West London Homelessness Group
Projects:
About the West London HELP SchemeAbout West London Letstart The West London Homelessness Sub-group consists of senior housing needs staff from all seven boroughs. Meeting every six weeks, their task is to move forward the homelessness work of the sub-region.
West London Homelessness Strategy Delivery Manager:
Ieuan.apRees@rbkc.gov.uk
Brief History
The West London Homelessness Sub-Group was first chaired by Andy Gale during Harrow and West London's pioneering development of the homelessness prevention and housing options approach which has since been adapted by authorities across the UK.
A West London Homelessness Co-ordinator has been in post since October 2004 and there are now equivalent posts in South East London and East London following the success of this initiative.
There are also sub-regional groups which report to the homelessness group considering Temporary Accommodation, Direct Lettings, Housing Advice and Homelessness Reviews.
A number of sub-regional projects and protocols have been set up which are listed below, some of which operate with thier own project boards, and report directly to West London Housing Directors
West London Homelessness Strategy
An early achievement was the production of the
West London Homelessness Strategy 2005-08, which was the first of its kind, and has been an example to other sub-regions around the UK considering working together more closely on Homelessness. This has formed the basis of much of the work since then.
West London Housing Options DVD
Recognising that information leaflets are unhelpful to many of our clients, who may not read English very easily, the boroughs jointly commissioned the pioneering Housing Options in West London DVD which offers clear information in an accessible format to allow people with housing needs to help themselves, make more infomred choices and access services more effectively where needed.
The DVD has professional presenters, breaks down in to short sections, and is sub-titled in the range of languages spoken in West London and well as being signed for deaf viewers.
West London Temporary Accommodation Charter
This A5 booklet is given to tenants of Temporary Accommodation when they move in and gives advice on rights and responsibilities. It has been translated into 16 languages.
West London Temporary Accommodation CharterWest London Temporary Accommodation Cross Borough Protocol
This protocol complements the Londonwide "Interborough Agreement" on the Location and Protocols on Temporary Accommodation and provides a rational and cooperative basis for acquisition of out of borough Temporary Accommodation in West London in which the host borough is always consulted and the market is not distorted. Out of borough TA leases are also monitored through a dedicated website to achieve as much transparency as possible.
West London Cross Borough TA Protocol West London Rent Deposit / Finders Fee Protocol
This protocal has been in operation since 2005 and has been largely successful in managing the potential difficulties when a client of one borough finds a private sector property in another West London borough. The managers of the borough schemes have a good working relationship and are collaborating closely on the West London Letstart project.
West London Rent Deposit Scheme Cross Borough ProtocolWest London Letstart
The West London Letstart scheme has been initially developed through a grant from the government's Homelessness Innovation Fund and is a way for the boroughs to work together more closely with private sector landlords and lettings agents to achieve our programme to prevent homelessness by assisting people to take up a private sector tenancy.
A professional website has been set up which allows properties to be uploaded by landlords and viewed by potential tenants who meet the councils' criteria. The suite was launched on May 6th 2008, and we are hopeful that it will assist us to access more suitable accommodation of this type as well as providing a better faclitiy to record information about properties and tenancies.
There is also considerable potential to use the Letstart scheme to provide move on accommodation for single people leaving Supporting People accommodation and for people on the waiting list for social housing to opt for a private sector solution if sufficient properties are available. We are also piloting a programme with A3 Countrywide to find suitable private sector accommodation outside London for clients who wish to move away from the city.
We are also working together to provide a training programme for tenants wishing to move into private sector tenancies to assist with long term tenancy sustainment.
www.westlondonletstart.com
Landlords wishing to provide properties for letting through the scheme can in some circumstances access a West London Better Homes Grant to help bring the property up to the Decent Homes standard.
West London Direct Lettings Outcomes Report
This sustantial report, entitled
Settling In was jointly commissioned from London Councils by the seven boroughs in the West London Sub-region, as we wanted to see how well our strategy of finding private sector accommodation for people who would otherwise have to go into TA is working. We received detailed postal survey responses from 800 tenants, and conducted a number of in depth interviews with tenants as well a a telephone survey of landlords. The report is largely positive, but contains a number of recommendations for how practice can be improved.
West London DV Reciprocals Agreement
This pioneering agreement between all the West London boroughs and a number of participating RSLs works to prevent council and housing association tenants escaping domestic violence from needing to become homeless and go into long term temporary accommodation.
