters

• Insecure Housing – threatened with severe exclusion

due to insecure tenancies, eviction, domestic

violence

• Inadequate Housing – in caravans on illegal

campsites, in unfit housing, in extreme overcrowding.

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and worked for – then discount their rent for the hard work

they put in.

Come on Mr Cameron, I’m an old lag, and I could do a

better job with the housing crisis than you.

ANNE DOYLE HOMELESSNESS STRATEGY MANAGER, LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL

I definitely think ending homelessness and rough sleeping

in this country is an achievable aim which everyone in the

sector should be working towards.

Changing the legislation by abolishing the requirement

to be in priority need, as they have done in Scotland,

would be the most effective way of achieving this. In

addition to being able to radically increase the number

of people that local authorities have a duty to assist, this

would clearly demonstrate that homelessness and rough

sleeping are unacceptable in this country in this day and

age.

By also continuing the focus on prevention, relaxing the

local connection criteria and ensuring there are proper

solutions available for people with no recourse to public

funds, we would be able ensure that no one is in the

position where they are homeless and rough sleeping

with no route out of their situation.

LISA LEWIS CHIEF EXECUTIVE, DOORWAY, NORTH WILTSHIRE

Homelessness can never be solved until the public’s

perception of the issues surrounding homelessness is

directly challenged.

Charities need to be able to work in partnership with

statutory organisations in advocating on behalf of those

who are marginalised and have no voice in society.

However, in order to achieve this, the smaller local

projects which receive little or no statutory funding,

are entirely reliant on the financial generosity, and the

support, of their local communities.

Community engagement is harder in rural areas where

homelessness is far more hidden than in the bigger cities.

The public are not confronted with the stereotypical

image of rough sleepers bedding down and therefore

will be ignorant of there being a local problem in the first

place.

Additionally, the general public does not deem this topic

THE VISIONWHAT WILL AN END TO HOMELESSNESS LOOK LIKE?

Everyone needs an individual solution, but how do we

measure whether this is happening?

We may never stop everyone becoming homeless,

but we should have the right services in place so no

one remains homeless. There are people vulnerable to

homelessness, people at different stages of homelessness

and people who are have recently left homelessness

behind who are vulnerable to becoming homeless again.

Any measures of an end to homelessness need to reflect

these different stages.

QUESTIONS...

If you were telling a friend what a country without homelessness would look like, how would you describe it?

At what point does someone stop being homeless? Is it after 6 or 12 months or is about someone’s attitude?

How should we measure an end to homelessness? Should it be based on outcomes or hard figures?

What evidence would we need to demonstrate an end to homelessness? Are we collecting it already?

Should we approach homelessness as a rights issue?

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to be an attractive one. The complex needs surrounding

homelessness are still society’s greatest taboos; it is not

considered good practice to talk about substance

dependencies or mental health problems. People don’t

want to hear that homelessness could happen to anyone;

they don’t want to have to consider what might happen

to them if they suddenly found themselves at risk of losing

their home. It’s far too easy to remain in a small, safe and

secure bubble rather than have to consider the darker

aspects of the real world on their doorstep.

However, by educating our local communities we

can reduce the fear and prejudice, the hostility and

aggression against the homeless and the marginalised.

But most importantly we can challenge and overturn the

public’s perception, thereby recruiting them in the fight to

end homelessness.

MILKA KIMANI TALENT CHAMPION & TRUSTEE, THE FOYER FEDERATION, LONDON

Homelessness in London has become increasingly

worrying in recent years and with the recession having left

a damaging impact to many in the capital, it is now even

more vital to look at solutions that are sustainable and

can be used to end homelessness.

In order to find long lasting solutions it could be useful to

look at best practice strategies used in neighbouring EU

countries, for example where the issue of homelessness

is less apparent as a result of targeting the cause, such

as the provision of temporary accommodation, and

expecting these ‘four walls’ to be the solution.

Causes may include debt, addiction, employment

etc. which if not targeted may result in the issue of

homelessness resurfacing, creating a cycle rather than a

sustainable solution to the problem.

JANE SLOWEY CHIEF EXECUTIVE, THE FOYER FEDERATION, LONDON

Youth homelessness is rising. Cuts in public funding are

putting huge pressures on services. Around 1 in 5 young

people growing up in Britain today will struggle to realise

their potential as active and engaged young citizens.

We are failing these young people. We lump them

together as ‘disadvantaged’, ‘disconnected’ and

‘disaffected’. Services pick them up when they are in crisis

and then move them on as quickly as possible - as soon

as they can ‘cope’ with their disadvantage.

PREVENTIONHOW CAN YOU PREVENT PEOPLE BECOMING HOMELESS?

Homelessness is all too preventable and often happens

after a chain of other events. As recent rough sleeping

and statutory homeless figures show new people are still

becoming homeless for the first time every day. Wider

changes such as welfare reform have the potential to

increase homelessness.

Homelessness often happens because other services

have not given the right support to people at the right

time, or people have not known where to go. Individuals

arriving in homeless services with multiple needs could

have had these needs met at different points, in housing

options, by mental health, in the criminal justice system,

whilst in hospital. Some suggest that we as a sector

are mainly here to deal with the crisis not to prevent it

happening. If we are to end homelessness, we need learn

from who has become homelessness or who is rough

sleeping to prevent others taking the same path.

QUESTIONS...

Do you believe that you have a role in preventing homelessness? If yes, what is it that you do?

How do we make homelessness every agency’s business?

How early should specific “homelessness prevention” work start? Should we focus on “acute” intervention or should we be pushing agencies working with children to recognise their role? If we do this how would you measure it?

Support during transition from prison, care, hospital is important – how do you ensure maintenance and consistency of support at key transition points?

How can we identify as early as possible those at risk of tenancy breakdown?

Can you tell us about a good service locally that you believe is contributing towards preventing homelessness?

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CONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46 VISION

We label them by what they are not (“NEET”), by the

‘problems’ they have (“teenage parents”), the perceived

risks they pose (“care leavers”) or what they have done in

the past (“young offenders”). We then construct services

to tackle these ‘deficits’.

Too many services, however well intentioned, end up

seeing the young people they work with as victims or

recipients of charity. This is in stark contrast to the way

in which we invest in the talent and aspirations of those

young people who make their journey to adulthood

through higher education.

There is a huge social injustice here. We need to turn the

current ‘support’ model on its head and begin to invest

in the talents and aspirations of ALL our young people.

Housing is a key ingredient in the transition to adulthood –

but it’s not the whole recipe.

Until we understand that, we’ll never end youth

homelessness.

GILL BROWN CHIEF EXECUTIVE, BRIGHTER FUTURES, STOKE ON TRENT

I know that David Cameron has houses in Downing Street,

Chequers and Chipping Norton – oh, and has he another

in London? Despite this excess, I am sure that even he

understands the importance of a home to every one of

us.

A home gives us warmth, shelter and privacy. It

contributes to our sense of stability, of belonging, of

identity. It is a fundamental part of being human.

It is therefore a truly cruel irony that we have turned

homes from being essential person makers into crude

investments. Unlike our European neighbours, Britain

has totemised home ownership and accorded it huge

financial rewards. In order to give houses this value,

successive governments have kept house building down.

