SCC Call for Evidence
August 2015
Preventing and Responding to Homelessness
Sheffield City Council Call for Evidence
Response from Shelter
What kind of support is most effective in terms of preventing
homelessness?
We use the following principles to deliver effective preventative services informed by
experience, use of external best practice and co-producing services with current, former and
potential service users.

Whole household approach: supports an individual to create and sustain a home
by addressing the needs of each household member.

Person-centred support: a holistic support plan is produced with each individual to
identify the presenting and underlying root causes of the problems faced. We
regularly review these plans to capture the changing and emerging needs of clients,
ensuring the right interventions are in place.

Multi-agency, coordinated support with a single point of contact: support worker
as the single point of contact, who navigates and coordinates support from different
agencies, in addition to direct delivery. This approach enables clients with learning
difficulties, mental health needs, and substance misuse problems to access specialist
services. Small caseload ratios (worker to client) are also imperative to develop and
maintain trust and engagement with services.

Timely access to the right interventions: The success of interventions identified by
the support plan are often dependent on their sequencing.

Co-production of support plans: Identifying and sequencing interventions with
each service user to ensure plans are personalised and aligned with their needs and
aspirations. Support plans initially focus upon immediate crisis intervention; then,
when clients have greater stability other needs are assessed. Co-producing support
plans builds trust between us and clients; also, clients feel supported to make
informed choices, which increases ownership of their recovery.
We have also found the following points important to consider in the effective delivery of
preventative services:

Identifying and addressing needs of vulnerable households early: stops issues
escalating and leading to homelessness. Preventative services must reflect the
complexity of individual circumstances (e.g. mental & physical ill-health, family
background and substance misuse) and external ‘structural’ factors (e.g. limited
access to affordable housing, economy).

Investment of time and flexibility: we have found that short interventions are
unlikely to be successful, especially when working with clients who have entrenched
needs
www.shelter.org.uk
Shelter, registered charity (263710)
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SCC Call for Evidence
August 2015

Flexibility in delivery: Flexibility in supporting clients should be reflected in
preventative services contracts.

Structural benefit changes: introduction of the benefit cap and removal of the spare
room subsidy, have impacted the provision of preventative support. In particular, we
have found that clients with multiple and complex needs are more likely to be
claiming inappropriate benefits, find difficulty in complying with benefit requirements
and may not be accessing all their entitlement. Indeed, we have seen a number of
clients who have lived without any income for a number of months at the point of
accessing our services.

Effective partnership working: services must include partnership working with LAs,
health professionals and other agencies that may encounter households at risk of
homelessness at an early stage, e.g. specialist training to professionals, e.g.
specialist training for professionals, consultancy support lines.
What works best for entrenched homeless people with complex and
multiple needs who fail to engage with services and live chaotic life
styles?
This client group face numerous barriers to engaging with any form of help; individuals can
have chaotic lifestyles, complex emotional and psychological needs, deep-rooted mistrust of
other people and negative peer groups. Services also pose barriers to engagement, e.g.
service eligibility and thresholds, accessibility and balancing caseloads. These factors mean
that progression towards a safe, secure and stable home for this group is rarely linear and
disengagement is common.
A snapshot of our current clients found 28% of HPR’s single / childless couples were
affected by all factors of severe and multiple disadvantage (homelessness, substance
misuse and / or alcohol, offending and /or mental health as defined within the ‘Hard Edges
Report’1). When working with this client group, we have found the following principles work
best.
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
Multi-agency with a single point of contact: listening to service users has
identified that a coordinated, multi-agency approach works best to prevent individuals
from falling through the gaps. It is important to have a single point of contact e.g.
Support Worker, who can coordinate support from different agencies, in addition to
direct delivery. Small caseload ratios (worker to client) are crucial to develop and
maintain trust and engagement in the service; also, we have found that Support
Workers accompanying clients to initial meetings with other professionals is helpful.

Peer mentors to sustain engagement: peer mentors with lived experience act as a
positive role model and can provide practical support e.g. attending appointments.
These can be voluntary or paid roles.
Lankelly Chase Foundation, 2015: ‘Hard Edges, mapping severe and multiple disadvantage’.
www.shelter.org.uk
Shelter, registered charity (263710)
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SCC Call for Evidence
August 2015

Pre-engagement: a crucial step in progressing towards independent living is building
trust and accepting support. There should be provision for an experienced support
service to pro-actively engage with individuals before any formal support begins, e.g.
drop-ins and crisis intervention.

