connect THE MAGAZINE OF THE HOMELESSNESS SECTOR
Rough sleeping
MAKING THE GRADE...
Rebecca Pritchard, CLG, reviews what’s happened in the six months since ‘No One Left Out’ was launched. 10
Bloomin’ Marvellous!
The Key garden, grown by over 200 homeless people nationwide, achieved more than a silver medal at Chelsea Flower Show 30
places of change...
Richard Cunningham explains the ethos behind the PCP and we meet two agencies that have become Places of Change 18
CONNECT SUMMER 2009 | WWW.HOMELESS.ORG.UK
Are you tuned in? Getting clients’ voices heard. one-day conference 20 October 2009 | London
This conference will share practical approaches to client involvement: • best practice in engaging with the most vulnerable clients • how to engage clients at all levels: from transitory contact to long-term involvement • have your questions answered about the difficulties of client engagement • benefits of engaging clients for the project and the organisation • how to train clients to take part in the commissioning process • using peer research to effectively inform service delivery 020 7960 3032 | www.homeless.org.uk/events
CONNECT
The magazine of the homelessness sector EDITORIAL Editor Michelle Doust Editorial Panel Paul Anderson, Ben Dickenson, Gill Perkins, Lisa Reed, Esther Sample, Nicky Woods DESIGN Designer Michelle Doust Cover Photo ©Robert Davidson subscriptions Homeless Link members can take out additional subscriptions to CONNECT at a discounted rate. Non-members can also subscribe to CONNECT. To find out more about CONNECT subscriptions please email: connect@homelesslink.org.uk CONTRIBUTE TO THE NEXT ISSUE! The theme of the next issue is: Client Involvement. If you or your organisation have found effective ways to engage service users, please get in touch. We’d also like to hear from homeless people that have been involved in commissioning services. Send your ideas and suggestions for articles to: editor@homelesslink.org.uk before 22 July 2009. www.homeless.org.uk/connect
CONNECT | SUMMER 2009
WELCOME
upfront
1000 days – a challenging countdown to the 2012 Olympics... In 2006 we challenged the then Housing Minister, Yvette Cooper, to set the ambition of ending rough sleeping in this country by 2012. After 6 months of intensive debate with members, we launched ‘Ending Homelessness: From Vision to Action’ in Parliament with cross party support, including the Conservative’s Shadow Communities Secretary, Caroline Spelman. There has never been such a high ambition to tackle homelessness. The Prime Minister owns it in the Government’s new strategy. The Mayor of London has adopted it as a major part of his draft London Housing Strategy. The world is watching, poised to follow. We should take a moment to acknowledge the strategic insights drawn from the work of our members that have opened up this historic opportunity. Across the country communities are working together to take on the challenge of ending street homelessness. The new champion areas reflect the strength of these partnerships, dedicated to action. But, there’s no denying that the economic downturn is making this a higher mountain to climb and charities are already feeling the impact of the recession. In London, the comprehensive CHAIN system tells us that new people coming
onto the streets have risen by 15% in a year. Prevention is the key. There should now be no group who can’t be helped. We now have a focused approach to solving rough sleeping by Central and East European nationals. I recently visited Poland to see some of the social enterprises available to receive people returning home from sleeping rough in the UK. And for the long term rough sleepers who have never come in, there’s an interesting trial of personalised budgets to make a range of offers available. While the challenge is huge, we know the sector can achieve its ambitions. We already met the earlier goal to cut the number of people sleeping rough on any one night by two thirds early, and then exceeded it. The reward is in seeing the difference ending homelessness makes to each person. There are 200 people with 200 stories of coming out of homelessness who created the beautiful Key Garden for this year’s Chelsea Flower Show (pp. 29-30). One of those people was Dean, a former rough sleeper and ex-offender, who has changed his life around to become an established writer and poet (p.33). Together, we can make sure there are hundreds more stories like this… and that these stories become part of the future history we tell about our place in ending rough sleeping in our country. Jenny Edwards, Chief Executive, Homeless Link
in this issue news What’s new?
4
comment Filling the gaps in service provision Old polarities & new horizons
6 7
features Nearer the source Making the Grade? In from the cold Local response… No where to go in a crisis? Leaving care & moving on? Think family... Beyond bricks and mortar
8 10 12 13 14 16 17 18
Places that change lives Learning to change
20 22
inspired Finding alternatives Give credit where it’s due Getting Active A Day in Our lives Bloomin’ marvellous!