Homelessness is not inevitable; it’s the result of failing to

build enough homes. This truth is disguised by political

debate that concentrates on rationing rather than

building. The latest pronouncements typify this; no social

housing for the well paid, no housing benefit for the under

25s, no houses for rioters. It’s a distraction.

Ken Loach’s Cathy Come Home was an effective wake

up call to a society that was failing to meet the basic

human need of providing its members with somewhere to

live. Housing Associations must publicise the suffering that

we see in order to provide voters and politicians with the

ACHIEVING AN ENDWHAT NEEDS TO BE IN PLACE TO ACHIEVE AN END TO HOMELESSNESS?

Homelessness is not just about housing. Most homeless

people have other support needs as well.

It is also about the right support being available and an

individual’s needs being addressed in an integrated and

comprehensive manner. We have been working on a

range of issues that need to be addressed – but given

the economic, social and political changes that have

happened recently, we want to understand if the needs

of people have changed.

What are the biggest priorities facing you at the moment

when giving support?

• Criminal justice

• Welfare support including Universal Credit, Housing

Benefit

• Education and employment

• Health

• Migration

• Housing

• Multiple needs

• Housing options and advice

• Family support, mediation, bereavement = something

around relationships

• Domestic abuse

QUESTIONS...

Are any topics missing from this list? If yes, what are they?

What are the three issues that would be make the greatest difference to ending homelessness? And what would be the solutions that you would like to see?

Do you have any other comments you would like to make on any of the other points?

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real story about housing and homelessness.

If we believe that an affordable home could be available

for all, our mantra must be: build more homes.

AMANDA CROOME MANAGER, BOOTH CENTRE, MANCHESTER

Ending homelessness has to remain our aim, but in

the current climate of welfare reform, cuts in services,

economic problems and more and more people walking

through the doors of day centres (and other services) in

desperate situations, it feels almost impossible.

But what is important is that we don’t lower the standards

of our services or the expectations of what individual

homeless people can achieve, otherwise we are going

to lose much of what has been improved in the sector

over the last few years. So, for example, we need to

keep aiming to run the highest quality arts programmes,

provide the most effective support to help people get

jobs and expand advice provision to meet the increasing

demand and ensure we don’t return to the soup kitchen

and night shelter culture of the last century as a way of

coping with the increasing numbers of homeless people.

We mustn’t just provide a sticking plaster when we have

a solution and we just need to keep finding creative ways

of making it happen.

JACK DROMEY MP SHADOW HOUSING MINISTER

With over a million young people out of work and with

the country in a double-dip recession made in Downing

Street, mums and dads all over Britain worry about a lost

generation of young people.

I am writing this just days after they were presented with

the Prime Minister’s plan to help them - remove housing

benefit for the under 25’s.

Housing benefit is an in-work benefit. Many of those on

housing benefit work hard and play by the rules just as

those living at home with their parents do. After all, in-

work households accounted for almost all (93%) of the

increase in the number of claimants during 2010 and 2011.

There are also thousands of vulnerable young people

who receive housing benefit. There are those who moved

to escape abusive relationships or severely overcrowded

parental homes, those whose parents are deceased or

refuse to accommodate them and there are those whose

own lives have broken down and need help and support

to re-build them.

NO RETURNHOW DO YOU SUPPORT PEOPLE TO SUSTAIN A LIFE AWAY FROM HOMELESSNSS AND STOP THEM RETURNING?

Critical to ending homelessness is ensuring that people

sustain lives away from homelessness and don’t end up

back on the streets or back at the local authority through

a lack of support.

Loneliness and isolation are important contributing factors

to an individual being unable to sustain tenancies and

dropping back into homelessness. Befriending schemes

and services that take over from the support offered by

the homeless sector help to integrate people into the

mainstream community. Having respite care in place can

avoid the jeopardy of people walking away from their

accommodation, losing it all and having to start all over

again.

QUESTIONS...

What support should be available for people to ensure that they sustain a life away from homelessness? How long should it be available for?

Are there unintended consequences of the services we offer? For example rewarded behaviour, sustaining people as homeless?

Is it the role of the homelessness sector to provide this or should other agencies take responsibility? If homeless agencies are to provide this, what needs to change to make it happen?

How do you ensure there is support in place for people, including respite care, when they get into difficulty?

Do you have any examples of practice which have helped people sustain their tenancies?

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They are helped by outstanding projects such as the

YMCA Orchard in my own constituency of Erdington,

which has rebuilt the lives of hundreds of young homeless

people, helping them into work or training. But under

these plans it would face closure.

The YMCA England Chief Executive, Ian Green, has

described these proposals as “absurd” and suggested

that they show “a real lack of understanding of the

potential long term consequences of such a policy”.

The truth is, removing housing benefit for all under

25’s would punish those in low-paid work or on an

apprenticeship denying them the ability to keep a roof

over their heads and it would remove the safety net from

those who lose their job and need help and support to

get them back into work. But it wouldn’t end there, it

would also present serious problems for vulnerable young

people and send youth homelessness soaring.

Instead of punishing those who are trying to get on and

make a start in life, the Government should be focussing

on building more affordable homes, creating thousands

of jobs and apprenticeships for our young people and

driving down homelessness.

UNA BARRY DEPUTY CHIEF EXECUTIVE, DEPAUL UK, LONDON

The call to end homelessness has its place. However, I

think this is unlikely in the current climate. Homelessness

is on the increase. The latest DCLG figures show rising

demand. Depaul UK Nightstops across the country have

seen demand from individual young people treble in

the last three years. Demand at our York nightstop has

doubled in the last year alone.

The benefit cuts will put more pressure on family

relationships, the biggest cause of youth homelessness.

Of course we are in a difficult climate and we have all

looked at ways of being more cost effective as have

local authorities. But let’s not kid ourselves that we can

end something like homelessness by thinking it! We need

to continue the successful partnership that has worked

between government and the voluntary sector over

the past 20 years, to get young homeless people from

emergency housing to longer term accommodation and

employment.

The health service’s crucial role in improving the

outcomes of young homeless people has to be fully

realised to prevent 16 and 17 year olds becoming

homeless. The housing sector needs to retain, not

FUNDINGHOW SHOULD SUPPORT FOR HOMELESS PEOPLE BE FUNDED?

Until 2003 there was no consistent funding stream for

support for homeless people. Between 2003-2009, there

was a consistent named, ring-fenced funding stream.

During this time, the sector grew, improved practice

and, in many areas, had a clear champion in the local

authority.

2009 saw the ring-fence for this funding removed, and

there is now no requirement to fund support for homeless

people locally. As the pressure of cuts has been felt

by Local Authorities and the need to meet statutory

requirements, there has been a slow erosion of funding

towards homeless people in many areas.

The approach has varied widely from area to area,

but it is clear that there should be no localism without

safeguards in place for homeless people.

Currently, all support for homeless people is through

agencies rather than direct budgets. This can remove

any element of choice and control for the individual and

leaves them dependent on the provision commissioned

locally.

QUESTIONS...

How do we ensure that support for homeless people is funded locally?

How should funding for homeless people be allocated?

Is it right to separate out housing, housing management charges and support costs?

Is payment by results a realistic option for our client group? What are the challenges?

Are hostels a financially viable model? What could replace them?

