Access to Services

“When the nearest accommodation is miles away from your friends and family that makes it a difficult choice. Often clients prefer to keep sleeping on sofas or even in their cars, rather than move away”. Resettlement worker.

Physical access to services is a huge factor in the delivery of services in rural areas and as such overlaps the other sections of this site. But it is important to note the scale of the issue and, in particular, look at how some alternative methods of service provision can help to reduce the impact of this problem.

In many areas, public transport is both infrequent and expensive and can be prohibitive to those clients needing to access services that may be spread across a large area. Indeed, this recent newspaper article is one of many that highlights some of the threats to continued regular provision of bus routes. With specialist services and high support services, in particular, so sparsely concentrated, agencies are required to consider ways of reachin clients who might not otherwise receive the support they need.

Many agencies have developed flexible working practices to allow a greater coverage of rural areas, including remote staff providing floating support services, which can be supported by remote access databases and email, countering the need for staff to be office-based. Drop-in sessions at more remote areas can also help to provide support to clients on a more regular basis. Exeter Homeless Action Group, for example, provide regular sessions for care leavers and ex offenders at a range of venues, while Cranstoun Drug Services in Hampshire also runs a programme of drop-in sessions which have become better attended over time as they have sought to hold them in areas adequately served by public transport. Where possible, home visits to clients and outreach support, particularly for clients who have been resettled into longer term accommodation, has also proved to be successful in some areas, but as ever the development of such provision can be limited by funding restraints or the ability to demonstrate need for services.

The Mobile Advice Service run by Shelter in the North East, mentioned elsewhere in these pages, is an excellent example of a service overcoming physical barriers to provide meaningful support to clients across a wide area, and has had particular success in helping to sustain vulnerable tenancies. High levels of evictions in some areas can have an influence on an individual client’s ability to access accommodation or support. Some agencies have reported that where an area is served by just a small number of providers, when a client is evicted they can find it especially difficult to access support or accommodation from other providers. This highlights the need for tenancy support, such as that provided by Shelter or, occasionally, by council-funded posts and also the need for councils and support providers to develop working relationships with local landlords. For instance, cross-agency rent deposit schemes have been introduced in some areas, as have regular case-conferences for at-risk tenancies, attended by landlords, clients, council staff and support providers where appropriate. Flexible approaches to local connection policies can also open up opportunities for clients to access additional services, particularly as a support provider in one area told us that one RSL had a large number of properties standing empty while clients in a nearby area were still waiting to be provided with accommodation.

In many areas agencies and councils alike have developed dedicated programmes of transport provision to help people access services that would otherwise be denied to them through limited public transport or prohibitive costs. Wheels To Work is a scheme adoted across the country to provide affordable transport for people, especially young people, to allow them to access support, and education and employment and social opportunities. Usually this will involve loaning mopeds at reduced rates for a defined period of time, and it has proved to successful in many places. Other examples include of transport provision include: Downland Youth Network's Outrider Pilot Transport Scheme which, in conjunction with the local council and funded by the Rural Transport Partnership, provided up to 30 young people in rural villages vouchers to subsidise bus and train transport over a six month period, with a wider-ranging rollout to follow; a minibus-sharing scheme implemented by a number of agencies working across the same area in the North-West.

Agencies have also been exploring alternative methods of contacting clients, improving access by providing services without having to incur the time and cost of travel. For instance, one advice service in Yorkshire began sending texts to remind clients of upcoming support sessions or appointments and reported that, although attendance remained the same, there was a marked increase in clients informing of non-attendance in advance which has helped to save on wasted time and travel costs. Other agencies have developed phonelines to provide advice and support, while others provide dedicated email-based services. There is also a growing trend towards online networks which help to support agencies and clients alike: agencies can share advice and information relating to their own experiences, share policy and practice information and develop referral and joint-working processes; online communities and blogs have developed in some areas to help clients access information and share experiences with people in similar situations, such as Mortarnet, a web-based project that seeks to provide an opportunity for people to share experiences of mental health and raise awareness of related issues. It is also important that agencies are active in promoting their services to the public to ensure that prospective clients are aware of what advice, information or support is available to them. Some providers hold open days or homelessness awareness campaigns; some visit local schools to talk about their services and some of the issues that may affect young people in rural areas; some produce leaflets to advertise services; others even provide regular information in advice columns in the local newspaper. In addition, attendance at provider forums and other regional and national events can be an aid to developing working partnerships with and extending referral routes to other agencies.

Over recent months, Homeless Link has undertaken an ICT Connections project which has, in part, explored some of the ways in which small agencies, many of whom work in rural agencies, have sought to use ICT to improve the accessibility of their services. Examples of the type service provision we have seen include remote access databases, mobile ICT training and support, and free and affordable staff and client training. For more information, see the section of this site on ICT.