Rough Sleeping - Homes Off the Streets

Descriptions

The Greater London Authority (GLA) is preparing to procure and re-commission support and accommodation services for people at risk of, or experiencing, rough sleeping in London. This recommissioning process presents a vital opportunity to reshape the future of rough sleeping services to achieve the Mayor's Rough Sleeping Plan of Action (https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/housing-and-land/mayors-priorities-londons-housing-and-land/homelessness/rough-sleeping/mayors-rough-sleeping-plan-action) with the ambitious goal of ending rough sleeping in London by 2030. We are seeking to transform service delivery models to enable rough sleeping prevention alongside targeted and sustainable routes off the streets.

The services within scope of this procurement activity are detailed below:

Clearing House

The Clearing House is a pan-London coordination service for a partnership of landlords, floating support services (also commissioned by the GLA - see Tenancy Sustainment Teams below), and rough sleeping services. This partnership facilitates access for people with a history of rough sleeping to over 3,700 one-bed social homes in the capital, with floating support.

Tenancy Sustainment Teams

The Tenancy Sustainment Team (TST) is a pan-London floating support service which provides floating support to tenants of homes in the Clearing House scheme.

Currently the TST has three main aims: to support tenants to sustain their tenancy, to facilitate access to employment training and education (ETE) opportunities, and to support positive move-on from the scheme when it is no longer needed.

Rapid Response Outreach Team

The Rapid Response Outreach Team is an outreach service across 26 London boroughs (Barnet, Enfield, Haringey, Islington, Hackney, Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, Waltham Forest, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Croydon, Merton, Sutton, Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Kensington & Chelsea) which currently focuses on rapidly responding to StreetLink referrals for people sleeping rough and providing a consistent response across London to find people as quickly as possible.

This service provides rapid outreach to people via StreetLink alerts. The service undertakes on-street assessment with those people it meets and uploads this information on Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN). Wherever possible, seeks to find an immediate route off the street for that person or pass the case to the local outreach team if no option is available on the night.

London Navigator Team

The London Navigator Team is a pan-London service which aims to support people with the longest histories of rough sleeping to leave the streets for good. The 'Target Priority Group' (TPG) is a cohort of over 900 people with extensive rough sleeping histories and often with multiple support needs. The London Navigator Team supports a large caseload of TPG clients (currently over 200), usually those without a clear local connection to any one London borough and/or whose cases are particularly complex, requiring specialist and high support work.

Specialist Service for Non-UK nationals

This service, currently delivered as the Migrant Accommodation Pathways Support service (MAPS), is a Pan-London service working to identify routes into suitable and sustainable accommodation for migrants sleeping rough, or at risk of sleeping rough, in London. The service aims to complement and enhance existing services supporting this cohort by providing specialist holistic advice, culturally competent support, casework and signposting directly to migrants or through second tier advice and capacity building to other services supporting migrants.

Approach

Given the scale and complexity of the services within this programme, the GLA is adopting a strategic approach to recommissioning by considering the services collectively, including their fit with local housing and support pathways. The future delivery models will be shaped through engagement with the market through a questionnaire (https://forms.office.com/e/iTdQ0kF7Fc) alongside research and insight on optimising service pathways and outcomes in partnership with wider stakeholders, including people with lived experience as well as public services and voluntary sector organisations whose services impact people's experiences of homelessness and rough sleeping.