Crisis Consultancy Service

<p>Project with three local authorities in Wales to support the identification and development of local solutions to reduce the number of people ‘falling out’ of the Housing Wales Act (funded by Oak Foundation). Discovery and solution phases of the project ended in May 2022. Now supporting ongoing monitoring and evaluation</p>

<p>The current BCP Homelessness &amp; Rough Sleeping Strategy (2021 - 2025) makes very clear that a housing-led approach, including Housing First, is the direction of travel. We were commissioned to provide a report with an overview of the current provision, the detail of how BCP might transition to a housing-led approach, financial modelling and narratives; and recommended next steps for the authority and its partners. This was completed in January 2022. We are now helping the council take forward the prevention recommendations from the report by setting up and chairing a new “Upstream Prevention Action Group” made up of partners and agencies from across the locality.</p>

<p>Ongoing management of our practice network (20 local authorities from England, 2 from Scotland and 2 from Wales) including regular practice exchanges, newsletter, critical friend support, campaigning opportunities and resource development</p>

<p>Drawing the various elements of our work to date into a holistic approach to completing service reviews. Trialled this with the five HRA local authorities during the last 6 months of our partnership. See associated blog and resources</p>

<p>Development of a 1-day training package (with supporting tools) on motivational interviewing skills in the context of a housing officer's role and the HRA process. Delivered pilots in Oxford, Middlesbrough and Durham and made enhancements based on feedback</p>

<p>"Are we legally compliant?" and "Are we following statutory guidance?". Prototypes can be found in the resources section. These were developed with feedback from the five local authorities</p>

<p>Checklist of what we at Crisis would like to see in local strategies. Has been developed using the statutory code of guidance and other best practice guidance, most notably Crisis’ Plan to End Homelessness in Great Britain. First version can be found in the resources section (feedback welcome) with supporting blog</p>

<p>Using a robust approach developed by Durham to help Oxford with an audit of their case files (see resources)</p>

<p>Helped establish the task &amp; finish groups to oversee the preparation and delivery of the duty to refer in Oxfordshire and the North East. Involved developing a common approach across five and eleven local authorities respectively</p>

<p>Developed with Lewisham. Strategy to increase the involvement of service users and those with lived experience of homelessness on an ongoing and enduring basis within the Housing Needs service. A user-involvement consultancy has since taken this forward through an initial phase of work</p>

<p>Our 2-year partnership with the 5 local authorities came to an end in April 2020. We completed outstanding work and held an event with them to explore how we transition to a less formal relationship that we can extend to other interested LAs moving forward (see Local Authority Practice Network)</p>

<p>Four month secondment to The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Providing research, policy and subject matter expertise to help understand what, if any, unique role the Foundation can play in ending homelessness</p>

<p>Partnership project working with the Oxfordshire councils to help implement and support the embedding of the recommendations from the Housing-Led Feasibility Study. In particular, developing the appropriate governance structures, commissioning Housing-Led services, improving allocations schemes and implementing a By Name List approach to monitoring and ending individual’s homelessness</p>

<p>The London Borough of Islington appointed Crisis as a critical friend to help challenge the Housing Needs and Strategy service, supporting its mission to become the best service in England. Phase 1 of the programme included a rapid diagnostic of current service performance and the development and testing of proposals for a new structure/ service model</p>

<p>The London Borough of Islington appointed Crisis as a critical friend to help challenge the Housing Needs and Strategy service, supporting its mission to become the best service in England. In Phase 2 of the programme we continued to support the service with its ambitious reorganisation, completing the detailed design work for the new structure and getting ready to commence formal consultation</p>