Nottingham Winter Shelter - Emmanuel House Support Centre · Nottingham Winter Shelter – Season Eight 2014-15 3 | P a g e Executive summary Like last season, the Nottingham Winter

Nottingham Winter Shelter

Season Eight 2014-15

Nottingham Winter Shelter – Season Eight 2014-15

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Contents

Executive summary 3

The testimony of our guests 4

1. Who we are and what we do 5

2. How we work 6

3. Our guests 7

3.1 Where did they come from? 7

3.2 What needs did they have? 10

3.3 What help did we provide? 11

4. Our achievements and where they come from 12

4.1 Our funders 12

4.2 Our volunteers 12

4.3 Income and expenditure 14

5. Recommendations 15


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Executive summary

Like last season, the Nottingham Winter Shelter ran for a total of 20 weeks from 10th

November 2014 to 30th March 2015, and from four different church hall locations. A total of

148 guests spent anything from one to 120 nights at the Shelter. This was 18 fewer guests

than in 2013-14, but still amounted to 2,366 nights’ protection from the winter weather.

Moreover, 72% of our guests had slept rough the previous night, up from 55% last season,

and 21 were women, almost double the number in 2013-14.

Also like last season, our guests came from a total of 18 different nations in addition to the

UK, but despite this 57% were British nationals, 7% fewer than last season. Of the reasons

people offered for needing the Winter Shelter, the most notable included eviction by friends

and family (29%), eviction from their own accommodation (20%), release from custody

(15%), and having no income (10%).

Support needs other than accommodation seem to have changed from last season, with

greater prominence given to lack of work (30%), income-related issues (21%) and offending

(21%), compared with last season’s guests who were more likely to need help with mental

health needs and alcohol misuse.

By the time the season ended, we had facilitated access to more permanent

accommodation for our guests in proportions comparable to those of last season. We were

able to reconnect 26% of guests with friends and family, assist 24% into hostel or supported

accommodation, set up 18% with their own tenancies mainly in the private rented sector,

and help 11% with reconnection to other nations or regions of the UK.

Success can be attributed entirely to the efforts of two Shelter Coordinators, a dedicated

team of overnight staff, and an army of 107 volunteers (up from 88 last season) who helped

set up the shelter and provide hot snacks in the evenings, and turned out at 7.00 a.m. to

provide breakfast and help clear away to enable host churches to use their premises during

the day. We are also grateful for the collaboration of the Street Outreach Team and the

Homelessness Prevention Gateway in making and responding to referrals.

Success this season was marked by special recognition in the Michael Varnam Award made

annually by NHS Nottingham City to groups whose dedication has improved the health and

wellbeing of the people of Nottingham. Moreover increased prominence was also achieved

through a higher media profile in the form of a Facebook page and reports on TV and radio.

Recommendations

For next season, we would like to see,

The Shelter running again for 20 weeks, but with some flexibility to respond to weather conditions and other variables;

The staffing policy unchanged;

The Shelter hosted at the same four venues as in 2014-15, with a fifth venue secured as a matter of urgency;

Housing Justice quality criteria used as a benchmark for our own self-assessment;

A policy to safeguard the particular vulnerabilities of women guests;


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The 2014-15 budget serving as a basis for securing funding for 2015-16, with a view to maintaining a small end-of-season surplus;

The Shelter’s media profile maintained through the Facebook page, periodic press releases and appropriately managed appearances on TV and radio;

Opportunities for securing access to move-on accommodation for our guests through partnership with Hope into Action or similar agencies;

Adoption of the recommendations at the end of the Volunteer Coordinator’s report.

The testimony of our guests

Mohammed Mohammed came to us as an asylum seeker from the Middle East with no rights of access

to work or benefits and with his wife and child still in his country of origin. After working

with various agencies, we were able to secure him access to University, part-time work and

benefits, and his family can now visit him, with the long-term view of permanent residency.

