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Introduction
We are inspired by the vision of our country free from homelessness. We believe that our vision can become reality if intelligence, commitment and resources are brought together. There has been significant progress in the right direction over recent years. Undoubtedly our vision can only be achieved if Government at all levels and frontline services work in close partnership and deliver to their full potential.
Our mission is to be an agent of change - a catalyst that will help to transform services, strategies and investment and to build the widespread understanding and commitment that will be essential to make our vision a reality.
There has been a great deal of success in bringing homeless people off the streets over the last ten years. It’s now time for the sector to come together to create a real change in service delivery – preventing homelessness where possible, and making timely, light touch interventions in people’s lives when they fall into homelessness. Whilst the importance of good quality hostels as an emergency response to the crisis of homelessness cannot be underestimated, long-term residency in hostels and other forms of temporary accommodation can be hugely detrimental to the self-esteem and well being of vulnerable people. This strategy aims to deliver change in organisations to help them meet this challenge head on.
Delivery of services to homeless people in England and Wales varies considerably in quality and availability. This is due in part to local variations in terms of need and/or political leadership – but it’s also due to wide variations in service quality and expectations of what services can actually deliver. Information sharing and partnership working between the statutory and voluntary sectors can also be either very constructive or very obstructive in making the difference for homeless people. There is real scope to raise the game of all agencies working in the sector in the next four years. The inspirational examples of some service providers show that innovative and excellent practice can be the norm, not the extraordinary. This strategy aims to identify:
- Where the sector is at the moment
- What factors make innovative and excellent service delivery work in practice to help transform the lives of homeless people
- What factors contribute to other services delivering less high quality outcomes for clients
- How services can change in practice
- The role of Homeless Link and other key partner agencies in working with service providers to challenge, facilitate change and inspire outstanding service delivery through a range of projects and tools
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." – Charles Darwin
What Creating Change aims to deliver
The overarching aim of Creating Change is to drive forward a step change in service delivery across the homelessness sector.
The outcomes of the strategy are:
- To place homeless people at the heart of service development and delivery
- To create a culture of change within services
- To mainstream best practice across the sector
- To resource the sector to deliver outstanding services
We will do this by:
- Identifying and promoting best practice both within the sector and from other sectors
- Inspiring and supporting services to change
- Acting as a knowledge centre for the sector
- Developing and delivering training and qualifications which enable staff to deliver great services
- Assist agencies to spot future leaders and develop them
- Challenge and inspire current service planners and leaders
- Assist agencies to have influence and to work more closely in partnership
- Show agencies how to develop and broker resources and develop relationships
But first, some definitions. When we’re talking about the sector, who do we mean?
Any agency which works with homeless people to improve their quality of life is part of the homelessness sector. This includes a range of statutory and voluntary sector partners who need to work together:
- Hostels and other accommodation providers
- Day centres
- Advice centres
- Drug and alcohol services
- Skills and employability agencies
- Training providers and colleges
- Social enterprises and employers
- Local authority housing and homelessness teams
- Supporting People teams
- Registered social landlords
- Private sector landlords
- Social Care teams
- Primary Care Trusts
- Mental health service providers
- Probation
- The Prison service
- Connexions
- Campaigning organisations
- Street outreach
- Resettlement & tenancy sustainment
- Floating support providers
- Specialist women’s services
- Refugee and asylum seeker support services
- BME led homelessness organisations
- Outreach and support services for sex workers and other specific client groups
The services the sector delivers fall under some key headings:
- Accommodation
- One to one support, keyworking and floating support
- Drug and alcohol rehabilitation
- Meaningful occupation, pre-employability and skills development
- Employment and training
- Advice and information
- Physical health services
- Mental health services
- Counselling and other therapeutic services
- Services for specialist groups
- Resettlement and move on
This strategy was developed through consultation interviews with a range of agencies and Homeless Link staff to understand exactly what the key issues affecting organisations are. These included some of the largest and smallest providers of services to homeless people in the UK.
Where is the sector now?
Homeless Link will undertake regular surveys of member and other agencies to assess:
- What kinds of services are being offered locally to build up a map of service provision across the country, using information from partner agencies such as RIS
- New and innovative service provision and how effective it is at:
- Preventing homelessness
- Assisting clients to move on and resettlement
- Which projects and tools are the most helpful in assisting agencies to improve service delivery.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that services are spread across a wide spectrum of achievement at present. There are some award-winning and innovative services leading the way, trying out new ideas and achieving high success rates in settling clients into suitable long term accommodation. The bulk of services fall somewhere in the middle of the curve, with some services significantly trailing (and receiving poor Supporting People service review evaluations):
Research into the adoption of new and innovative practice suggests that organisations and individuals fall into five categories:
Innovators: The small group of adventurous people who try out new ideas first of all, even if they seem risky or unproven. Organisations in this category tend to be small. Early adopters: A slightly larger group who track what Innovators do and adopt the practice well before it becomes mainstreamed. Organisations in this category also tend to be small. Early majority: This large group adapt to new ideas quickly and take on board lessons learned from Innovators and Early adopters. This group of organisations includes larger organisations which act in a deliberate way. Late majority: This large group is slow to adopt new ideas and will often only adopt them in a reactive way, once practice has spread throughout the sector. This group of organisations also tends to be larger organisations who may be sceptical about the benefits of new practice. Stragglers: This small group resist change and often will not adopt new practice even when mainstreamed across the rest of the sector. Organisations of any size can fall into this category, and they often see no reason to change.
The aim of Creating Change and the projects that form the action plan, is to drive service standards up across the sector, and to provide the most assistance to those agencies who are most in need – helping shift the pace of change.
What makes an organisation superb?
Organisations around the country deliver fantastic services to their clients. So what is it about organisations delivering a great service that makes them great? And equally, what is it about services that don’t deliver the best outcomes for their clients? During the consultation exercise, seven key factors were identified which were common across most best practice agencies. These are:
This strategy will show what a successful organisation looks like when each of these factors are in place, what inhibits organisations from achieving on this factor, what agencies can do to improve the way they work, and how Homeless Link can help.