24 26 28 29 30
people Interview with Kevin Austin, Eden Project Back to the shop floor Art saves lives: a personal journey
32 33 34
what’s on
WWW.HOMELESS.ORG.UK
3
news
CONNECT | SUMMER 2009
latest sector IT’S THREE MONTHS SINCE THE LAST ISSUE OF CONNECT. BELOW, you’ll find A SNAPSHOT OF WHAT’S HAPPENED IN THE SECTOR SINCE THEN. April 2009 09.04.09 policy The Government announces that the Worker Registration Scheme, used to monitor Central and Eastern Europeans’ access to the labour market and restrict their access to a welfare safety net, will remain in place. To find out more visit: http://bit.ly/wrscheme 16.04.09 research Homeless Link research finds that 1 in 4 local authority areas have no emergency accommodation for single homeless people. Find out more on pages 14-15. 29.04.09 POLICY The Office of the Third Sector (OTS) launched the £15 million Targeted Support fund for services supporting local people during the economic downturn. Grants are available to small, local third sector service providers who have experienced increased demand as a result of the recession. Find out more at: http://bit.ly/targetedsupport may 2009 19.05.09 sector news The Key garden, built by homeless and disadvantaged people and prisoners around the country, was awarded a silver medal at the Chelsea Flower Show. Find out more about The Key on pages 30-31 or visit http://bit.ly/keygarden. 4
WWW.HOMELESS.ORG.UK
Tony, a Thames Reach service user, meets the London Mayor’s Director of Housing Richard Blakeway. Photo Thames Reach 21.05.09 POLICY The London Mayor Boris Johnson, announced the details of the revised London housing strategy, which is open for public consultation until 31 August 2009. The Mayor also pledged to halve severe overcrowding in London’s social housing sector by 2016. To find out how you can respond to the consultation please visit: http://bit.ly/londonhousing
june 2009 05.06.09 sector news Broadway publishes, ‘Street to Home’, their Annual Report for 2008-2009. The report details contact made with London’s rough sleepers, taken from CHAIN figures. Download a copy from: http://bit.ly/streettohome
10.06.09 POLICY Following the Government’s reshuffle, Ian Austin is now the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Communities and Local Government. The post was previously held by Iain Wright who has moved to the Department for Children, Schools and Families. 10.06.09 SECTOR NEWS The winners of the Housing Heroes awards, organised by Inside Housing with the Chartered Institute of Housing, were announced in London. The awards recognise the commitment, passion and flair of people working in the housing sector. Homeless Link member, Carr Gomm, won the Tenant Empowerment Team of the Year award for their client involvement team. For more
CONNECT | SUMMER 2009
news
news... about Carr-Gomm see page 17. Visit http://bit.ly/housingheroes to find out more about the awards. 11.06.09 research National figures show a 26% decrease in the number of people accepted as homeless by local authorities. The number of households accepted as homeless in England between January and March 2009 fell to 11,350 - down from 15,430 at the same time last year. 11.06.09 sector news The Mayor of London’s Director of Housing, Richard Blakeway, spoke at a conference organised by Thames Reach for the homeless and formerly homeless people who use the charity’s services. Find out more at: http://bit.ly/thamesreach 11.06.09 POLICY Communities and Local Government announced the 15 organisations selected to act as ‘ending rough sleeping champions’ across England. Homeless Link member Porchlight, one of the agencies selected, has promised to share their knowledge and organise a large event to promote best practice. To find out more about the ‘rough sleeping champions’ visit: http://bit.ly/champions 29.06.09 sector news Member agency, Shekinah Mission launched an ethical social enterprise in partnership with disability charity PLUSS.
