Not so at Derby Homes, the ALMO responsible for managing the city's council homes since April 2002. This April, it set up a tenancy support service and team leader Abi Davies has no doubts about how important it is. "It's about helping people have the best quality of life while they live here," she says. "It might not be core in terms of housing operations, but it is to communities."
Derby Homes believes tenancy support adds a people-centred approach to a service that delivers housing management and maintenance. Its primary goal is to curb the annual tenancy turnover rate, which was running at 13% four years ago. Derby council had reduced this to 11% by the time Derby Homes took over, and the ALMO is now working to bring it below 10% in two years.
The 24-strong team gives one-on-one support to vulnerable tenants with a variety of needs. The team steps in when racial harassment, domestic violence and out-of-control family problems affect residents' ability to stick to tenancy agreements or manage budgets. The hope is that intervention will short-circuit the expensive and stressful cycle of tenancy breakdown and homelessness.
Just last week, a new member of staff joined to deal with the small but significant number of Derby's 15,500 tenants who have difficulties maintaining their tenancies as a result of the ill health and social stresses of living with HIV/AIDS.
The support service was launched after it secured a £500,000 grant from Supporting People. Director Phil Davies says: "We had settled down and got over the hump of work involved in creating the ALMO, and were able to turn our eyes to other targets. For many ALMOs at an earlier stage, something like this might just be one project too many."
The Supporting People funding regime, which splits support costs from rent, made the tenancy support team possible, he says. "The new regime forced us to think about the services we provided," he says.
"Frontline staffing levels were fairly basic, and there wasn't much scope for extras. Staff did offer additional support on an ad hoc basis, but at the risk of developing a backlog in other areas of their work. The availability of funding allowed us to expand our role beyond the basics."
Tenancy support manager Carrie Bria, who heads the team after six years in Derby's housing management department, agrees that being unable to address tenants' needs was frustrating. "In the past, I've known at offer stage that certain tenants will struggle. It's a gut reaction that's often proved right when the tenancy breaks down and we have to start legal action. Young people with minimal guidance can end up evicted simply for not knowing the system."
The toughest challenge in setting up the service, says Phil Davies, was predicting the demand. If Derby Homes had over-estimated the support needs among its tenants and over-staffed accordingly, it would have run the risk of not securing enough Support People grant to meet its costs. "We sized the need at about 200 tenants, which seems to be about right, but there was a risk of incurring expenditure and not getting the grant. ALMOs do have to break even, but the board accepted that risk."
It’s about helping people to have the best quality of life while they live here. It might not be core in terms of housing operations, but it is to communities
Abi Davies, Derby Homes
The process
Cases are mostly referred by Derby Homes' housing officers, then assessed to check their suitability for the tenancy support team's low-level support. Clients are then allocated to one of four team leaders and a support worker. After an informal getting-to-know-you interview and a needs assessment, the support worker draws up a three-month support plan, which might include gaining work or qualifications, taking up rights to benefits or better budgeting. Worker and client meet every week for one or two hours, to see how the plan is progressing.
The team members, who were recruited from a variety of backgrounds, including local authority housing and social services departments, the voluntary sector and the police, often work closely with other agencies, such as social services or issue-specific bodies such as Addaction or Sure Start. "If there's a specialist, we'll call them in," says Bria. Support can be "floated off" once the problem situation is stabilised, and runs for a maximum of two years.
Yet it was difficult to announce the team's arrival in the complex world of multi-agency working, says Bria. "We've had to put a lot of effort into informing other agencies that we're here to do business. There's a lot of networking and presentations to police and social services, so that people know what the service is about."
The in-house team is also building links with Derby's specialist housing support teams that gained funding under Supporting People. These include Action Housing for ex-offenders and Oasis for 16- to 24-year-olds and young parents.
Convincing the doubters
There was some initial scepticism among Derby Homes' housing officers, says Abi Davies. "It was all very new, and there was an element of 'what exactly do you do?'. But the service quickly proved itself when one person's rent arrears fell by £1500."
Three months on, the tenancy support team is beginning to receive self-referrals – an indication that the service is making its mark among tenants.
"At my old job in a housing association, we got self-referrals because it was an established service. Here it's especially rewarding, because it indicates people have a level of trust in you," says Abi Davies. "We're not enforcement officers and we're not social workers – that definitely works in our favour."
As a new service, Derby Homes' tenancy support team will be reviewed by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in September.
If successful, funding would be guaranteed for three years. The review will focus on the Supporting People quality assessment framework rather than the team's success in meeting internal targets and outcomes, an area that Phil Davies acknowledges that "we need to work more on".
Source
Housing Today
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