Common assessment techniques, supported by information sharing protocols:
these are important to establish between relevant agencies so that the needs and
history of the client are fully understood. We also recommend minimising the use of
paper based assessment forms as these can present a barrier to engagement.

Person-centred support, focusing on presenting needs and root causes: holistic
support plans needs to be co-produced to identify the presenting and underlying root
causes of the problems faced, ensuring that the right interventions are accessed.
There must be flexibility on the length of support and ability of the client to come in
and out of service.

Psychologically informed approaches: services need to address the behaviours
and perceptions of the client, as well as practical approaches. Workers need to be
trained and skilled in dealing with the complex nature of client behaviour and how to
navigate a way through.

Timely access to the right interventions: success of interventions are often
dependent on their sequencing.

Continual improvement and service co-production with clients: Past, present
and potential future clients should be involved in service design, delivery and
evaluation. This ensures that services remain relevant and address any emerging
needs that create barriers to progressing to independent living.
What works best for entrenched homeless women with complex and
multiple needs who fail to engage with services and live chaotic life
styles?
In our work, we have encountered the following barriers to female engagement with services
that should be considered when delivering services to women.

Services dominated by male clients: We have found that the domination of many
services by male clients can present a barrier to female clients. For example, we
have an anecdotal case of a female client with substance misuse issues who was too
intimidated to enter a service centre with a Support Worker due to the number of
males inside who were under the influence, swearing, and being aggressive.
Women-only services and provision of female staff should be a considered when
delivering services to this client group.
www.shelter.org.uk
Shelter, registered charity (263710)
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SCC Call for Evidence
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August 2015
Fear of losing children: Women may fear that engagement with services will lead to
Social Services taking away their children; that service engagement will be negatively
perceived by Social Services is something that we repeatedly hear. Addressing this
fear before engagement with support is extremely important in improving access and
increasing engagement amongst female clients.
What models of accommodation with support work best for homeless
young people (16 and 17 year olds in particular) to enable them to
become successful adults and avoid becoming trapped in a lifecycle of
homelessness?
Options include supported accommodation, supported lodging, shared accommodation and
floating support services. The model of accommodation with support will vary depending on
a person’s needs and circumstances. Given the mix of housing and housing support
providers in Sheffield at present we believe that any of these options would be viable, none
would be more preferable in a general sense and each option would therefore need to be
chosen as informed by individual need on a case by case basis.
Further information on the approach to delivering homelessness prevention services to
young people is provided below in case this is of use to the panel:

Pathway approach: The goal of the pathway will be for young people to access and
sustain long-term settled housing. The stages on the pathway will not necessarily be
followed in any particular order. Some young people may move straight from their
family home to their own tenancies, while others will move back and forward between
different options until they are able to sustain independent living.

Assessment and preventing crisis: Central to the pathway approach is a shift in
emphasis - instead of focusing resources on reacting to housing crisis, the focus here
is on early intervention and prevention. This is achieved through identifying and
assessing young people at risk of homelessness, and providing mediation and family
support to prevent young people leaving home before they are ready, or to facilitate
their return if they have left already.

Dealing with crisis - specialised support: If a young person does then have to
leave home, the focus is on providing access to appropriate services while working
towards family reconciliation. For young people unable to return to the family home, a
supported pathway would help them with housing and support. To help young people
experiencing housing crisis, advice provision can focus on accommodation and
support options, such as:
o
securing appropriate emergency accommodation in tandem with support to
enable either a return home or a planned move to settled accommodation.
o
accessing short-term supported accommodation and planning for moving on
to more independent accommodation.
www.shelter.org.uk
Shelter, registered charity (263710)
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SCC Call for Evidence
o
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August 2015
opportunities for training, work and education, as well as improving general
life skills.
Progress - moving on and settling down: Whether as part of a planned and
supported move, or suddenly due to crisis, young people will eventually require skills
and support to sustain independent living in the private or social rented sector. At this
stage, young people would benefit from:
o
advice on settled accommodation, tenancy access schemes and tenancy
support
o
reality checks on housing availability, affordability and tenure
o
support in understanding rights and responsibilities as tenants
o
benefits advice and money management skills
Further information in can be found on our web pages dedicated to organisations working
with young people (youngpeopleoutcomes.shelter.org.uk).
www.shelter.org.uk
Shelter, registered charity (263710)
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