Susan Susan fled an abusive relationship and then began sleeping rough. During this time, she had

major surgery and was being treated for depression. She had very little income but what she

had went on alcohol putting her at great risk as she was taking medication. She also

appeared very socially isolated. At the Shelter, she formed a few friendships quite early on

that enabled her to talk about many of her issues. As a result, she began regular hospital

appointments and alcohol support, and was able to secure full benefit entitlement and

private accommodation.


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1. Who we are and what we do

Nottingham Winter Shelter began in the winter of 2006-7 on the initiative of the then Student Minister at Thomas Helwys Baptist Church in Lenton, Nottingham, to use church facilities to provide basic shelter for street homeless people for twenty-eight days over the Christmas period. From this modest base, we have grown and developed as a faith-based and voluntary sector initiative to complement other voluntary and public sector services for this group in the City of Nottingham. As in 2013-14, the Shelter ran for a total of 20 weeks, providing both emergency shelter and support to secure more lasting settlement. The Shelter was hosted for 3-5 weeks at a time by four different church hall locations in Nottingham: St Saviours in the Meadows; Thomas Helwys Baptist Church, Lenton; St Christopher’s, Sneinton; and the Arches, a project run by Trent Vineyard on Lenton Lane. We were particularly grateful to St Saviours for allowing us to return there for the final three weeks in March.

Through the seasons, the Shelter has strengthened its partnership with Emmanuel House, who firstly became the sole referral agency, and then took responsibility for managing operations. In 2012, the Shelter formally merged with Emmanuel House, cementing this relationship. We also work closely with other key partner agencies in the City, notably Housing Aid and the Street Outreach Team. The Shelter is managed by a Steering Group which meets throughout the season to plan, develop, organise and fundraise for the project.

Nottingham Winter Shelter serves the needs of homeless and vulnerable people during the coldest months of the season. We provide them with shelter, acceptance, physical and emotional support, and encouragement in making positive changes in their lives. Anyone over the age of 18 can access the services regardless of their personal characteristics or cultural identity.

Our aims are:

To seek to provide basic night-time shelter and sustenance to all those who ask for it, subject only to available space and a satisfactory risk assessment;

To offer additional personal support that will enable people to rebuild lives away from homelessness and other complex needs;

To secure the resources in money, premises and people to maintain the Shelter for as long as it is needed;

To manage and develop the services of the Shelter exclusively for the material and


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social benefit of service users;

To make full use of volunteers in the organisation and delivery of services.

In pursuit of our aims, we:

Operate as part of Emmanuel House in the pursuit of its objectives;

Co-operate with all faith-based, voluntary and public agencies that are similarly committed to the welfare of homeless people;

Co-operate with the Nottingham Homelessness Prevention Strategy.

2. How we work

In 2014-15, the Shelter ran from 10th November to 30th March. Guests can access the Shelter from 9.00 p.m. They receive hot drinks and snacks, a toiletries pack and their own bedding. Sleeping arrangements are communal and consist of inflatable mattresses on a church hall floor. Guests leave by 7.45 a.m. the next morning after a light breakfast.

The Shelter operates on a first come, first served basis, and it is possible for previous night’s guests to put their names on to the bed list for the next night on departure. However, the preferred referral route is for applicants to present in person at Emmanuel House’s drop-in centre between 11.00 a.m. – 1.30 p.m. each weekday. Referrals are taken by one of the two Shelter Co-ordinators and involve an assessment of needs, a risk assessment and signposting or referrals to other agencies. The bed list is then passed to the Street Outreach Team and the Homelessness Prevention Gateway, and all subsequent applicants must apply to one of these agencies who will pass additional referrals by telephone to a Shelter Co-ordinator.

The Shelter is staffed overnight by two project workers who work waking night shifts, checking clients in, supporting them, maintaining safety, and locking away valuables if requested. They can also take further referrals over the phone, at their discretion, and will complete referral forms for other hostel provision in Nottingham.

In addition to paid staff, volunteers play a fundamental part in the operations of the Winter Shelter. A total of 107 volunteers helped at various times during the 2014-15 season, an increase of 19 compared with 2013-14. The volunteer role involves setting up and packing down each night so that the church has the space to use during the day. Volunteers run the kitchen, preparing and serving snacks to the residents in the evening, and breakfast in the morning.


