The project

Stevenage is no stranger to the housing crisis being faced across many parts of the UK. The council has over 2,000 local families on the waiting list for affordable housing. Last year 382 households were placed into emergency accommodation, including 30 individuals presenting as rough sleeping or sofa surfing.

As part of Stevenage Borough Council’s commitment to providing high quality accommodation throughout the town, work was undertaken to deliver Oaks Cross – a highly sustainable, low cost, emergency housing scheme consisting of 11 purpose-built properties, constructed within the space of just six months. Oaks Cross is also being utilised as site for Stevenage’s Housing First work. Housing First tackles the most complex problems experienced by homeless residents, via a comprehensive package of wraparound services; vulnerable individuals are offered housing first, and then rigorous support to address the underlying causes of their vulnerability and homelessness. This service offer includes courses to improve the lives of vulnerable residents with some of the greatest need – providing counselling through to managing finances.

The council aims to grow the number of affordable properties managed by 500 before 2025. At present, delivery is on target with 387 finished and 288 further properties under construction.  Having adopted the Housing First approach to homelessness, the council has secured an additional £525,000 to fund its rough sleeper initiative for the next three years, from 2022-25. The council has worked in partnership alongside external agencies, providing a joined-up approach. Together it ensures all tenants receive a fantastic support package assisting them in establishing better foundations to start rebuilding their lives.

The wraparound network includes Spectrum: Change, Grow Live, Mind mental health network, Haven First and No More Service, and the council continue to grow the network.

Haven First is a local organisation that supports homeless people within Stevenage and North Hertfordshire.  It has been fundamental in providing extensive support services to those residents in Oaks Cross, including a wide range of courses from counselling to life skills.  Hill Construction has been key in the build of these innovative, modern homes and have worked closely with the council to deliver them on schedule and to a tight budget.  There are currently 11 installed in Oaks Cross.

The site at Oaks Cross was subject to a successful funding bid to Homes England and the Department for Levelling Up, Homes and Communities (DLUHC) as part of the Next Steps Accommodation Programme.

The benefits

The project benefits residents currently homeless, facing homelessness or in need of emergency housing.  134 individuals have lived in and benefitted from the support package. 57 people have been moved into permanent accommodation or supported living. The rough sleeper count within a year has reduced by 57% from 14 to eight.

The additional funding for the council’s Housing First approach is allowing it to develop further schemes focusing on the provision of intense support alongside a secure and stable home. So far, it has provided an additional 30 spaces to ensure some of the most vulnerable residents have an address and a secure home environment, throughout one of their most challenging life experiences.

The project

The councils have worked with partners to deliver the ‘Positive Energy Solutions’ project, designed to support those who are struggling with their energy bills. This initiative provides them with money saving solutions. This is provided alongside advice and support from any of the organisations associated with the Northern Warwickshire Financial Inclusion Partnership. This partnership is convened by the two borough councils.

This project is funded by the Household Support Fund via Warwickshire County Council and delivered by the Financial Inclusion Partnership. Solutions are based on a variety of simple energy saving measures that can be installed by the householder, provided as a combined ‘pack of solutions’ or as individual items, as needed. The solutions include radiator reflector foil, draught proofing, LED lightbulbs, chimney balloons, slow cookers, and heated thermal throws.  To run alongside these measures, the council also provides the household with:

• Instructions for installing the measure – video and instruction card.
• Additional energy saving tips information which consists of ‘behavioural changes’ that the whole household could adopt.

The partnership looks to assist those in ‘emergency’ situations who may need a quick fix solution, purchasing a number of heated throws for older people, slow cookers for families (a more energy efficient cooking option) and chimney balloons for those in more rural areas, to help keep their energy costs down.

Referrals are generated from the partner organisations and council teams, where they are engaged with the household and providing advice, information, and support – this would be a pre-requisite of being able to receive any of the solutions. The referral organisations are:

• Family Information Service – Warwickshire County Council
• Citizens Advice
• Warwickshire Welfare Rights Advice Service (a Covid support project)
• Act on Energy
• The borough councils’ Financial Inclusion Support and Housing teams

The benefits

Households could benefit from saving at least £180 per year on the energy bills. This could be more if households take the energy savings tips advice that will be provided, and consider and introduce, some of their own behavioural changes. The project has already helped households save energy, reduce energy bills, to keep warm and be able to cook.