It works by providing an agreed framework to facilitating cross borough or cross landlord management transfers for people approaching West London boroughs who would otherwise have been accepted as homeless, and provides for a co-operative assessemnt of each case and provision of a reciprocal property when someone is housed by another landlord through the agreement.
The agreement is being considered as a model elsewhere in London and the UK and is being reviewed in May 2008. West London DV Reciprocals Flowchart; West London DV Reciprocals Agreement
West London Joint Minimum Standards for Temporary Accommodation and Leased Private Sector Accommodation
These have been agreed as minimum standards for any borough scheme (although they can be exceeded), and have also been adopted for the West London Temporary to Settled Scheme.
West London Joint Minimum Standards West London Temporary to Settled Scheme
Now in its final stages of negotiation after more than 2 years of developemental work, this scheme will provide up to 1400 units of accommodation where Temporary Accommodation rental income is used to purchase properties and convert them to settled accommodation over a period of years. This represents a very significant reinvestment of houing benefit income into providing affordable housing in the medium term, and will provide settled accommodation from the outset for our tenants.
Developed with Civis Consultancy using funds from the London Centre for Procurement Excellence (LCE), the scheme has attracted £10M capital grant from the Settled Homes Initiative and the Housing Corporation, and allows risk sharing and economies of scale by the boroughs working together. West and North London Temp to Perm Feasibility Study
The project has been tendered through the EU Negotiated Tender Procedure and we are currently working with a Consortium of LloydsTSB Bank, Pathmeads, A2, Stadium and Orchard & Shipman as preferred providers.
West London Notify Health Check
The West London boroughs have set an example to other sub-regions by benchmarking their work implementing the Notify system to track placements of vulnerable people in Temporray Accommodation across London, and ensure they get the services they need from Social Services, Education and Health, as well as Housing Services. The West London Notify Health Check attemnpts to set a standard for boroughs in achieving this and encourages borough departments to work together in a joined up way.
West London Notify Health Check West London Common Assessment form for Supporting People Accommodation
A joint project between the West London Homelessness Group and the West London Supporting People Group, this form has been drawn up for potential use by all the West Lonond boroughs, and is already in use by Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea to assess candidates for all (or almost all) Supporting People Accommodation in a transparent and fair way.
West London Referral Form,
West London Referral Form Guidance Notes West London Temporary Acommodation Satisfaction Survey
This took place in late 2007 and received over 3000 detailed responses from TA tenants in all seve boroughs, allowing benchmarking of satisfaction levels in different areas across the boroughs. The survey also identified several hundred potential candidates for employment initiatives and for qualifying offers, as well as people with specific problems such as outstanding repairs or difficulty bidding on the Choice Based Lettings system.
West London Housing Needs Benchmarking Survey
This comprehensive survey, conducted by benchmarking specialists Acclaim provided the opportunity to look in at housing needs perfomance and costs in more detail than ever before attempted by a group of local authorities in this area, paving the way for more efficient and effective working. Several boroughs are using the results as part of the process of remodelling their services.
West London Mystery Shopping Exercise
This pioeering research into the experience of people in serious housing need seeking help from local\ authorities was runner up in the Andy Ludlow Awards 2007. We worked with a team of people with personal experience of homelessness trained by a voluntary agency
BHUG (Brent Homeless User Group) to approach the seven boroughs with five different scenarios to see what happened to them in each borough. All the scenarios bore some relation to the real life experience of the person involved, and the results have led to changes in practice in several boroughs.
West London Housing Employment Link Scheme (HELP)
This pioneering project is about using the skills and contacts of Housing Needs Staff in West London to help their jobless clients to access apropriate services to get into employment and training. This is needed, because people in housing need often don't have the infomation or confidence to approach these services themselves. The project has been funded by CLG and is in the progress of training around 300 LA, RSL and TA managing agent staff to sign post housing needs clients in interested in employment and training to local employment and training providers offering appropriate Information, Advice and Guidance. Providers are signed up to the scheme in each borough with SLAs in place and an innovative web based outcomes tracking system has been developed with links to LOCATA. We are now beginning to get our first clients into training and employment.
West London Staff Conference
2008 saw the first of what we hope will be an annual conference for staff working in the West London boroughs in homelessness and houing advice. The conference was a great opportunity for staff in different boroughs to learn from each other in the many workshop sessions in areas ranging from deaing with debt to working with housing associations to managing temporary accommodation. We were very lucky to have some excellent main speakers from Central Government and other local authorities in London as well as a legal update and a Question Time session. Over 300 staff attended over the two days of the conference, which took place in the Advait Centre in Wembley.
TG May 2008
Last updated: 17 October 2008