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3. Our guests

In 2014-15, 2366 nights were spent sheltered from the winter weather, compared with 2620 in 2013-14. This shelter was enjoyed by a total of 148 guests, 18 fewer than in 2013-14. We might speculate about the reasons for this slight fall in numbers: Street Outreach services have been depleted following the loss of No Second Night Out funding, leading to fewer referrals from that source; and the use of two new locations for the Shelter in 2014-15 might have slightly reduced capacity. What is clear is that the slight fall does not indicate diminished need. Like last season, there was great variation in the duration of residence, with many guests staying for just one night before moving on, while the longest staying guest stayed for 120 nights out of a possible 140.

One notable change has been the increased number of women using the Shelter, with 21 female guests compared with only 11 in 2013-14. While this may suggest that women feel less intimidated by night shelter living, it still presents us with an important safeguarding challenge.

3.1 Where did they come from?

As in 2013-14, our guests were a notably cosmopolitan group, coming from a total of 18 nations in addition to the UK. This is not entirely surprising, since lack of recourse to public funds is an important factor in people’s homelessness, as we shall see. Thus guests came from Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Eritrea, Gambia, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Kurdistan, Latvia, Lithuania, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

Figure 1 below compares UK nationals with Polish, EU and non-EU nationals for the two seasons, 2013-14 and 2014-15. The proportion of Polish nationals continues to decline, being replaced by an increasing proportion of other EU and non-EU nationals. However, UK nationals still make up more than half our guests.

Figure 1: The distribution of guests by country of origin (%)

Of greater concern is where guests spent the previous night before coming to the Shelter. There is no requirement that they should have slept rough, but this is clearly true in the vast

64 17

9

10

2013-14 (%)

British Polish Other EU Non-EU

57

14

13

16

2014-15 (%)

British Polish Other EU Non-EU


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majority of the 145 cases where previous accommodation was known, as Figure 2 illustrates. What is especially noteworthy is that this proportion has increased from 55% to 72%, suggesting that we are dealing with a population that has increasingly run out of informal accommodation options.

Figure 2: Previous night’s accommodation (%)

So how did so many people come to be so vulnerably accommodated? Figure 3 gives a breakdown according to the explanations that guests offered for their homelessness. Inevitably the categories are a rough approximation that conflate many highly personal reasons for people’s circumstances, and many guests would fit more than one category. Where this is so, there has been an attempt to determine a dominant factor, so that we were able to fit nearly all our guests into one group or another. Some further explanation is also needed for the categories used.

Friends or family denotes situations where people were living informally with partners, family or friends and the arrangements broke down.

Violence or harassment denotes similar situations where violence or harassment were involved, but the individual guest might be the victim or the perpetrator.

No income denotes inability to secure accommodation due to lack of entitlement to benefits, which may be because of lack of recourse to public funds or benefit sanctions in the case of UK citizens.

Immigration issues are included as a separate category for failed asylum seekers, or others of questionable immigration status.

Eviction includes those who have been evicted from hostels or who have had to leave rented accommodation because of problems with landlords, a cause that has shown a notable increase in the past season.

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Sleeping rough Friends orfamily

Prison orcustody

Hostel orlodgings

Hospital Ownaccommodation

Traveller Asylum seekersaccom

2013-14 2014-15


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0

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Friends orfamily

Violence orharassment

No income Immigrationissues

Eviction Abandonment Long-termhomeless

New arrivals Release fromcustody

Hospitaldischarge

2013-14 2014-15

Abandonment is short-hand for those who have voluntarily vacated accommodation for a variety of reasons, such as looking for work.

Long-term homeless includes those who have been homeless for so long that the original causes have ceased to be relevant. It includes Travellers, for instance.

New arrivals covers foreign nationals who have arrived in the UK without accommodation.

Released from custody includes those recently discharged from prison and other forms of secure estate, another factor that has shown a notable increase despite reforms to prison after-care associated with the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014.