The partnership has currently provided:

• 200 energy saving packs delivered via FISO, CA’s and FIS
• 20 thermal Throws
• 8 slow cookers

In financial terms this could be a cumulative saving to households currently of £36,000 on energy bills and potentially even greater if the tips provided are followed. ‘Warm Home Hacks’ behaviour changes, would see a further £73,800 saved (£369 per household).

The partnership continues to provide these measures each day as the packs are delivered.

This is a sustainable project, leaving a legacy for the household, with energy saving solutions that will continue to save them money on their energy bills moving forward. This will help alleviate some of the financial pressures on households at a time when budgets are being squeezed in relation to the cost-of-living increases.

The project

The council has made it a priority to harness the power of communities to secure their own affordable housing for local people in rural, as well as urban deprived areas. The general housing supply in the North Devon housing market is limited and pushes up open market rents, with some communities having holiday accommodation forming as much as 50% of the total stock.

North Devon Council therefore utilised a £668,000 allocation from the Community Housing Fund 2016-17 and contracted Middlemarch Community-led Housing to work with communities the council knew had both a housing need and were supportive of affordable housing.

The project started with four parish councils. The council grew this by funding a Rural Housing Enabler from Devon Rural Housing Partnership to generate a pipeline of interested parishes. In 2018-20 the council bid for £95,497 (alongside 10% council match funding) of revenue funding to support this pipeline.

Effective empowerment of officers by the council’s Executive led to communities accessing revenue funding for housing needs surveys, legal set-up fees, National Community Land Trust Network membership, marketing costs, small start-up grants, as well as feasibility and planning grants for those more advanced schemes.

North Devon now has eight formal Community Land Trusts (CLTs) in the parishes of Lynton & Lynmouth, Mortehoe, Parracombe, Combe Martin, Georgeham, Ilfracombe, Braunton and West Down.

The benefits

There has been amazingly high levels of both political and officer support across the council for community-led housing.  This has included:

• Monitoring of the programme via an officer/member Board every 12 weeks.
• Planning removing the charge for pre-apps for all Community Land Trust (CLT) schemes to aid viability.
• The Estates team securing Brownfield Land Release Funding and gaining approval from Committee to transfer council owned land for a CLT scheme.
• Community-led Housing forming a section in the council’s Affordable Housing Supplementary Planning Document.
• Planning policy supporting CLT work and it being represented in neighbourhood plans.
• Most importantly, all CLT Steering Groups are made up of volunteers, so the success of community-led housing is thanks to these individuals for their time, hard work and commitment; to Middlemarch for their amazing technical support and to Ward Members, Parish Councillors and Parish Clerks for their support and enthusiasm.

Mortehoe was one of the first CLTs in North Devon. With the passion and energy of the community, the CLT, parish councillors, the parish clerk, the ward member, the National Trust, Middlemarch, Aster and council officers, the scheme is soon to become a reality. The scheme has confirmed high levels of external funding, huge community support and willing delivery partners/landowner on board. Together, Homes England and Aster put in almost £3 million of funding into North Devon. To gap-fund the remainder of the scheme the council needed to provide £630,000 (£30,000 per unit) and in June 2022 Members approved the required funding to provide 21 social rents in the village.

The eight current schemes alone have the potential to deliver almost 150 affordable homes for local people. To put this into perspective, this means that the pipeline of community-led affordable housing schemes could deliver the same amount as the average year’s general affordable housing completions (2017/18 to 2021/22) across the Local Housing Authority’s area (North Devon and Exmoor National Park).

The project

The council’s Rough Sleeper Outreach Team secured Rough Sleeper Initiative funding of £1,162,792, a percentage of which was used to develop a rough sleeper accommodation pod facility. These pods are basic but secure glamping style shepherd’s huts. This allows the team to house rough sleepers in North Devon, offering them safe accommodation and helping to address their often-complex needs.

These person-centred services are delivered by a true intra-agency team made up of council officers (housing specialist, Anti-Social Behaviour Officer, Community Safety Officer), Devon & Cornwall Police Partnership Police Constable, drug & alcohol specialist, Devon Partnership Trust Mental Health specialist, NHS physical health nurse, M5 security welfare officers, supported accommodation key workers, Outreach Navigators and day centre staff. They provide outreach welfare checks, bed spaces and night shelters, along with medical treatment, mental health support, helping people who wish to address their drug and alcohol use and opportunities for work.  This winter (2022/23), 12 individuals at any one time will have the benefit of these facilities.