Is Housing First a better model, with housing provided alongside intensive support? Would the Housing First model work better for some individuals who can’t conform to the restrictions of hostels? What about individuals who don’t fulfil entry criteria to hostels?

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abandon, its focus on homelessness.

Much more needs to be done to prevent homelessness

happening in the first place, starting with young people in

schools and within families, and those with mental health

problems and substance problems. All local authorities

should all have the option of at least a Nightstop facility.

End Homelessness? Not yet, but we must prevent it

getting worse!

ALISON GELDER DIRECTOR, HOUSING JUSTICE, LONDON

I think ending homelessness is not a goal that can be

achieved by the homelessness sector, by government

(local or national), by homeless people themselves - or

even by faith communities (though that won’t stop me

encouraging churches to pray about it). However, neither

do I think it is an impossible aim. I honestly desire to be

in the position where the work of Housing Justice is no

longer needed and we can wind up and put our energies

(and our donors’ money) to use elsewhere.

The more I learn about the causes of homelessness the

more it is clear to me that this is a whole community

issue and not just the concern of those immediately

affected by it. So my number one priority is to convince

everyone outside the sector, everyone who has never

been homeless or at risk of homelessness themselves, that

homelessness is their problem too. We need to change

the climate of opinion.

Then, building on this, I would make prevention

and support (in the widest, most personal and most

imaginative of senses) the golden thread through all our

work. Collectively we are getting better and better at

the sticking plaster/picking up the pieces work. Now we

need to turn our attention to stopping people becoming

homeless in the first place – or second or fifty first place, in

the case of those caught in the revolving door.

JOHN HAMBLIN CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SHEKINAH, DEVON

Arriving at the midway point of 2012, it is interesting to

reflect on the ambition of ending homelessness.

I remember clearly being at the Homeless Link event

when the concept of ending rough sleeping by 2012 was

announced. What amazed me most was that, with some

of the providers, it went down like a lead balloon. For

some, the primary concern seemed more about retaining

empires, rather than seeing an end to the unacceptable

AND FINALLY...WHAT ELSE SHOULD WE CONSIDER?

Have we missed anything?

What else do you think we should think about?

What else is on your mind as you seek to ensure homeless people continue to receive the support they need?

TAKE A STEPTO ENDHOMELESSNESS

WE NEED YOUR HELPTO PUT THE VISIONINTO PRACTICE

It’s time to articulate our vision of an end to homelessness.

JOIN THE DEBATE ONLINE...

www.endhomelessness.org.uk

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independence and a critical distance. The ultimate

effectiveness of a charity is sometimes compromised

more by winning statutory funding than by losing it. Our

voice should never be bought by any funder.

We can’t ignore the underlying causes of homelessness

such as family breakdown, economic inequality and a

shortage of available housing. As Desmond Tutu said ‘We

shouldn’t just be pulling people out of the river. We should

be going upstream to find out who’s pushing them in.’

MARK BRENNAN PROJECT COORDINATOR, CARIS ISLINGTON CHURCHES COLD WEATHER SHELTER

Homelessness is a ubiquitous and apparently

unquenchable dilemma. Bold pronouncements have

been made to put an end to rough-sleeping and

‘eradicate’ homelessness. While these may be worthwhile

declarations to make as clarion call to rally people

and resources around alleviating undoubted suffering,

homelessness is not something that can be eradicated.

It simply is, just as ‘home’ is. Home does not exist without

homelessness and vice versa, so we need to embrace it

and understand it – all of us.

And that makes homelessness everyone’s responsibility.

We have a London-centric multi-million pound

homelessness industry in this country that is learning and

developing and evolving. It is an evolution I am very

optimistic about as I witness and participate – and the

rapidly growing church shelter network is playing a critical

role in this across the UK.

A vision for the UK-wide church shelter network is to bring

an end to the migration of homeless people into the

centre of London. The network is proving to be a catalyst

for effective cross-sector working where everyone can

take responsibility for homelessness and support homeless

people in their communities, where they stand a better

chance of overcoming it, becoming stronger, and more

independent.

PAUL ANDERS EMPLOYMENT MANAGER, HOMELESS LINK

The game has moved on – we have to move with it.

Many years ago, when the principles of client

involvement were being adopted, a common question

was: “Is this the bit where we do client involvement?” You

don’t hear that any more. User involvement is embedded

sight of sections of our community residing on the streets.

Whatever your views, in civilised society, the ambition of

ending rough sleeping and homelessness should morally

be an aspiration for us all.

That said, and without wanting to sound like a stuck

gramophone record, I still believe the sector has to

seriously address the issue of inappropriate labelling of

clients. It might be useful for funding bids and PR, but

does little to challenge public perception. It is also vital

that greater investment is made towards prevention

- diverting people before they need homelessness

services. We all know who tomorrow’s clients are going to

be, so why do we still wait to get them into services before

we start to engage with them?

As we move forward, we should not be shuffling the paper

clips trying to redefine concepts of ending homelessness

to be more acceptable to the Sector we work in.

Homelessness is devastating for individuals. It’s bad for

society. If we can’t accept those facts, we’re working in

the wrong sector.

JON KUHRT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL WORK, WEST LONDON MISSION

Homelessness in the UK is a pan-European issue. When

you allow the free movement of labour, you cannot avoid

the free movement of poverty and on London’s streets

we are increasingly seeing the painful reality of EEA

poverty and inequality. In addition, of course there are

the contemporary domestic issues of benefit reductions,

funding cuts, growing unemployment and family

breakdown. This cocktail produces street homelessness.

With the increasing flow of new rough sleepers, the

No.1 priority in homelessness work is preventing these

people from becoming entrenched on the streets.

Responsive and assertive outreach and rigorous

unbiased assessment of need are fundamental and well

as effective reconnection services and other realistic

pathways make the difference.

Homelessness charities should have a healthy scepticism

about top-down initiatives, which promise ‘to solve the

issue’ but are driven by media headlines and statistical

gymnastics. There is no substitute for high quality,

committed practice. What happens on the pavement is

more important than what is said on the platform.

We need to remember the political backdrop to

our work. We should not be used to paper over the

cracks in society. We should work closely with the local

and regional government but we need to maintain

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in everything we do, from engagement to move-on –

even in policy direction, which now emphasises choice

and personalisation.

We need to start thinking about employability and skills

in the same way. The Government takes the view that

progression towards employment should be integral to

support, not merely a desirable end point. This is backed

up by CESI’s ‘Evaluation of the Single Homeless Enterprise

Project’ for St Mungo’s, which found that employment

support can help people manage the symptoms of things

like mental health problems or addiction.

Changes to benefits and employment support have

introduced another reason we can’t ignore employment:

agencies that don’t support their clients towards

employability could be actively harming them. The threat

of sanctions and mandatory participation in long-term

initiatives such as the Community Action Programme is

real and potentially damaging.

Like anyone in the sector, I’ve seen the impact of cuts

on services, and know that employment prospects

have been damaged in the current climate. This means

that we have to redouble our efforts to support clients

in this way – with government increasingly focussed on

sustained employment, agencies who don’t do this will

be putting themselves and their service users at risk.

RICHARD HOLMES OPERATIONS MANAGER, CREWE YMCA

We need a new language and approach to tackling

youth homelessness. Most of the issues young people

faces are wider and more complex than their need for

supported accommodation.

In my own organisation this approach is effective but still

work in progress.

