Agenda item

The Cabinet Member for Housing presented the report which provided an update on the arrangements of the Change 4 Lincs team who were hosted by the Council. 

The Change 4 Lincs initiative had been set up to tackle rough sleeping across four local authority areas:  The Rough Sleeper Initiative Funding was allocated by central Government and funding was secured until March 2025. 

Following a successful bid South Kesteven District Council were awarded funding for three years from 2022 until March 2025.  South Kesteven District Council hosted the Change 4 Lincs Team on behalf of , North Kesteven District Council, West Lindsey District Council and South Holland District Council. 

The large geographical area covered presented challenges to the Outreach Team and the delivery of an effective outreach service.  The number of rough sleepers continued to rise for many reasons.  The Cabinet Member for Housing referred to the presentation that they had received before the meeting and the information that had been given at the presentation that a lot of the increase in rough sleeping was due to non-fault evictions, although this had not been confirmed, but it was confirmed that rough sleeping nationally was on the rise.

Although the Council encouraged partnership working, the current stance was that the Council would move away from the current model at Change 4 Lincs and focus the Council services on a rough sleeper support provision specifically in South Kesteven.  West Lindsey District Council and South Holland District Council would also like to follow the individual Council model.

At the present time it was not known what the rough sleeper funding would look like after March 2025 but each of the four local authorities were making plans to dissolve the current model to have individual models.  It was assumed that the spending breakdown between the authorities would follow the current pattern.  Work was currently on going on what the Council’s offer would look like in respect of rough sleepers and this would be reported back to the Committee once the information was available.

The Chairman made reference to the current negative publicity that was circulating on social media and he thanked the Cabinet Member for Housing and the Housing Team for all the work that they did in respect of rough sleeping in extremely difficult circumstances.  This was echoed by the previous Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Dilks who praised the Head of Housing and the Homelessness Team for the tireless work that they did and he supported a bespoke model for South Kesteven going forward.

A discussion followed with  the following comments/questions being raised/asked:

·       The current geographical area covered was large and presented challenges.

·       The increase in homelessness/rough sleeping and the need for accommodation had increased costs significantly.

·       Lessons learnt with the current model would be built in to the new provision.

·       Covid had impacted the initiative from when it was first set up which had affected the smooth running of the initiative from the start and had contributed to the huge overspends in the first few years.

·       Due to the overspend focus had been more on support rather than accommodation with possibly more people being on the streets than the Council would have liked, this was caveated that some of the people in unsettled accommodation were reluctant to move on.  People who were on the streets were more engaged to get off the streets than those who were already in some type of accommodation.

·       Accommodation was not always the answer, it was stated that some of the rough sleepers had been offered accommodation but due to their own actions this accommodation had been lost.

·       Many rough sleepers had complex issues and a holistic support package was required.

·       Numbers of rough sleepers across the four districts were drastically different.

·       When would the final arrangements be known, this was reliant on when central Government announced their plans for funding, as the funding finished in March 2025, which was a short timeframe from November the Government may roll the funding over to the next financial year.

·       Funding maybe known by the end of November 2024 and the Government had indicated that they would be investing more in homelessness.

·       A comprehensive spending review would be undertaken by the Government next year.

·       The Government were keen to move away from “bidding” for funding to allocation.

·       An example was given and it was stated that joined up support from key agencies was vital for getting people with complex needs off the streets.

·       There was a Vulnerable Adults Panel which was part of a multi-agency partnership offering people bespoke support.

·       How many rough sleepers were there in South Kesteven?  The Head of Housing stated that she would have to come back with exact figures but she stated that a monthly return was completed and an annual count was taken every year.  The annual counts had shown a clear increase and would be undertaken the following week.

Further discussion followed on how the other authorities undertook their annual counts, agreements between local authorities, that it was important that the public trust the professional officers to carry out their duties in line with legislation, that contact information was published widely with a national free phone line.

The Chairman thanked the Officers for all the work that they did.