Issue - meetings

CONSULTATION FOR HOMELESSNESS STRATEGY 2019 - 2024 AND ROUGH SLEEPING STRATEGY 2019 - 2024

Meeting: 03/07/2019 - Housing, Neighbourhoods and Leisure Committee (Item 6)

6 CONSULTATION FOR HOMELESSNESS STRATEGY 2019 - 2024 AND ROUGH SLEEPING STRATEGY 2019 - 2024 pdf icon PDF 956 KB

This report presents an initial review of the council’s current Homelessness Strategy 2016 – 2021 and seeks authorisation to commence a consultation exercise on three new proposed themes/priorities to underpin and develop a new Homelessness Strategy for 2019 - 2024.  The report also presents the council’s Rough Sleeping Strategy 2019 - 2024 and seeks authority to consult with partners on the co-production of an action/delivery plan.

 

Minutes:

The Director of Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services submitted a report which sought a review of the Council’s Homelessness Strategy 2016-2021 and authorisation to start a consultation exercise on three new proposed themes/priorities to underpin and develop a new Homelessness Strategy for 2019-2024.  The report also presented the Council’s Rough Sleeping Strategy 2019-2024 and sought authorisation to consult with partners on the co-production of an action/delivery plan.

The following documents were appended to the report:

Appendix 1 - Snapshot review of Reading’s Homelessness Strategy 2016-2021;

Appendix 2 - Rough Sleeping Strategy 2019 -2024;

Appendix 3 - Consultation Questions for Reading’s Homelessness Strategy;

Appendix 4 - Consultation Planner for Reading’s Homelessness Strategy;

Appendix 5 - Equality Impact Assessment for Rough Sleeping Strategy 2019-2024.

The report explained that Reading’s current Homelessness Strategy 2016-2021 required a review due to significant reductions in the use of emergency accommodation for homeless households and significant legislative and operational changes introduced by the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and subsequent changes to the Homelessness Code of Guidance.  An initial review of Reading’s Homelessness Strategy 2016-2021 had been undertaken (Appendix 1).  A full review of the Borough’s requirements would be undertaken alongside consultation on themes/priorities to inform the development of Reading’s new Homelessness Strategy.  Informal meetings had been held with internal and statutory partners including Housing Needs, Adult Social Care, Children’s Social Care (Brighter Futures for Children), Community Safety, Berkshire West CCG and Berkshire Health Foundation Trust to inform the initial review and proposed themes for Reading’s new Homelessness Strategy.

The report also explained that officers had drafted and attained sign-off from senior management on a Rough Sleeping Strategy by March 2019 (Appendix 2) in order to secure Year 2 funding for Reading’s Rough Sleeping Initiative to the amount of £335,000 from the MHCLG.

The report proposed that two separate strategies should be published, one for homelessness and one for rough sleeping to ensure that each had robust aims and a focused action/delivery plan for customers that had differing needs.  Separate strategies would allow for a differentiation in action planning and action plan delivery, where different cohorts required different approaches from partners, sectors and services in meeting their needs.  Further to informal meetings held in April 2019 with internal and statutory partners, the following themes/priorities had been identified for consultation:

·           Priority One - Intervening early to prevent and reduce homelessness in Reading

·           Priority Two - Increasing access to decent, suitable accommodation

·           Priority Three - Supporting people who are vulnerable to recurring homelessness

The reportfurther proposed that consultation on these themes/priorities would take place over an eight week period, with a range of stakeholders, including residents across Reading Borough, customers of Housing Needs and homelessness services, internal partners in Adult Social Care, Brighter Futures, and Community Safety, the public and other external partner organisations  e.g. Police, community and voluntary sector services, local businesses, Clinical Commissioning Groups, and commissioned homelessness services.  The consultation would take place throughout August and September 2019. Appendix 3 provided details of the Consultation Questions  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6