We want to be involved in the lives of young people not

just by meeting their housing needs, or signposting them

to other services – but by exploring with them their hidden

and untapped skills and gifts.

This investment-based approach goes further than

traditional support planning can. It recognises that

people are unique and have individual assets. Meeting

need and solving problems are not the critical drivers to

working with young people.

This means developing different activities where young

people can test and explore their skills in a creative

environment. An example for us is our off-site Football

and Life Academy. Whereas previously we simply

played football, now we use it as a platform for wider

engagement to deliver life-skills and to discover and

invest in the hidden strengths that emerge out of a wide,

engaging context.

But the challenges to this approach are considerable.

While homelessness increases and budgets shrink, we are

trying to change staff culture, find funding for activities,

test new approaches and ideas – and find the critical

interface with partners who will invest with us.

For us, the challenge of doing things differently is worth it.

More importantly, it is what young people deserve.

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A CURE FOR HEALTHWhen the Department of Health commissioned us to

carry out research and come up with recommendations

towards better support for homeless people in hospital,

it was a perfect opportunity to set tougher expectations

- not just of the NHS, but of all agencies that need to

be involved when a homeless person enters and leaves

hospital.

The research, published in May - and completed

with the input of St Mungo’s and their excellent peer

researchers - found that most homeless people who end

up in hospital are discharged without making sure they

have accommodation to go to. They are sometimes

discharged straight on to the street, often without their

underlying health problems being addressed and with no

discharge plan. Contact with a GP to ensure follow up

care regularly doesn’t happen, and hospital staff rarely

check with a patient’s hostel that they can safely return,

or even whether they have one to go to.

Some people who took part in our research described

the mistrust and prejudice encountered in some hospitals

- from one person being referred to by nurses as ‘a tramp’

to another being turned away by security guards when

he was coughing up blood.

However, there are some excellent examples of good

practice, such as University College Hospital in London

and Arrowe Park on the Wirral, where staff have initiated

link worker schemes or joint protocols, and made huge

improvements to the care that patients receive. But

overall the picture is bleak. In our report we outlined a

number of measures that the NHS, local authorities and

our sector should take to reverse the situation.

SO WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?At the launch of the report in May, Care Services Minister

Paul Burstow said he was “challenging the rest of the NHS to learn from the best and make it [good practice] the norm”. We feel positive that the full backing of

government and the Department of Health will provide

the impetus needed for change. The Department’s

Inclusion Health Board has already been tasked with

taking forward some of the report’s recommendations –

and we believe some of the new NHS structures should

play a key role to ensure the issue remains a priority.

But while the NHS has much to learn, there’s a challenge

for our own sector, and a reminder of the importance

of joining up efforts and resources at a time when

everybody is under increasing pressure.

We are going to keep campaigning on this. The good

practice that we’re seeing could and should be adopted

universally. My hope is that, in a few years, we won’t still

be asking for the same thing.

Download the full report - Improving hospital admission and discharge for people who are homeless: bit.ly/connect46-hospital

Helen Mathie is Homeless Link’s Policy Manager

Poor hospital admission and discharge has been a problem for homeless people for too long. Some hospitals are getting it right, says Helen Mathie, but what will it take for the rest to follow?

INFLUENCE LOCAL HEALTHWhat is the best way to make sure local health services take your clients’ needs into account?

MAKE CONTACT with the key players in your Health and

Wellbeing Boards and Clinical Commissioning Groups.

What are their priorities and how does homelessness fit

into their agenda?

IDENTIFY LOCAL CHANNELS for voluntary sector groups

to feed into commissioning. These might include local

HealthWatch meetings, housing subgroups of your Health

and Wellbeing Boards, and your local JSNA.

SHARE YOUR EXPERTISE with commissioners. They need

good evidence like operational data and effective

practice case studies - and you can support your clients

to share their experiences.

For more information, read our Health Influencing guide:

bit.ly/connect46-ih

COMMENTCONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46

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COMMENT CONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46

For six months from August 2011 a new, person-centred

approach to working with homeless clients was piloted

in Two Saints’ West Berkshire services at a 55-bed direct

access hostel, a 16-bed move-on service and the

Floating Support service.

We trained staff across the three services to deliver

support based on Person Centred Assessment and

Support Planning (PCASP), an approach in which the

client develops their own support plan, determined by

‘what is important to them’ (aspirations, maintenance,

etc.) and ‘what is important for them’ (safety, wellbeing,

etc.).

CLIENTS IN THE DRIVING SEATIt is essential that clients are central to the creation,

and delivery, of Assessments and Support Plans. These

processes are driven by the client, for the client. The staff

role is one of support and option appraisal - enabling

client choice that will lead to empowering, efficient and

cost effective outcomes. The more clients design and

own their support plans, the more they will drive and own

the outcomes.

WHAT WE DIDThere are four key elements in our approach to

personalisation.

Person Centred Assessment and Support Planning (PCASP): Clients come to us at a point of crisis in their

life. Our assessment process recognises they may need

a short period (typically up to 48 hours) to consider their

priorities once they have the security of acceptance and

a chance to recuperate. For this reason, we separate

the basic Admission Assessment – covering eligibility,

immediate needs and risk assessment – from the more

thorough PCASP.

The comprehensive Person Centred Support Planning

assessment is completed at a pace, place and time that

suits the client – invariably within two weeks of entry.

The Outcomes Star is central to this process – based on a

set of open but structured questions, enabling clients to

identify where they are and where they would like to be

in all aspects of their life. It looks at money management,

emotional and mental health, and the meaningful use

of time. By reviewing their current resources and social

capital, the process builds on clients’ strengths rather

than focusing on deficits.

We then support the client to identify actions that will

move them towards their goals, the skills and resources

available to them – including friends, family and other

agencies – and the options that exist to help them

progress. The client chooses from the available options

and achievable, measurable tasks are agreed.

Core Support and Keywork: Keywork focuses on helping

people through their support plan. Progress against set

tasks is reviewed and new tasks are agreed. A weekly

hour-long keywork session is most common – although

this can be adapted to suit each client’s needs. Some

clients need 15 minutes almost daily – while in other cases

longer, less frequent keywork is seen as appropriate.

Skilled and Flexible Support: High skill base and

flexibility is an essential part of personalised work with

homeless clients. For us, this included creating two new

roles – Assessment Broker and Flexible Support Worker.

These roles had no set hours, but instead offered flexible

support where genuine reasons, as identified in a clients’

support plan, emerged.

Staff providing this support have to reach an assessed

standard of competence before being authorised to

Jon Bramley of Two Saints reports on their recent personalisation pilot – looking at why what it has taught them will be used to evolve other Two Saints services.

BETTER ENGAGEMENTBETTER OUTCOMES

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CONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46 FEATURES

carry out PCASP assessments. The first interactions with a

client are crucial to building trust and rapport, so getting

your best staff in front of a client at an early stage is

essential.

Free Resource: We allocated a specific fund, called Free

Resource, available over the six months of the pilot.

This was used to support clients with needs identified in

the support plan, where no other source of funding was

available. Examples include paying for college course

equipment, visits to family members, clothing, driving

lessons to support return to work, and art therapy sessions.

Interestingly, of the original £20,000, less than £3,000

was taken up. Support workers commented that the

possibility of Free Resource enabled clients to start

exploring in depth what was important to and for them.