The benefits

At the simplest level this project fulfils a need for basic safe shelter for those on the streets, with no pressure attached. It will aid some of the most vulnerable people in the North Devon community, making sure people can access help they need, when and where they need it.

The project

Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council has introduced this new innovative model to streamline pathways freeing up GP time leading to a more efficient service. The programme was launched in September 2022, with over 250 referrals to date.

This works on the premise that if patients are making a referral themselves it is more likely that they are ready to change their health lifestyle, leading to a greater chance of improving their quality of life.  To make this as easy as possible for the end user, the self-referral transaction takes less than one minute to complete. As a first step, each person referring receives a high-quality publication produced by the council that has been developed with public health colleagues. This sets out key local resources and support.

This goes beyond the normal health improvement work of the council and includes advice and guidance on topics such as:

• Sleep
• Menopause
• Cancer screening
• Domestic abuse
• Aging well
• Suicide prevention

The inspiration for this project was the DCN’s Fit for the Future report.  This sets out the economic health value that district health and leisure services can provide if utilised in a national social prescription programme, also recommended by Sport England.

The benefits

All residents can benefit from the programme, and to date over 250 have used the service. The majority have asked for information and advice on local services. There is particular interest in holistic and alternative therapies.  This has freed up vital capacity for GP’s and practice staff.  The aim is to quadruple referral numbers to 1,000 in 2023.

This is a low-cost solution and can be met from existing budgets/capacity. This is currently a boroughwide project that is being enhanced and embraced by partners to provide a system level approach.

What is the project?

When East Suffolk Council was first formed in 2019, it established eight community partnerships supervised by a Community Partnership Board. This assures that the new council remains connected with all its communities, as the district has the largest population in the country. Community Partnerships are an innovative, collaborative approach to working with key stakeholders and communities, to bring ideas to life and meet shared objectives. It was intended this would ensure the council retained its roots in individual communities, with the aim of understanding local assets and needs and taking a solution-focussed approach to problem solving.

Each of the eight partnerships were launched in late 2019. Workshops in each area focussed on data and insight about that area. A set of priorities were identified by participants including community groups, voluntary organisations, town and parish councils, businesses, and public services. The key priorities identified were social isolation and loneliness, transport and travel and mental health and wellbeing.  Since its formation, almost £700,000 has been invested in the communities by the partnerships. A further £1.05 million has been invested through the Community Partnership Board.

The Community Partnerships provided a framework for the council’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly supporting the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV) cohort to access food, medicine and isolation support. They now provide the framework for the council’s ‘Ease the Squeeze’ programme of 12 projects.  This was set up with funding from a range of sources including the Board, individual Community Partnerships and UK Shared Prosperity Fund, to help local residents to weather the rising cost of living – ranging from Warm Rooms to Community Pantries and Community Growing Schemes.

What benefits will it deliver?

Each partnership has a annual budget of £25,000 to allocate through a combination of outcome-based commissioning, small grant schemes and spend on district-wide projects.  Beneficiaries include individuals and families in specific communities, local community groups, voluntary organisations, town, and parish councils.

The council’s investment levers in funding for its communities, for example, In 2021/22, for every pound invested by the council, £2.60 of match funding was attracted.  Projects enabled include an electric demand responsive bus, oral hygiene packs, a healthy movers project, slipper swaps, robopets for people with dementia and veg box planting.

The project

You Move is a family initiative that follows on from the council’s highly successful FAST (Families Active Sporting Together) programme, a family programme initially funded through Sport England, which has seen a huge impact for the 3,500 families registered (a 30% increase in adults and children physical activity levels) and is changing how physical activity for families is delivered. A total of 7,500 individuals have also signed up.  The learning has been transferred to You Move on a larger scale, across Oxfordshire.

