London Borough of Barnet

1
London Borough of Barnet

• SELHP Workshop

Presented by Shaun Flook (Homeless Persons
Manager) Shahela Begum (Visiting Team Leader)
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Introduction

• The London Borough of Barnet is highly regarded
  by the Department for
• Communities and Local Government (DCLG)
  (previously known as the
• ODPM).
• This recognition has led the ODPM to commend the
  London Borough of Barnet
• for its good practice in visiting homeless
  applicants before a crisis arises or
• before a decision is made. We are quoted about
  this in an ODPM Good
• Practice Handbook called Reducing BB use and
  tackling homelessness
• whats working?

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Barnet Background (1)

• Largest Borough in London spatially (one of
  largest in England)
• 2nd highest populated borough in London (324,000
  people 26 BME)
• 2400 households in TA 2010 target!!!
• Massive regeneration schemes
• One Visiting Verification Team Leader
• Three Officers (soon to be five with two funded
  by ODPM grant) paid at 24k-26.4
• In excess of 1500 visits carried out per annum

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Barnet Background (2)

• Problem with unsuccessful visits
• Homeless visits prevention /assessment/options
  (PST, DHP etc)
• Register visits CBL shortlisted bidders, highly
  pointed bidders non-bidders
• Audits e.g. Homeless at Home (50 visits
  recently carried out which led to 40
  cancellations), TA occupancy/options advice

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Workshop 1 (15 mins)

• What are the advantages of visiting
• people in housing need in their own
• homes over doing everything from the office?

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Workshop 2 (15 mins)

• What measures can we take to ensure
• staffs safety when visiting applicants
• within their homes?

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Feedback on Workshop 1

• Recognising support needs
• Environmental Health Issues
• Identifying Abuse (Child, DV)
• Detecting multi-agency Fraud
• Homeless Prevention with the excluder
• Housing Options
• Mediating with the applicant and excluder

• Non-bidders identify the most vulnerable and
  meet their needs (bid for them), identify
  non-occupancy, educate the customers.
• Promoting the Housing Register as a viable option
  where applicable.
• Homeless at home - agreeing and monitoring
• 2010 TA target

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Feedback on Workshop 2

• Personal alarms pros and cons
• Buddying
• Accurate comprehensive referral systems
• Pre-visit checks support worker, CMHT/CPN,
  file, computer systems
• Monitoring visiting diary, white board
• Training Suzy Lamplugh Trust etc
• Procedures updated regularly

• RockSafe ID Card Personnel Safety System
• Accompanied visits (2 VOs or 1 VO and allocated
  support worker
• Violence at work recording, debriefing,
  counselling, informing internally and externally
• Mobile phones with speed dial buttons pros and
  cons

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Conclusion

• Is it worth investing in home visits?
• If so, how can you fund them?
• Spend to save against TA budget?
• DCLG (ODPM) grant?
• Secondments?
• Restructure?

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Questions Answers
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Other Information

• Any borough wishing to know more about Barnet's
  approach to Discretionary Housing Payments, which
  is to deal with them solely within the
  Homelessness Department instead of Housing
  Benefit, should phone Sheila Meadows (Housing
  Options Team Leader on 020 8359 4254) or Evelyn
  Flook (DHP Officer on 020 8359 4577) on a Monday
  or Tuesday.
• Any borough wishing to know more about the ID
  Badges spoken about during the presentation can
  look at the following website www.peoplesafe.co.uk