In turn, this helped them reach an understanding about

the resources they already possess to help them achieve

what they need.

WHAT DID WE LEARN?Personalisation works! The clients tell us so, staff tell us so,

and so do the figures. A review of life areas covered by

the Outcomes Star demonstrated that clients themselves

felt happier and more in control.

The pilot was also cost effective. Beyond the allocation of

Free Resource the costs were minimal - with staff hours not

increased but refocussed.

WHERE NEXT?A major success from this approach was the greatly

increased engagement, particularly from some of our

hardest to reach clients. Clients who never previously felt

able to fully engage are now taking an active role and

progressing their own support plans.

The ultimate benefit of the pilot was not that clients were

achieving different outcomes than before, but that many

more outcomes were achieved overall – including hard

Supporting People outcomes – and by a greater number

and wider range of clients.

We are now rolling out the approach gradually across all

our suitable services.

Jon Bramley is Projects Officer at Two Saints www.twosaints.org.uk

ONE CLIENT’S JOURNEYCatherine was a successful business manager, a mother

and a wife. She suffered post natal depression after which

her alcohol use spiraled out of control. Her relationship

broke down, her drinking reached a critical level and her

home was repossessed.

At Two Saints, Catherine set up her own tailored person

centred plan based on her strengths, priorities and needs.

She was able to access the appropriate support and

resources to help her move forward. By using motivational

interviewing, the team enabled Catherine to identify with

herself that her drinking was the main barrier to her goals

– and to build determination.

Catherine needed a lot of support at first to avoid

eviction due to chaotic lifestyle choices, but now she’s

able to look back on that time. She says: ‘with a lot of

determination and will on my part I am now sober and

am heavily involved with many aspects of hostel life, and

am due be moved out into my own rented property very

shortly.’

Catherine continues to volunteer within the service. She

is the chair of our Joint Asset Management group and

recently won the West Berkshire Volunteer of the year

award.

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COMMENT CONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46

RECIPE FOR A PERFECT NSNOA lot has happened since we first started asking what No

Second Night Out should mean in London. We consulted

with a wide range of frontline outreach workers, staff

in accommodation and day centre projects, local

authorities and others in order to support the set-up of the

first NSNO hub.

We heard how important it is to have lots of creative

solutions to meet the needs of a diverse population

of new rough sleepers – and that those solutions must

include access to mental health assessment, and advice

around immigration and international reconnection.

More than a year after launch of No Second Night Out

in London – and subsequent commitments to adopt the

NSNO standard from around the country – we are seeing

a wide variety of practical ways that the approach can

be implemented.

INGREDIENTSThe government strategy: Vision for ending rough

sleeping: No Second Night Out nationwide recognises

that there should be different approaches, but with

a few clear common requirements. These include

mechanisms for identifying new rough sleepers;

having an immediate response; mobilising the public;

having a safe place where needs can be assessed;

emergency accommodation; and agencies working on

reconnection processes to help people connect with the

area where they will most likely be able to move away

from rough sleeping.

COOKING INSTRUCTIONSOver the last year Homeless Link has been supporting

and connecting up areas that are adopting the No

Second Night Out standard. We’ve brought people

together to plan and to learn, we’ve supported agencies

with funding through the Homeless Transition Fund and

trained individuals and teams.

There have been many diverse solutions, but there’s a

range of common principles that work.

Firstly, the areas that have been most successful have

taken steps to really define the issues they are seeking

to address by analysing existing data or carrying out

an audit. For example Harrogate Homeless Project has

carried out an audit with all frontline services to monitor

who is rough sleeping in order to determine what the

service needs to look like.

It takes creativity to develop person-centred solutions

and responses quickly. Successful projects are well aware

of the limitations in services and funding in a time of cuts

and shortages – so they become experts at making the

best use of existing resources and finding new ones.

It is important that projects have the capacity to

advocate for people and build the right offer. The London

pilot has dynamic Reconnection and Assessment Workers

who can spend time negotiating with Housing Options

Services, landlords or other support agencies to really

ensure that an individual’s needs are met.

Local areas find solutions when they are working

together to have a shared approach, with excellent

communication and focus on the people who need

support. For example, there are a number of areas that

have ‘Task and Targetting’ Groups that meet regularly to

case manage the most vulnerable people in the area.

Political buy-in is crucial to the success of No Second

Since early 2011, our Innovation and Good Practice team has given a lot of thought to what it takes to implement No Second Night Out (NSNO) locally and what a ‘perfect’ NSNO approach could look like. Lisa Reed explains.

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COMMENTCONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46

Night Out. The Liverpool City Region was the first area

outside London to officially sign up to the No Second

Night Out standard. They have adapted the approach to

meet their local needs, while maintaining the core belief

that no one should spend more than a single night on the

streets. Thanks to buy in from all the local councillors, the

Liverpool Region now has a local helpline for the public

to call when they see a rough sleeper, and offers a single

point of access to housing and health services.

A partnership approach is vital to the success of No

Second Night Out projects. As well as involving people

working in non-homelessness roles (police, street cleaners

etc) and the general public to alert NSNO projects about

new rough sleepers, partnership within the homelessness

sector is essential. Day centres (and other services such

as night shelters, soup kitchens and faith groups) play

an integral role. In some English regions day centres

are hosting an assessment hub or taking the lead in

coordinating and implementing a No Second Night Out

project.

DO NOT LEAVE TO STANDBut the key characteristic of the perfect NSNO approach

is that it doesn’t believe it is perfect at all. It is prepared

to gather information and feedback and to constantly

change in response to this – a cycle of continuous

learning and improvement.

Lisa Reed is Homeless Link’s Head of Innovation and Good Practice. homeless.org.uk/ea-nsno

THE ESSENTIAL SIDE DISHDay centres can be a key partner in delivering the ‘perfect’ NSNO approach – Good Practice Offer Tasmin Maitland explains how this can work.

Day centres support early intervention by identifying

who is a new rough sleeper and giving them information

about the No Second Night Out service. This might mean

restricting access to some or all of the service so that

new arrivals are directed to the most appropriate rapid

response and support. This also helps day centres to

avoid duplication and to target their resources at those

who cannot get support from No Second Night Out.

Day centres will need to provide clear, realistic

communication about which housing and support

options are available to rough sleepers, as well as about

the risks of sleeping rough. At times, rough sleepers

engage with a No Second Night Out project but refuse

the support offered. Day centres can support the single

service offer by providing time and space for the person

to reflect and reconsider, being frank about the options

and resources available. This reduces the risk of people

sleeping rough in the unrealistic hope of being given a

different or better option, which is often exacerbated by

misinformation from others on the streets.

Regular communication between No Second Night Out

projects and other homelessness services ensures that

new rough sleepers aren’t falling through the gaps. In

some cases, an interim solution is needed to achieve No

Second Night Out (for example, waiting for a passport

prior to reconnection) and partnership with a night shelter

or spare room scheme is the best short term option. For

rough sleepers with no recourse to public funds whose

situation is unlikely to change and for whom reconnection

is not possible, joint working with faith groups might be the

best way to find a specialist housing solution.

homeless.org.uk/ea-nsno-daycentres

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Since the Homelessness Transition Fund was launched last

July, £8m has been distributed through 41 grants across

England, with another round of funding decisions to be

announced before the Olympics. It seems to good time

to review how we are doing. How are we getting the

money to where it’s needed? What have we learnt so far?