Worthwhile Ethical Trading, a three month venture based in Old Town Street, Plymouth, will sell a mixture of recycled or sustainable products including bags made from inner tubes and belts created from fire hoses! All the profits will go back into the charity and social enterprise. For more information visit: www.shekinahmission.co.uk july 2009 06.07.09 SECTOR NEWS At Homeless Link’s annual conference, we launched our new and exciting brand, which was created by the design agency SAS (www.sasdesign.co.uk). We’d love to hear what you think about the new brand as well as the new look CONNECT - send your feedback to: editor@homelesslink.org.uk
online Broadway’s HR Director, Helen Giles, recognised in HR Mag’s 50 most influential thinkers list... http://bit.ly/hrmag DrugScope has launched an online, daily drug and alcohol news service at: http://bit.ly/dsdaily Presentations about the Modernisation Fund and Target Support Fund, from the Real Help for Communities Regional Roadshows, are now available online at: http://bit. ly/realhelpforcommunities Homeless Link is now on twitter! Follow us at: www.twitter.com/homeless link
Carey Bent, a service user at St Mungo’s, holds up the silver certificate awarded to The Key garden! Photo St Mungo’s WWW.HOMELESS.ORG.UK
5
COMMENT
CONNECT | SUMMER 2009
filling the gaps in service provision Oliver Hilbery, the new Project Director of Making Every Adult Matter, discusses what needs to happen next to improve services for people with multiple needs… Everyone working to support homeless people will recognise individuals who approach services with a broad range of support needs. Since 2002 Homeless Link has described these individuals, which data suggests may include around half of clients in homelessness projects, as having ‘multiple needs’. But it is not just those working in homelessness services that face the everyday challenge of supporting these individuals. The drug treatment, mental health and criminal justice sectors see the same individuals and have their own way of thinking about their multiple needs. Despite the best efforts of all sectors, provision of services to people with multiple needs is often uncoordinated. Differing priorities, funding restrictions or organisational cultures can mean that services deal with one, but not all, of an individual’s needs. People that have a variety of needs, but not one that stands out as the primary issue, can be denied a service altogether. As a result, people with multiple needs often fall through gaps between services, shy away from service provision or find themselves excluded from services that do not feel supported or equipped to work with them. This leaves them isolated at the extreme margins of society, prevented from reaching their full potential and ‘recycling’ through services at a significant cost to public funds. At the same time, government policy does not do enough to recognise that, as well as being a range of complicated individual cases, people with multiple needs are a group that require specifically focussed interventions from a range of agencies to help them achieve sustainable outcomes in their lives. In November 2008, four national charities - Clinks, DrugScope, Homeless Link and Mind – formed the coalition Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM), supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, to address these practice and policy challenges. 6
WWW.HOMELESS.ORG.UK
The MEAM vision is of a society where every adult matters, regardless of the complexity of their needs; where people with multiple needs are explicitly recognised in government policy; and where every adult who needs it is appropriately supported by a range of statutory and voluntary agencies to achieve their part in the rights, roles and responsibilities of society. Building on existing work around multiple needs in the voluntary sector and in government, MEAM will call for political leaders and central and local government to explicitly recognise multiple needs, for example in future manifestos, and to put in place mechanisms to track this group’s progress towards positive outcomes, for example via a new Public Service Agreement.
“people with multiple needs often fall through gaps between services...” Later in the year the coalition organisations will draw on their combined memberships of more than 1600 frontline organisations to examine how statutory and voluntary agencies across different sectors can collaborate to improve service delivery to this group. MEAM looks forward to highlighting the strong social justice and cost-benefit arguments for action around multiple needs, and to a time when people with multiple needs receive the coordinated services they deserve to enable them to lead full and rewarding lives in our society. MEAM is developing a reference group of other interested agencies to help guide its work. If your organisation would like to get involved contact Oliver.hilbery@homelesslink.org.uk
CONNECT | SUMMER 2009
COMMENT
Old polarities & new horizons Marcus Roberts, Director of Policy at DrugScope, reflects on their recent ‘Drug treatment at the crossroads’ report. There are clear links between the drug treatment, housing and homelessness fields. Many long-term drug users report tenancies lost because of their chaotic lifestyle. Over 80 per cent of drug users surveyed by Addaction viewed housing as vital to their recovery, while the Home Office indicates that 40 per cent of drug users cite a lack of stable accommodation as the main barrier to them achieving their treatment goals. It is vital for drug treatment to engage with the broader social exclusion agenda. As well as underpinning the work of the Making Every Adult Matter coalition, this message is central to DrugScope’s recent Drug treatment at the crossroads (Crossroads) report. Published in March, the Crossroads report came out of events which unfolded in 2007, when the National Treatment Agency (NTA) found itself at the centre of a political and media storm. The NTA’s 2006-07 report showed that, with almost £600 million invested in drug treatment, it had exceeded its performance targets, increased treatment capacity and retention and slashed waiting times. However, critics seized upon the fact that ‘only’ 5,829 people had been discharged from treatment ‘drug free’ – 3 per cent of the total. The Daily Mail complained of a “£1.9 million bill to help just one drug addict kick the habit” and David Davis, Shadow Home Secretary at the time, deemed the NTA report 'an absolutely shocking revelation'. Meanwhile, a wider body of criticism, labelled ‘new abstentionism’, argued that the drug treatment system had become excessively dependent on methadone - the most commonly prescribed substitute drug to opiate users in