Hospital Discharge includes at least one person detained under the Mental health Act.

Figure 3: Reasons for homelessness (%)

3.2 What needs did they have?

It goes without saying that all our guests were in need of shelter; even those who had not slept rough the previous night were prohibited from returning to their previous place of residence. However, most of them needed far more than just accommodation, as Figure 4 makes clear. All guests underwent an assessment at the point of referral so that we could discern how best to help them, and make appropriate referrals. Although figures are given in percentages, they don’t add up to 100 as many of our guests had more than one support need.


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Figure 4: Support needs (%)

Mental health includes behaviour disorders and learning difficulties as well as mental illness.

The chart appears to show a significant fall in the proportion of guests with this and other

support needs since 2013-14. The only appreciable increase has been in the number of

guests seeking help with job-finding and income related issues. These changes are most

likely to reflect differences in the way records are kept. However, they might reflect the

increasing national diversity of our guest population, and the growing proportion without

recourse to public funds arising from changes to benefit rules, making job-finding their

highest support priority.

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Mental health Offending Alcoholmisuse

Substancemisuse

Income Work Physicalhealth

Literacy Reconnection

2013-14 2014-15


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3.3 What help did we provide?

In the help that was offered to guests, our Project Coordinators gave priority to securing long-term accommodation and it is a tribute to their determination that, by the time the Shelter closed on 30th March, some kind of satisfactory outcome had been secured for nearly all who wanted it. Their task was made more challenging by two factors. The first was that 24% of our guests had no recourse to public funds, an increase from 13% last season, normally because of their nationality. The increase can be attributed to a harsher benefit regime for non-UK nationals. The only available solutions were finding a job that paid enough to afford private rented accommodation, informal arrangements with friends or reconnection to the country of origin. The second factor was that 16% of our guests had no local connection to the City of Nottingham, because they came from elsewhere in the UK, representing a fall from 27% last season. This reduced their right of access to publicly funded accommodation in the City, and sometimes meant reconnection was the only option.

Figure 5 summarises the help we were able to offer. Once again the categories need some clarification.

Friends and family captures all who secured some kind of informal arrangement, often returning voluntarily to where they came from in another part of the UK.

Supported housing mainly includes hostel accommodation, but also semi-independent housing regularly attended by a support worker, and in some cases private lodgings.

Own tenancy mainly entails a flat in the private rented sector, but could also include a shared tenancy or even council accommodation.

Reconnection includes both foreign nationals given an assisted return to their country of origin, and UK nationals who helped to return to where they came from.

This left 21% who did not fit these four categories, an increase from only 4% last season. The 21% included seven who returned to rough sleeping, seven who had to be barred from the Shelter and a further eight whose whereabouts were unknown.

Figure 5: Accommodation outcomes (%)

33

30

20

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26 24

18

11

FRIENDS AND FAMILY SUPPORTED HOUSING OWN TENANCY RECONNECTION

2013-14 2014-15


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4 Our achievements and where they come from

For what we have achieved, all kinds of resources have been indispensable. These include our two Shelter Coordinators and team of overnight staff whose loyal service has been responsible for taking referrals at all hours and accepting the basic duty of care for all our guests while they have been on our premises. Then there is the army of 107 volunteers about whom more is written below.

However, before doing so, special mention is owed to the greater recognition given to our successes during 2014-15, not least of which was the Michael Varnam Award bestowed annually by NHS Nottingham City on individuals and groups whose dedication and commitment has improved the health and well-being of the people of Nottingham. Thanks are owed to Maria King from Emmanuel House for nominating us.

Further recognition has also been achieved through a greater media profile, due in no small part to the efforts of Bill Byrom is setting up our Facebook page. Results have included a report on BBC East Midlands Today, two reports on Notts TV, and numerous radio interviews. Our healthier funding position is just one of the fruits of a higher media profile.