BEGINNINGSThe Fund was conceived in a climate of cuts to frontline

services and increasing pressures on the people

most who need them. It was launched as part of the

Government’s rough sleeping strategy ‘Vision to end

rough sleeping: No Second Night Out Nationwide’ to help

ensure that progress towards ending homelessness is not

lost. It aimed to help protect critical services, and to help

organisations which had become dependent on public

funds to find new approaches to delivering services.

The Fund wasn’t the first ‘transition fund’ – there have

been other government funds aimed at helping voluntary

organisations cope with cuts and move to other funding

or commissioning models. Most notable was the £100

million scheme announced by Chancellor George

Osborne and launched by the Big Lottery in 2010. While

many organisations benefitted, surprisingly few from the

homelessness sector applied, or received funds from the

Lottery scheme. We looked to see what we could learn

from the Lottery, as well as other grant-makers tackling

homelessness.

ROUND 1When the Fund opened for business last summer, we

were inundated with requests for funding – almost 200

applications asking for £35 million, with only £8 million

available for grants. Clearly there was a need – and

predictably, there were some difficult decisions to be

made. Many of the applications were from organisations

desperate to keep services open, most couldn’t meet

the need for existing services – and many had cut staffing

back to the bone.

By assessing each bid over a very intensive few weeks,

valuable insights were gained about the challenges

facing frontline agencies and the support needs of the

sector. Some of these lessons have helped Homeless

Link’s Good Practice team shape the guidance and

training it provides across the sector.

Like the Lottery scheme, the Fund is open to any

voluntary organisation which meets the basic eligibility

criteria. Unlike the Lottery scheme, we decided against

applying a financial formula which directly assessed

applications against the amount of Local Authority cuts.

We focussed first on the objectives of the Fund – asking

applicants to explain the transition they wanted to make

and innovations to end rough sleeping they wanted to

implement. Knowing that our sector is best placed to

understand the individual pathways and needs of clients,

we asked applicants to tell us about the picture of rough

sleeping in their area. We asked them to make the case

for need in their own words.

Crucially, distributing the Fund through Homeless Link

allowed grants to be made closer to the people who

benefit. Homeless Link’s network of Regional Managers

are able to reach out to local services and communities,

to support them in making applications to the Fund, and

to help in delivering funded projects. Regional Managers

One year on from the launch of the £20m Homelessness Transition Fund, and its ambition to end rough sleeping in England, Fund Director Samantha Rennie steps back to see how we’re doing.

THAT’S THE WAYTHE MONEYGOES...

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can provide advice on good practice, signpost data

and other evidence of need for bidders, and broker links

between potential competitors to build partnerships.

Regional Managers can act as a critical friend and

sounding board, with applicants secure in the knowledge

that they have no role in assessing or deciding on bids.

As the Fund rolls out, we want more applicants to know

about and take up this support.

LEARNING FROM THE FIRST ROUNDWe asked for feedback from Round 1 and listened to

what people told us. A key lesson was the need to make

it clearer what difference the Fund – and therefore the

projects supported – intended to make. We’ve now

described the outcomes which projects need to address,

based on Homeless Link’s vision of what an end to rough

sleeping looks like and the four NSNO principles. Another

lesson from Round 1 was to make the process of applying

much clearer to applicants. We’ve now produced much

clearer criteria and guidance, and introduced an online

application system. This helps applicants know what’s

expected – and it helps us to identify relevant evidence

and assess each bid fairly.

An early decision in the Fund’s life was to set up an

independent Grants Panel. The Panel is made up

of representatives from DCLG, other government

departments (DWP, Health) and the GLA, as well as

representatives from the sector and from other funders.

The Panel’s commitment, diligence and professionalism in

considering each application is impressive, as is the level

of debate and scrutiny from wide ranging perspectives.

Their expertise was recently supplemented by two people

with direct experience of homelessness and of using

frontline services, which will bring an extra dimension to

the Panel’s deliberations.

The grants made last December were broadly spread

throughout the country, with each region in England

benefitting. We will continue to look at what we’re

funding and where, to ensure a balance of projects

across the country.

SMALL GRANTS, BIG AMBITIONThe applications received so far reinforce the recent

SNAP survey results. It’s evident that many frontline

services are firefighting as they struggle with local

authority cuts, often stripping them of professional

staff. One reason the Fund has introduced a new Small

Grants programme is that we recognise staff under

pressure need resources to take stock, scan the horizon

and adjust to what may be coming next. Sometimes

a smaller amount of money can go further in the long

term – paying for things not covered by service contracts

such as back-filling key roles, gathering evidence for

commissioners and funders, looking at different business

models, or merging backroom services with partner

agencies

As the Panel prepares to consider applications for Round

2 of the Main Grants Programme, we’re still looking

ahead, trying to learn from what we’re funding, and

what the sector is telling us. The future seems gloomy

– with increasing pressures on people, commissioners

and services. But we know the sector, and the people

who work in it, are resilient, agile, entrepreneurial and

creative. We know the sector has survived and thrived

beyond cuts and crises in the past. The Fund presents a

new, albeit narrow, window of opportunity to strengthen

those attributes, and put in place the changes needed to

achieve our shared ambition.

Samantha Rennie is Director of the Homelessness Transition Fund homeless.org.uk/fund

We are undertaking a mid-term review of the Homelessness Transition Fund in July. Please visit the website for details and to add your comments.

THE SHORTLISTTHE HOMELESS GAMESA player in the Homeless World Cup wanted to offer

a similar opportunity to others that reached beyond

football. The result was The Homeless Games. They are

an annual Olympics-style event run over two days in

Merseyside since 2010. They engaged 200 participants in

2010 and 400 in 2011, including 25 rough sleepers.

GONE FISHINGLed by knowledgeable residents and ex-residents

of Threshold, Gone Fishing was set up to encourage

residents to socialise. Having engaged in these social

activities, participants often go on to engage with other

services and opportunities. With participants ranging in

age from 5 months to 70 years old, fishing has proved to

be an inclusive and successful activity.

Looking after your wellbeing isn’t always easy, especially if you’re living in temporary accommodation. This year’s Michael Whippman Award has been looking for the best examples of projects that use physical activity to improve participants’ wellbeing. Here’s the shortlisted four, in pictures...

CONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46FEATURES

36 WWW.HOMELESS.ORG.UK

CLIMB ABOARD PROJECTAfter one-off sailing trips organised by Porchlight, a group

of clients requested more water. The answer was the

Climb Aboard Project, which offers a range of activities

and training opportunities – including sailing, kayaking,

canoeing, swimming and Royal Yachting Association

qualifications. The project also integrates team building

and healthy lifestyle classes and community links.

INSPIREInspire began three years ago as a way of providing

access to meaningful activities – from knitting to walking,

and from football to gardening . Inspire enables clients

to share their talents and passions with others – with 100%

of activities run having been identified and requested

by participants. 75% are led or coordinated by client

volunteers.

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CELEBRATING CLIENT INVOLVEMENTThe Michael Whippman Award focuses on the contributions of homeless people themselves.

