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Yorkshire and the Humber
Places of change
Homeless Link's work in the region is focused on improving services for homeless people and particularly on making hostels and other services "Places of Change". Read more
There have now been two Places of change "tours" to the award winning NE Lincolnshire Women's Aid Refuge and Women's Centre in Grimsby. View the Grimsby Places of Change presentation. In November 2007 they won the prestigioius Royal Institute of British Architects White Rose Client of the Year award.
Currently new flagship projects in the region are on site in York (replacement provision for York Arc Light due for completion in early summer 2008) and Doncaster (replacement provision for the M25 Group due late 2008).
What's new?
- Communities and Local Government has announced £70 million investment to expand the Places of Change programme to more hostels and day centres across the country. Homeless Link has organised a number of briefing sessions to give guidance around funding applications for the new Places of Change programme. Contact Joe Kent if you are considering a bid to this fund. Bids must be submitted by your Local Authority and the deadline is 25th January 2008.
- Presentations from the briefings are available here: Joe Kent gave an overview of HCIP round one and an introduction to the new Places of Change Programme (the renamed second round of this fund). A presentation by Sharon Allen from St Annes Community Servicces and a presentation from Dilys Jones of York City Council outlined the lessons learnt from round one. Martin Patterson also shared the experience of St George's Crypt.
- Homeless Link has been commissioned by Communities and Local Government (CLG) to support and administer a £450,000 grants scheme to help services working with homeless people provide positive activities. The Activating Places of Change grants are only available to services that have received funding under the CLG's Hostels Capital Improvement Programme (HCIP). There was strong national competition for round one grants and this region did exceptionally well with 5 projects receiving funding. Travelling Light will deliver music workshops to hostels across the region, Cathedral Archer Project and St Annes Bevan Court will partner up for a market garden social enterprise, M25 Group will deliver mechanics training for residents in advance of their new facility being built, Ryedale District Council and Foundation Housing will bring a range of activities to residents of a private hostel for the first time and the Womens Centre in NE Lincolnshire will continue to go from strength to strength supporting resettlement from the refuge.
Yorkshire & Humber leads the way on Local Area Agreements
The regional VCS chairs group that came together through HAYH (more below) identified that a regional event on Local Area Agreements bringing together the VCS and statutory sectors would be invaluable.
Homeless Link convened a meeting attended by over 60 key strategic people including VCS forum chairs, homelessness lead strategy officers and supporting people lead officers. It was hosted by Government Officer for Yorkshire and the Humber (GOY&H) who liked the idea of the meeting so much that they convened their own meeting the next day for more senior Local Authority Officers to consider the learning from the previoius day and to examine issues more generally for socially excluded and vulnerable groups. A series of presentations are available from the two events as follows:
David Walmesly is the lead on LAA's at GOY&H and gave an overview of the LAA process and timetable. Kate Hudson gave a presentation on the Supporting People perspective on LAA's. Lambeth are a beacon Local Authority on LAA's and gave a presentation that showed why their approach has been identified as national best practice. The Lambeth business case is available for other Local Authorities interested in their approach.
The main learning points from the day were summarised and presented at the second event on November 2nd to the executive group.
At the November 2nd Event a presentation from the Cabinet Office made the case for Local Authorities to adopt the social exclusion national indicators and provided some fascinating data on four excluded groups which is broken down by local authority area for all Authorities in Y&H. The youth offending presenation gave equally useful data again broken down by Local Authority area for the whole region and made a compelling case for intervention in this area to make potentially large cost savings.
HAYH
HAYH (Housing Action Yorkshire and Humberside) is a new and emerging network of voluntary sector organisations currently being established to enable the sector to communicate with each other across the region, exchange good practice and to influence regional decision makers. HAYH has just been awarded funding by the Voluntary Sector Regional Forum and is always plenty of activity on these web pages with regular new postings about regional jobs, events, training, research and conferences.
HAYH has convened two meetings for voluntary sector chairs of local forums in February and May 2007. This led to Homeless Link hosting an event on LAA's at Government Office Y&H on 1st November 2007 (see above). If you are the chair of a Homelessness Strategy Group, Rough Sleeper Forum, Hostels Forum, Supporting People Providers Forum or similar and you are from a non-statutory provider organisation then contact joe.kent@homelesslink.org.uk
In 2006 CHAS advice centre in Calderdale used the HAYH network to research how local reference rents have impacted on people in housing need seeking accommodation in the private rented sector. The report Behind Closed Doors, Housing Benefit Shortfall and the Secret Work of Rent Officers has made a considerable impact and led to questions being asked by MP's during the committee scrutiny stages of the Welfare Reform Bill and a meeting with the minister Anne Maguire MP.
Thematic Regional Work
A meeting on social enterprise is planned for February 2008, this will enable agencies to hear about emerging practice, fudning funding trends and to learn about the new Community Interest Companies set up as a specific vehicle for social enterprise. If you are interested in attending this meeting contact the regional manager Joe Kent.
The notes from the first Regional Activities Worker Group are available. The next meeting will be in February 2008 in Doncaster with a further meeting in Scarborough in summer 2008. If your project runs activities, or wants to get started, then send a worker along to find out about best practice, where the funding comes from and join in the network.
Several providers got together to talk about move on accommodation and heared about innovative work with the private sector from projects in Grimsby and Hull. The meeting also discussed the Homeless Link MOPP (Move-On Protocols Project) with a presentation from the working example of this project in York. View the general notes from the meeting and a specific note on the models and approaches used.
Many Local Authorities in the region are starting to use the Homeless Link MOPP tool. For further details contact the regional manager Joe Kent.
Events & Training in the Region
The next course in the region is Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy which takes place in Leeds over four days in February.
Visit our events and training pages for details of regional events and training courses.
Areas of Interest
Service User Involvement Network
Our service user involvement pages contain an archive of valuable information that showcases some of the best work on offer in the North of England. This is a growing network - to add your name to the circulation list and receive regular updates, or to add your practice to the archive, contact Joe Kent. These pages include the Bradford Speakout Charter of Rights
In the Region
Regional Homelessness Champions
Two of the government's Regional Champions for good practice in homelessness are in the region: Scarborough and Wakefield. See presentations on their work: Scarborough presentation; Wakefield presentation The new regional champions for 2008 are Sheffield City Council.
The regional organisations and governance structures are explained in a Regional Structures Guide which is published by the Voluntary Sector Regional Forum.