4.1 Our funders

An account of resources should appropriately begin with special thanks to our funders who have once again supported the work so generously, and who deserve mention beyond the rather impersonal spread sheet on the next page. They include:

The Prêt Foundation Trust

The Jones 1986 Charitable Trust

The J. N. Derbyshire Trust

The Sir John Eastwood Foundation

The Lady Hind Trust

The Jessie Spencer Trust

The Thomas Farr Charity

M F Gilbert

The Woodroffe Benton Foundation

The Helen Jean Cope Charity

The Winifred Eileen Kemp Trust

Garfield Weston Foundation

Various churches

An anonymous organization and individuals

4.2 Our volunteers

In addition to our two Shelter Coordinators and the team of overnight staff, the Shelter could not have operated without an army of volunteers who supported the Shelter evening and morning, helping to set out the bedding and preparing hot snacks in the evening, and providing breakfast and helping to clear away in the morning, so that host churches could continue to use their premises during the day. The main bonus to the organisation of volunteering has been the service for a second season of the Volunteer Coordinator at Emmanuel House, who gave considerable time to recruiting and training volunteers, organising the weekly rotas, and undertaking an evaluation at the end. Following last season’s evaluation, a number of recommendations were made around shortening the time for processing applications, improved team working, preparing rotas four weeks in advance,


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improving information for prospective volunteers, more focused training, writing a volunteer handbook, and increasing the number of people accessing training.

By the time the Shelter opened in November, 37 volunteers had been recruited, rising to a total of 107 by the end of March, an increase of 19 on 2013-14. Volunteers came from a wide range of backgrounds: people looking for work experience, professionals, retired people, students, manual workers, male and female, from different faiths and none. Two training events were held prior to opening, with a third before the move to the Arches. A total of 50 attended these events, compared with 35 in 2013-14. They were introduced to the Shelter and the tasks they would be expected to perform, and shown how to operate safely and maintain good relations between volunteers and staff. Each volunteer was provided with a summary of a more comprehensive handbook which was lodged at the venue where the Shelter was currently operating.

The Shelter operated with three volunteers in the evening and two in the morning at all venues except the Arches where an additional volunteer was used at each session. The majority showed a high degree of reliability throughout the season, with a mean coverage of 77.1% for the morning sessions and 92.5% in the evening. Figure 6 compares the volunteer coverage, morning and evening, for each of the venues. What it shows is a very high degree of coverage in the evenings, especially around the Christmas period at Thomas Helwys Baptist Church, but some tailing off towards the end of the season in the mornings.

Figure 6: Volunteer coverage at the four venues, morning and evening (%)

At the end of the season, volunteers were asked to report on their experiences, on the basis

of which the Volunteer Coordinator wrote an evaluation report which provides a full

account that can be made available on request.

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Meadows (1) Thomas Helwys Sneinton The Arches Meadows (2)

Morning Evening


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4.3 Income and expenditure

Balance C/Fwd 14,017 5,840 Grants Received 2015 (£) 2014 (£) Variance (£)