The Award was set up to challenge stereotypes about who is and can become homeless, whilst also showing homeless

people that anything is possible. In previous years, it has been themed around contributions to local community, social

enterprise and raising awareness through social media.

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The Homeless Football Association (FA) is a new charity

set up in late 2011 through the hard work and vision of

a committed group of support workers from across the

country. What started as a network of grassroots projects

that wanted to share good practice, ideas and resources

with each another has grown into a national organisation

that has partnered with top premier league football

clubs.

WHY FOOTBALL?It’s our country’s national sport – and because of that it

has the potential to engage a wide range of participants.

It’s a leveller. It’s a way of stepping away from day to

day issues and socialising with others. For the Homeless

FA, football can give every person experiencing

homelessness in England the opportunity to develop their

skills and abilities, to gain self-respect and confidence, to

improve their health, and ultimately to transform their life.

By promoting fair play

and inclusiveness

in the context of

competitive football, our primary focus is on personal and

social development.

An integral part of our work is management of the

Homeless FA Community, formerly known as the Homeless

Football Network. Members of the Community can

communicate with other projects, share knowledge and

attend regional Homeless FA meetings. They can also

access centralised resources such

as a “Football for Change” model,

start-up packs for new homeless

football projects, good practice

tools, funding resources, as well

as reduced rates on pitch and kit

provision.

Community members

will also have the

chance to play in the

HFA Cup, a national

4-a-side tournament delivered by the Homeless FA and

co-hosted with a professional football club. We are

aiming towards an inaugural Homeless FA Cup in early

2013 as we keep building the profile and number of

opportunities for players across England.

To really benefit from the knowledge and experience

that exists in the sector, Community membership is open

to a wide range of organisations, from

Premier League football clubs to small

day centres, and national housing

associations to individual hostels. The

one thing we all share in common is that

we are all using football as a means of

improving the lives of homeless people.

MORE THAN A GAMEHow can kicking a ball about improve lives? Does it

always work? What life skills tie in best with a football

training session? With the help of our Community

members and our own research we will be concentrating

on the core questions of ‘what works, and why’? The

evidence base that we build will benefit all homeless

football projects as they can use this to improve their own

delivery and get buy-in to what they are doing. We’ll be

learning from our own programme, delivering six regional

Training Centres in the run up to the Homeless World Cup.

As well as the work the Homeless FA will be doing at the

local level to support local projects we want to create

a pathway for players to aspire to. The Homeless FA is

the new national partner of the Homeless World Cup

in England – and 2012 will be the first year that England

EVERYTHING TO PLAY FORIt’s an exciting year for sport in England. While headlines in 2012 are dominated by the coming London Olympic Games, Lindsey Horsfield writes about another exciting development in the world of sport – and it’s happening right here in the homelessness sector.

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enters both a men’s team and a women’s team to the

tournament. They will be identified through six pilot

Training Centres – three for men, three for women –

delivered in partnership with Arsenal in the Community,

Everton in the Community, Manchester United Foundation

and Albion in the Community.

Players

attending the

Training Centres

will get a feel

for what it is like to be a professional footballer, receiving

top quality coaching from the Premier League club’s

community coaches, tours of the stadium and an FA

Junior Leaders Award. The Training Centres will be a great

experience and opportunity for all players, regardless of

football ability. The emphasis is on personal development

and supporting players to increase their self-confidence

and self-esteem, improve stress management, and teach

leadership and other life skills.

The skills that our volunteers have who are leading the

Training Centres and taking the teams to the Homeless

World Cup are vital. We know how important staff are to

the success of any project and we are excited to have a

great mix of experience.

There are people with experience of homelessness

themselves, support staff who run successful homeless

football projects, and two England internationals! Rachel

Brown and Fara Williams who play for Everton Ladies and

the England Women’s teams will run the Everton women’s

Training Centre and coach the women’s Homeless

World Cup side. We’re thrilled to have such inspirational

individuals involved.

LOOKING FORWARDFrom 2013 we intend to develop and increase the support

we can offer to the Homeless FA Community. We can

do this partly by registering more organisations that are

willing to share their expertise and experience with their

colleagues across England. There will be the HFA Cup to

look forward to at the beginning of the year, soon after

which the Training Centres will commence.

Next year we plan to increase from our original six pilot

areas to include more of the country. We will continue to

encourage the homelessness sector to utilise the power

of football, and empower the sporting world to recognise

football’s potential to support the most vulnerable

members of society.

If your organisation currently uses football as a way

of engaging and supporting people experiencing

homelessness email us at [email protected].

Lindsey Horsfield is Chair of Homeless FA

www.homelessfa.org

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TAKEASTEPTHE HOMELESS HACKAs a sector, we rely increasingly on gadgetry and IT. It

helps us to track the effectiveness of the work we do,

record our work with clients, and report back to funding

commissioners – and with computers and mobile devices

so accessible now, internet and mobile technology has

become an essential tool for homeless people too.

It’s not often that a group of developers, graphic

designers and all round IT gurus get together and actually

volunteer their time and knowledge to help prevent

homelessness. But that’s exactly what happened one

Saturday in June, when Go On Uk, in partnership with

Westminster City Council, SHP, Homeless Link and others,

hosted their Homeless Hack Day, bringing together over

50 homelessness and IT professionals, as well as homeless

clients themselves. The challenge was to develop IT

based solutions to homelessness issues – all within 8 hours!

The short timescale is the reason it’s call a hack day (or

Hackathon) – and it’s probably the reason it works. The

time limit creates a real sense of intrepid energy and

urgency, which seems all the more fitting because of the

cause. After initial presentations and a Q&A session with

the homelessness pros, the IT crowd got straight on with

their mission, breaking into groups based on their areas of

expertise and the briefs handed out to them.

THE BRIEFThere were four broad challenges that participants were

asked to work on. (1) Is there an internet based or mobile

technology solution to ending rough sleeping? (2) How

can we use SMS and other widely available technology

to connect homeless people to services they need?

(3) How can we connect homeless clients who have no

access to smartphones or other mobile technology with

web based services that can help them? And (4) Can

we make use of free Wi-Fi and mobile internet to help

homelessness practitioners assist clients?

After 8 hours of intense coding, designing and writing -

not to mention copious amounts of pizza and coffee - the

groups were ready to present their work. The six resulting

projects were astounding. They included ‘Everyone In’,

a mobile app for members of the public to help people

sleeping rough, and ‘Life Map’, a visual tool for staff and

clients to track progress. The winning project opened up

the Homeless UK database to location searches.

Of course, after 8 hours, what we had were prototypes,

not finished products. But the concentrated vision, energy

and expertise that went into them means they all have

immense potential. I think there’s a very real chance that

some of them will become real, usable solutions soon.

For more, visit: homelesshack.com

WHAT’S YOUR STEP? homeless.org.uk/take-a-step

Across the country, people are joining our campaign to end homelessness and rough sleeping. In June, our Data & Policy Analyst Shaun Forde took part in one of the more tech-savvy steps we’ve heard about to date.

“I’m helping to end rough sleeping by creating innovative technology for homelessness services.”

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MANAGINGPEOPLE

Over the last few years the operating environment in our sector has become more and more challenging.

Public sector procurement practices

have driven down service contract

prices and more recently the

government’s austerity measures have

resulted in the decommissioning and

reconfiguring of services.

