Council reaches final stages of plan to create top service for the homeless
Preferred bidder will be announced by summer
8 February 2012
Cheshire West and Chester Council is entering the final stages of its plan to create one of the country’s finest services for the homeless.
A short list of five top service providers has been drawn up from seventy applicants and the authority expects to announce a preferred bidder by Summer this year.
Today (Wednesday) Homeless Champion Councillor Jill Houlbrook, said: “We are delighted with the high standard of bids we are proposing to take through to the competitive stage of the procurement process.
“The range of pre-qualification scores from the selected short list – including organisations with a local presence – have varied from 72 percent to an excellent 96 percent.”
Today’s announcement follows a long process of research and consultations with service users and stakeholders reviewing homelessness and services for rough sleepers.
Recommendations were highlighted, which the Council will work with the successful bidder to implement including improved customer services, fit-for-purpose accommodation and a need to improve pathways and support to independent living.
Said Councillor Jill Houlbrook: “The Council is working hard to ensure that homelessness services throughout the Borough are some of the best in country, fit-for-purpose and meet the needs of service users.
“I think everyone recognises that our current service provision does not meet all of our requirements in relation to customer service, high quality accommodation and a need to improve the pathways, support and rehabilitation to independent living.
She added: “We want to provide the best range of services and accommodation options possible for this vulnerable client group and ensure no one spends a second night out in our Borough.”
The Council’s requirements for the new service include a sustainable reduction in the number of people who are sleeping rough, particularly the most vulnerable, with the offer of appropriate support at the right time in a sustainable way.
The service will ensure that:
- People live in safe, decent and sustainable accommodation that
they regard as home
- Service users develop, regain and maintain the skills and
resilience to maintain a home and should not move between services
and accommodation more than is absolutely necessary.
- Those moving from institutional settings will not have to
become homeless or sleeping rough before they get the help they
need.
- People are helped to reconnect to areas of the authority, surrounding areas, or other areas that promote their links to supportive social and family networks.
- Individuals receive help to make real personal changes in their lives and don’t need to rely on support to live an independent positive life.
This could mean support to address offending, debt, drug or alcohol misuse, emotional or mental health, or anything else preventing them from maintaining a roof over their heads.
The new service will be designed from the outset to deliver results and outcomes for all groups who are sleeping rough, or at high risk of doing so.
This includes people sleeping out in the open, in commercial premises not designed for habitation, in squats and vulnerable people who are sofa surfing or moving repeatedly between friends and family.
Vulnerable people moving out of institutional settings – for example prison, hospital, or residential care – who do not have suitable accommodation and support in place to sustain a safe lifestyle should also receive support.