treatment. In 2006-07, 118,107 people were prescribed substitute drugs, compared to 5,350 people receiving government-funded residential rehabilitation treatment. So, does this mean that the drug treatment system is 'failing'? Crossroads looked to address this question, and is based on a series of debates on drug treatment held in 2008. Naturally there was disagreement, but there was also a surprising degree of consensus between participants, not least that drug treatment has achieved much and deserves support and investment. There was also agreement that drug treatment should not be about providing methadone or abstinence-based solutions but instead should provide the right intervention, to the right person, at the right time. A crucial part of this is promoting service user choice and control over their treatment journey. However, the clearest message in Crossroads is the need to tackle the wider social causes, contexts and consequences of drug use. A valid objection to 'parking' people on methadone is that it does too little to support service users to access the social capital that they need. An objection to variants of 'new abstentionism' is that it is unrealistic to expect people to become 'drug-free' so long as problems from their past are unaddressed (such as experience of trauma and abuse), problems in the present persist (such as homelessness), and they see little prospect of a better future for themselves (for example, of meaningful employment). Polarised debates over drug treatment will hamper progress. For too long, drug policy has been dominated by an anti-crime agenda at the cost of addressing social inclusion. We will be continuing to work to ensure that a balance is struck. Download a copy of ‘Drug treatment at the crossroads’, at: www.drugscope.org.uk or email marcusr@drugscope.org.uk for a hard copy. WWW.HOMELESS.ORG.UK
7
FEATURES
CONNECT | SUMMER 2009
nearer THE SOURCE Lisa Reed, From Homeless Link, discusses why prevention needs to be at the heart of the sector’s work as we draw closer to ending rough sleeping. Last year, the Government’s new rough sleeping strategy and the Mayor’s Housing Strategy for London committed to ending rough sleeping by 2012. But what does ending rough sleeping and, indeed, Homeless Link’s other goal to end homelessness by 2022 look like and what does it mean for the homelessness sector?
inspiring examples of residential and day services offering comprehensive ‘one stop shops’ that involve other professionals and agencies to help address underlying issues. There are agencies that have not only developed the resources to train their clients, but have created employment opportunities through social enterprise and links with local businesses.
Clearly it means the role of homelessness services is still to find flexible solutions that meet immediate needs and stop rough sleeping in the short term. Crucially however, it also involves identifying and tackling the root causes that lead to homelessness so that rough sleeping is prevented in the long term. As we know, individual journeys toward rough sleeping are varied; the latest SNAP report told us that large numbers of clients presenting at services are experiencing debt, drug issues, benefits issues and 44% have multiple needs. We cannot hope that all the issues and circumstances that mean that some people are closer to homelessness than others in the general population will have been resolved by 2012. However, we can ensure we understand the signs and symptoms more clearly, so that we can begin to work with those at risk earlier.
CHC, for example, is moving away from the traditional view of day centres to become a Community Resource, a place where local residents will be encouraged to work with CHC on preventing homelessness. The charity wants to raise the level of expectation of clients and the local community regarding high quality support, outcomes and prevention.
Getting there first Prevention means recognising people who may potentially become homeless, rather than working with them once they are homeless. It means ensuring that services fit peoples’ needs so that no one falls through the net. It means offering services that increase individuals’ future resilience, such as pre-tenancy training and enabling people to gain qualifications, in order to address the issue of repeat homelessness. Prevention must become our language and we need to communicate it to everyone who can play a role in intervening before the tipping point that leads to rough sleeping. Moving in the right direction Services that support homeless people have already undergone enormous changes. The Places of Change agenda has encouraged services to focus on moving people forward and improving access to meaningful occupation, training and employment opportunities. It is important that all services recognise the role they play in preventing homelessness in the future. There are plenty of 8
WWW.HOMELESS.ORG.UK
Redefining ourselves Ending rough sleeping raises an identity issue – how organisations that work with homeless people can define themselves and communicate their role to others and raise funding, without the visible sign of people sleeping on the streets. Without rough sleeping, day centres and residential services will still exist, but organisations will no longer be ‘homelessness services’... They will be prevention and resilience services, increasingly working with others to identify those at risk, and giving people the necessary support to avoid homelessness.
PrOMPT In order to identify the gaps and opportunities, CLG has asked Homeless Link to develop the Prevention Opportunities Mapping and Planning Tool (PrOMPT). The tool will enable local partnerships to consult directly with those people in their areas who were recently, or are currently, sleeping rough, to map their individual journeys into and out of rough sleeping. It will help the partnerships to identify key points along these journeys and where effective interventions could have prevented those individuals from being and staying in those situations, and plan accordingly. The tool is currently being developed; it will be piloted over the summer and made available for all. To find out more contact: joanne.crellen@homelesslink.org.uk