The Prêt Foundation Trust 30,000 30,000 0

The Jones 1986 Trust 6,000 6,000 0

J.N.Derbyshire Trust 10,000 2,300 7,700

Sir John Eastwood Foundation 2,500 2,500 0

Lady Hind Trust 5,000 5,000 0

Jessie Spencer Trust 8,000 3,000 5,000

The Thomas Farr Charity 2,000 2,000 0

Ashworth Trust 0 3,000 -3,000

M F Gilbert 1,000 500 500

Coutts Trust 0 500 -500

Nottingham City Council 0 3,500 -3,500

Sundry Charity 0 20 -20

Anon - Organisation 3,000 3,000 0

Anon - Individuals 732 1,054 -397

Churches 2,288 0 2,288

The Woodroffe Benton Foundation 500 0 500

Helen Jean Cope Charity 1,500 0 1,500

Winifred Eileen Kemp Trust 5,000 0 5,000

Garfield Weston 5,000 0 5,000

Bank interest earned 61 0 61

TOTAL RECEIVED 82,581 62,374 20,207

Expenditure £ £ £

Salaries & NI 57,320 50,270 -7,050

Volunteers & Travel Expenses 293 380 87

Accommodation Costs 3,310 5,019 1,709

Bedding 629 177 -452

Clothing 0 143 143

Toiletries 54 56 2

Food - Evening 2,001 2,588 587

Food - Daytime 1,647 1,785 138

Bank Charges 27 10 -17

Laundry 802 736 -66

First Aid Supplies 230 8 -222

Stationery 125 172 47

Mobile Phones 306 306 0

Postage 45 20 -25

Cleaning Materials 428 400 -28

Equipment - Misc. 494 446 -48

Recruitment 0 916 916

Management Costs 2,914 2,913 -1

Insurance 265 280 15

Key Cutting 31 79 48

End of Project Buffet 282 111 -232

Total Expenditure 71,264 66,815 -4,449

Surplus (Deficit) for the Project Season 11,317 -4,441 15,758


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5 Recommendations for 2015-16

In the light of our experiences in running the Winter Shelter in 2013-14, we made a number of recommendations, which are summarized below, with comments on how far they have been met.

The Shelter should aim to operate again for 20 weeks from mid-November to the end of March. This was fulfilled, with the Shelter running from 10th November to 30th March.

The Shelter should continue to be staffed by two Shelter Coordinators and a team of overnight staff. However, efforts should be made to enable one of the Coordinators to continue in employment at Emmanuel House throughout the season. Moreover, the pool of overnight staff should be large enough to allow holiday breaks during the season. The two Coordinators, one full-time and one part-time, have both continued in employment at Emmanuel House since the Shelter closed, and the overnight staff team was increased.

The Shelter will continue to operate from the five venues that were used during 2013-14 subject to availability, but further venues will be explored in the event of one or more being no longer available. In the event, two of the 2013-14 venues – St Peters, Radford, and the Friends Meeting House – became unavailable in 2014-15, the gaps being filled by the Arches and a second spell at St Saviour’s. Securing a fifth venue will be a priority for 2015-16.

Efforts will be made to explore the acquisition of the Housing Justice Quality Mark for the Nottingham Winter Shelter. This has been explored, but will not be pursued for the time being, other than to use the Housing Justice quality criteria as a benchmark for undertaking our own self-assessment.

Fundraising will use 2014-15 expenditure as a basis for the 2015-16 budget, and will seek to maintain a small surplus for pre-season expenses. This was achieved in 2014-15, as the figures on p.14 show.

The recruitment and training of volunteers will take place early enough to have 65 available for the opening of the Shelter, and further training will be organised for additional volunteers recruited after the opening of the Shelter. This was partly achieved with the third training session in February before the move to the Arches, but pre-season recruitment only yielded 37 volunteers.

A volunteer handbook will be written to make available to volunteers information on all aspects of volunteering in the Shelter. This was completed and available to volunteers at the start of the season.

In the light of the above and the Volunteer Coordinator’s report, the following recommendations are proposed for Winter Shelter 2015-16.

The duration and timing of the Shelter should be similar to that of 2014-15, but applied flexibly to allow for variations in the weather, venue availability and other variables.

The staffing policy should be unchanged.

The Shelter should continue to be hosted at the same four venues as in 2014-15, but a fifth venue should be secured as a matter of urgency.


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Housing Justice quality criteria should be used as a benchmark for undertaking our own self-assessment.

Procedures should be introduced to safeguard the particular vulnerabilities of the increasing number of women accessing the shelter.

The 2014-15 budget should be rolled forward as a basis for securing funding for 2015-16, once again with a view to maintaining a small end-of-season surplus.

The Shelter’s media profile should be maintained through the Facebook page, periodic press releases and appropriately managed appearances on TV and radio.

Opportunities for securing access to move-on accommodation for our guests through partnership with Hope into Action or similar agencies should be actively pursued.

The recommendations proposed at the end of the Volunteer Coordinator’s report should be adopted.

Documents

Nottingham Winter Shelter - Emmanuel House Support Centre · Nottingham Winter Shelter – Season Eight 2014-15 3 | P a g e Executive summary Like last season, the Nottingham Winter