The need to innovate and deliver differently across the

homelessness sector is becoming more important given

the current resource constraints. In a recent CIPD survey

two fifths of organisations reported that creativity and

innovation are critical to their organisation.

It is becoming increasingly common within the non-profit

sector to have processes in place which encourage staff

to innovate, but how easy is this to achieve, especially for

the smaller organisations that don’t have a lot of money

to throw at these sorts of initiatives?

You’ve heard the common adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t

fix it’ but in an ever changing sector, in which we are

frequently being challenged by low cost competitors, we

must adapt or we will get left behind.

So what does creativity and innovation mean to you?

It’s not just about creating or inventing. It’s also about

developing new ways of working, and improving services

for our clients. Creativity and innovation is the ability to

source and develop new ideas, to solve problems and

bring about tangible improvements to services and

resources.

Try thinking about things from different perspectives

and more importantly, looking at things through other

people’s eyes. For example: your customers, clients,

competitors and funders. What barriers might they

see? How

can you reduce these? This type of

approach can really help challenge your mind set and is

a useful approach to try at team meetings.

Try these top tips to encourage creative thinking:

• Take part in brainstorming sessions at team meetings

- use mind mapping to tap into your creativity.

• Try Edward de Bono’s ‘Six Thinking Hats’ technique for

structuring team discussions for problem-solving and

generating ideas. It’s a great way of ensuring that

everyone contributes creatively, and that the whole

output is greater than the sum of individual inputs.

• Get involved in an action learning set.

• Take risks and if things don’t go as well as you had

hoped, consider it a learning opportunity!

• Get out and about – networking provides a great

opportunity for gaining insight into new ways of

working.

• Be aware of your ‘killer phrases’ such as ‘”there isn’t

time”, “it’s been done before” and “it won’t work”.

They’re a sure way to stifle creativity.

Helen Giles is HR Director of Broadway and Managing Director of Broadway’s Real People HR consultancy

www.broadwaysrealpeople.com

Dear Helen,Our service has been under so much pressure that it feels like we couldn’t be further from ending homelessness. How can we revive the passion and creativity we need to really make a difference?

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Jo Youle, Director of Services at Missing People, tells us about how their new helpline service can help homeless adults to reconnect.

DANNY’S STORYDanny went missing in 2005 at the age of 21, from his

family home. There had been no

new information about Danny for

7 years, leaving the family very

worried about his wellbeing.

However, Danny made contact

by calling Missing People’s 116

000 helpline. He said he was

unsure of how to get back in

touch with his family or what to

say after so long. He said that

every day since he left he had

wanted to find a way to say sorry,

but just hadn’t been able to find

the words.

We worked with Danny to

prepare what he wanted to say

to explain himself and to help find

the courage to send a message

home. Danny asked us to contact

his parents the same day. They

were incredibly overwhelmed but

very grateful to hear such good news after so many long

years.

The message they ask us to pass back to Danny read

‘We think about you every day, you have never stopped

being our son. We love you very much’

This message was enough for Danny; he found the

confidence to make contact with his family again for

the first time in 7 years. A wonderful result and one many

families can only dream of.

RECONNECTING VULNERABLE PEOPLEAs Director of Services at Missing People, I hear stories

like Danny’s on a daily basis. Our work often involves

connecting a person who is at risk to a local homeless

service - or supporting someone to re-establish contact

with their family or carers.

A reconnection with family may, in some cases, offer an

early way of helping people who are sleeping rough off

the streets. Before contacting agencies in the person’s

local area, a conversation

might be had with them about

whether they have family that

they might be able to return to

or stay with. If they want support

in reconnecting with family, we

offer free 24 hour confidential

support and advice by phone,

e-mail and text. This might involve

exchanging messages or being

helped to make contact with

family via a three-way call by our

helpline team. Three-way calls are

also often used to support callers

to connect with key workers and

mental health teams.

WORKING TOGETHEROur team have recently received

training from Homeless Link to

increase our skills in handling calls

from rough sleepers. We have a

comprehensive database that

we use to refer callers to, including homeless services

across the country, who we regularly signpost callers to.

When appropriate, we also support callers to contact

emergency housing services in their area.

We want as many people as possible to know that we

can be a lifeline for them. By promoting our services and

referring people you work with to us, you can help give

them an extra option to turn to when things get tough.

If you would like to know more or would like to be sent

Missing People’s 116 000 promotional material, including

leaflets and posters, then please contact Jonathan Hirst:

[email protected]

www.missingpeople.org.uk

MISSING PEOPLE

WWW.HOMELESS.ORG.UK 43

CONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46 INSPIRED

WHAT’S ON?UPCOMING TRAINING AND EVENTS FOR THE HOMELESSNESS SECTOR:

JULY

WWW.HOMELESS.ORG.UK

FREE WEBINAR | EFFECTIVE ACTIONFaith group involvement in tackling rough sleeping - looking at good practice approaches to rough sleeping, No Second Night Out and more.

11:30AM-12:30PM

http://bit.ly/connect-webinar-faithgroups

PASSION, SKILLS & CREATIVITY: PATHWAYS TO WELLBEINGThere are practical steps you can take to help improve the wellbeing of the people you support, through sports, arts and outdoor activities.

Tuesday 25 September 2012 | Birmingham

http://homeless.org.uk/event-wellbeing

26

25

STAY IN THE LOOPFor up to date information on events and training, visit...

www.homeless.org.uk/conference-diary www.homeless.org.uk/training

...and subscribe to our regular member bulletins...

www.homeless.org.uk/keep-informed

SEPTEMBER

44 WWW.HOMELESS.ORG.UK

COMMENT CONNECT JULY 2012 | ISSUE 46

We’ve pulled together a list of resources and research related to the features in CONNECT 46. If you have any information you would like to share with our member organisations, please write to [email protected].

RESOURCES

HOMELESS LINK INFORMATION Ending homelessness - join the debateHelp us to make sure our work is relevant to you

and the people you support.

www.endhomelessness.org.uk

Take a Step - to help end rough sleepingJoin our campaign - on our website or on

Facebook.

homeless.org.uk/take-a-stepfacebook.com/homelesslink

Effective ActionGood practice guidance for local authorities and

services

homeless.org.uk/effective-action

Homelessness Transition FundOpen to applications for Small Grants

homeless.org.uk/fund

Our policy workWhere to start looking for information on our policy

campaigning and lobbying.

www.homeless.org.uk/policy-roundup

In the regionsMeet your Homeless Link regional managers.

homeless.org.uk/contact-regional-manager

And your NAC representatives.

homeless.org.uk/contact-nac

WOMEN & HOMELESSNESS

Rebuilding Shattered Lives

www.rebuildingshatteredlives.org

Domestic violence and homelessness

www.homeless.org.uk/domestic-violence

Women’s Aid

www.womensaid.org.uk

Broken Rainbow

www.broken-rainbow.org

CONTRIBUTOR LINKS

Choir With No Name - www.choirwithnoname.org

Homeless FA - www.homelessfa.org

Homeless Hack Day - homelesshack.com

Missing People - www.missingpeople.org.uk

Real People - www.broadwaysrealpeople.com

Streetwise Opera - www.streetwiseopera.org

Two Saints - www.twosaints.org.uk

WWW.HOMELESS.ORG.UK