The project developed by breaking down barriers such as cost and availability to make it easier for families to access and enjoy physical activity together.  It focuses on providing opportunities for families who access free school meals (84% of families registered are eligible for free school meals).  Families are either referred through a pathway of professionals (schools, GPs, children’s services) or self-refer onto a purpose-built portal which tracks participation. A team of activators deliver free multi-sport activities for parents and children in schools and community settings, with resources and training to continue activities at home.  Activators provide tailored activities that suit the needs of families and adults and ongoing support through resources and motivational interviewing.

Families are sent a membership card that enables them to access a range of heavily subsidised activities such as 50% discounted swimming, gym activities, climbing, boxing, cricket. There are also free, targeted and adapted sessions to take into account cultural needs for example, swimming in partnership with local mosques.

Move Together is an evidence-based pathway providing behavioural support, specifically targeting people who have long term conditions and need help and support to be more active. It offers a person-centred approach by listening to people’s barriers to being active and providing motivation, signposting and support to get them moving more. 48% of people on the programme have two or more long-term conditions, with 33% saying that they have issue with pain, mobility, or anxiety.

Both You Move and Move Together are programmes that are focusing on specific needs, such as families eligible for free school meals and long-term conditions, with a focus on inequalities – a real innovative approach putting residents needs first.  The have developed a bespoke referral pathway that enables behavioural support, signposting, tracking and monitoring of participants.

The innovative approach has been held up as a template for future projects with partners such as Sport England, Public Health and local authorities taking the learning from developing the referral pathway, subsidised offers, motivational support and approach to offering physical activity opportunities for families and residents with long term conditions and linking more closely to health outcomes and improving quality of life.

The benefits

Move Together currently has 1,900 people with long term conditions engaged and active.  It is delivering tangible outcomes and results in improving quality of life, for example, 26% of participants seeing an improvement in their mobility. Results from data evaluation demonstrate the impact. Real life stories and feedback from participants show how the programme has really changed their life:

• 69% of participants have increased the number of minutes in a week they are active.
• 28% of participants have improved levels of pain and discomfort since being on programme
• 23% have seen and improvement in Anxiety and Depression since being on Move Together
• 26% have reported an improvement in their ability to perform daily tasks
• 24% of families on You Move are from the most deprived areas.

The project is targeted and has a real focus on improving inequalities.

The success of the programmes is due to the excellent and wide-ranging partnership across the local system including Active Oxfordshire, Public Health, the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Sport England.  This provides not only funding providers but also links the programmes into preventative health framework, improving health outcomes through moving more and offering a tailored approach.

The project

Cambridge City Council has worked with the Cambridge Investment Partnership (CIP) to provide 16 modular homes on housing land across three sites. The council was the first local authorities in the country to engage with the Hill Foundation 200 programme and introduce modular homes on specifically identified sites on its own housing land.

The vision for the modular homes programme was originally developed during the pandemic, following the government’s call to get ‘everyone in’. Whilst the city has plenty of bed places for rough sleepers in hostels, some struggle in this environment. To deliver much-needed capacity for more sustainable placements, officers have utilised its long-term housing delivery partnership with the Hill Foundation to deliver the units quickly and on existing housing estates.

The benefits

The project has delivered 16 units of high-quality accommodation for people who have formally experienced difficulties in hostels and conventional social housing.  As a pilot project, it has also helped the council test concepts and so aid it in planning the future expansion of the scheme.  Concepts that have been tested have include:

• the optimum size of development and the most effective site layout;
• the optimum ratio of support workers to residents;
• the length of tenure and effective move-on options; and
• how best to integrate schemes into existing communities.

The chief beneficiaries have been single people with a background of rough sleeping and repeat homelessness. The increased availability of single person accommodation has removed pressure from scarce social housing and has also assisted the rate of movement through the hostel system.

It is beneficial that the proportion of women becoming tenants of the modular homes is slightly higher than proportion of women in the Cambridge rough sleeper cohort. Women rough sleepers often make disproportionately fewer applications for independent accommodation in part due to concerns about safety.

While this finding needs further analysis and qualification, initial research indicates that the small scale of Cambridge modular homes developments (typically four to six units), the sense of ‘defensible space’ created by the units themselves, and the site layout, encourages a greater sense of security for all residents.  This would seem to be particularly attractive to female rough sleepers.

The existing partnership with the Hill foundation and partnership with local charities, means that the council is looking to deliver a further four modular homes in 2023.

The project

This is a £1 million programme to develop a partnership and community-led approach to the prevention of vulnerability within the district.

