Agenda item

[To endorse the proposals for the next steps to tackle rough sleeping.]

Madeleine Freewood, Development Manager – City Health, presented the Working Together to End Rough Sleeping report. The report outlined that a multi-agency Task Team, chaired by the Leader, had been established to tackle the issue of individuals sleeping rough in the City and had operated from July 2017. Health and Wellbeing Together had been asked to commit to collaborating with the work undertaken by the Task Team and to have oversight of the Homelessness Prevention Strategy 2018 – 2022.

Anthony Walker, Homelessness Strategy and External Relationships Manager delivered a presentation which provided an update on the aims and achievements of the Task Team and included plans for the next steps and sustainability of the programme.

Focus was drawn to the ‘Day of Action’ event of 8 June 2018 which had involved volunteers and Task Team members providing immediate support to rough sleepers and offering advice to access other available support. This event included an exercise to record the number of individuals sleeping rough in the City.

Tanya Johnson, Service Co-ordinator P3 and Cheryl Rock, Antisocial Behaviour (ASB) Team Leader delivered a summary of the involvement and extensive work of the P3 Charity which included providing emergency accommodation and working with rough sleepers to support them in gaining access to services. Partners were invited to attend further Day of Action exercises and contribute to the work being undertaken.

Lucy Armstrong, Wolverhampton BID provided an introduction to the Alternative Giving Campaign, a charity which assisted in funding services such as P3, emergency accommodation and other support for rough sleepers. It was noted that local businesses had been encouraged to participate and donation boxes had been placed in 19 locations, including the Civic Centre and large stores such as Boots and Sainsbury’s.

It was highlighted that £14,858 had been raised to date and that ways to encourage more businesses to participate were being explored. It was reported that some of the businesses approached, including Jaguar Land Rover, Tarmac and the transport network had shown an interest already.

City Ambassadors had become involved in raising awareness of the Alternative Giving Campaign and its activity in the City Centre. It was noted that there had been instances of individuals bedded down in shop doorways becoming aggressive towards staff opening up in the early morning. It was noted that awareness of who to report to in this situation may help alleviate the problem. It was noted that there were already a number of trustees for the charity in place who were to meet in early February.

It was reported that a monthly count took place to allow for a better understanding of figures, however accuracy was an issue as the number of people identified as rough sleepers fluctuated throughout the day. This was also affected by the fact that there were a number of transient individuals as well as entrenched rough sleepers.

The ongoing work was commended as excellent and it was noted that, due to the complexity of the needs of these vulnerable individuals, there was no simple solution to the issue and further commitment from the Authority and partner organisations was needed to tackle it.

Attention was drawn to a number of rough sleepers bedded down in a subway near Bentley Bridge. The advice to partners from P3 was to call the helpline to advise when they were there and an outreach team would be sent to the location to assist.

It was confirmed that case information about individual clients was used by services to enable a person-centred approach to support rough sleepers. This was facilitated by the Public Health led monthly group.

In relation to safeguarding, the work was commended as a practical and proactive partnership undertaking.  It was highlighted that John Denley, Director of Public Health had agreed to contribute to national work on safeguarding and prevention of homelessness. Anthony Walker, Homelessness Strategy and External Relationships Manager was invited to join a Safeguarding Work Committee to share ideas.

A concern was raised regarding individuals discharging themselves from hospital over the weekend where services and medication had potentially limited availability. It was noted that P3 had a hospital discharge team to provide support. It was added that there was a Council link within New Cross Hospital to assist with these issues.

The work was again praised by Councillors and it was agreed that the final Homelessness Prevention Strategy 2018 – 2022 report would be provided at a future Health and Wellbeing Together meeting.

Resolved:

1.    That the progress and achievements of the Leader’s Tackling Rough Sleeping multi-agency Task Team be noted.

2.    That the recommendations for the Leader’s Tackling Rough Sleeping multi-agency Task Team’s ‘next steps’ be agreed.

3.    That a commitment to collectively tackling rough sleeping through a partnership model be agreed.

4.    That the final Homelessness Prevention Strategy 2018 – 2022 report would be provided at a future Health and Wellbeing Together meeting.