It is estimated that one in five of the people who go to see their GP are troubled by things that can’t be alleviated by medical treatment. GPs told the council that they spend significant amounts of time dealing with socio-economic factors effecting health such as poor housing, debt, stress, and loneliness. Many people are overwhelmed and can’t reach out to make the connections that could make a difference to their situation.  A Social Prescribing Link Worker (SPLW) team has been employed.  From July 2021- Nov 2022 the team received and managed over 300 patient referrals.

The Burrell Shop is part of a longer-term sustainable programme to address increasing food poverty for many residents.  It supports residents in accessing good quality and affordable food with reduced cost goods.

The food bus is the first in the country.  It works on the same principles as the community supermarket.  This innovative project visited identified areas of need (using prevalence of free school meals) providing access to subsidised healthy and nutritious food.

The Mental Health Community Partnership brings together Norfolk & Waveney MIND, local rural mental health charity “You Are Not Alone” and the NHS Wellbeing Service. This partnership led to the development of the Inspiring Communities ‘Mindful Towns’ project, which offers free mental health champion training to community organisations and small businesses as part of a drive to recruit 250 Mental Health Champions over 18 months.

The Mental Health Hub collocates MIND mental health support services with Council Customer Service and Housing Teams.

The Youth Advisory Board project offers support to families with young people aged 11 to 18 (or up to 25 for those who have a disability) who are awaiting treatment from, or on a waiting list for, an NHS mental health service; or those not attending school or at risk of not attending school due to their mental health.

The council investing over £100,000 to fund a domestic abuse early help worker to provide a combination of direct support through individually managed caseloads and indirect support through consultancy, advice and mentoring to lead professionals in other agencies. The council has used its partnership to help raise awareness of domestic abuse and the support available to those who have lived experience, through the forging of a partnership with a local football Club.

The benefits

This project sets a clear tone that the council is there to collectively lead, enable and support a district-wide initiative to help vulnerable residents. The council has looked beyond its own organisational boundaries, to support those who need help the most, in a truly collaborative, innovative, and unique way. With the data from the council’s partners at Feeding Britain, and from the experience of the current membership, between £25 – £30 is saved on the weekly shop for members. With current figures that equates to £2,500 each week going back into of the communities with most financially challenged households.

The collaboration meetings are open to professional partners who provide a relevant service accessible to residents and who can support the group to fulfil its objectives. The collaboration group discusses complex cases that would benefit from a multi-disciplinary approach, or where partners need extra support to provide the correct preventative services for the individual or family concerned. To date the council has had over 40 agencies signed up and has dealt with over 250 referrals.

The Youth Advisory Board ran over 12 months and offered support through activity and skill-based family workshops, online peer support sessions, and one-to-one sessions with mental health professionals. Sessions were held in market towns, as well as online.

Since 2017 the council has been delivering The Silver Social, a project that utilises the Arts to improve the health and wellbeing of older residents in the district.

What is the project?

The Housing Enablement Team (HET) places specialist housing professionals into in-patient settings, with the goal of assisting patients with housing issues, so that they can be safely discharged.

Dedicated housing officers based within the acute, community and mental health hospitals offer a bedside service that works inside and outside statutory duties and support flow.

HET covers a wide variety of housing issues such as homelessness, hoarding and eviction.

HET fulfils the requirement for hospitals to complete S.213B referrals for homeless cases brought in by the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. Ensures that clinical staff do not have to do this. This service operates across Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland.  Dedicated housing officers are based in all the hospitals across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland and will assist patients where housing is a barrier to discharge.

All health staff are aware of the service, and it is a key part of the discharge hub and the Home First Collaborative. Cases are referred to the team as soon as health staff become aware that there is a housing issue. For example East Midlands Ambulance Service may go to pick up a patient from a hoarded property to take them to hospital they would inform the HET so that work can be undertaken as soon as possible to clean & clear the property thus reducing any chance of a delay in discharge.

Alongside the staffing budget we hold funding to not only cover the cost of clean & clears but also to cover rent deposits and purchase household items or ensure they have some utilities on when they return home.

What benefits will it deliver?

This project has not only supported the NHS, it supports local authority housing teams across Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland and ensures the patient can return home as soon as they are medically fit to do so. It also supports TB patients and those with no recourse to public funds.