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Introduction to the Atlas (2009)
This is the second edition of the Atlas commissioned by the London Housing Foundation and was prepared for the London Housing Foundation by Daniel Currie and Rachel Irwin.
It builds on the first, both correcting mistakes, and documenting changes on the ground. Most of the data was collected from our own primary research, carried out during the summer of 2009.
All the agencies listed were approached to confirm the details of their entry, but a surprising number never responded despite repeated approaches through different channels.
Our thanks go to Paul Anderson, Catriona Carney and Jane Bancroft of Homeless Link, who commented on a late draft and helped to improve accuracy.
The Atlas covers only voluntary sector provision, with the exception of a very few statutory providers which offer the leading homelessness services in their category, mainly in health. As before we have excluded services working with children and families, women’s refuges, second tier agencies, and funders.
Some significant changes are observable. To some extent these reflect improvements in accuracy and focus between the first and second editions, but there do seem to have been some important real-world changes.
First, the reduction in the number of agencies continues. This year we have listed 176 independent providers, down from 205 last year. This reduction includes six agencies which have lost independence through merger, and a couple of very small agencies which have gone out of business. An annual attrition rate of 4% due to merger and closure is not hugely significant, but the trend is clear.
Second, there is a significant (36%) reduction in the listing of direct access beds, and an even bigger (55%) increase in the listing of second stage beds. These changes are partly the result of increased accuracy, but they also seem to reflect a long term trend away from providing a high volume of ‘sharp-end’ services, which may help to keep people homeless, towards more services focused on normalising homeless people’s lives.
Third, it is notable that London now has approximately 20,000 second stage beds and floating support places for people who either have been homeless, or are considered at risk of homelessness. If rough sleeping can be reduced to zero by 2012, the next major challenge for the sector will be to help more of these people to become fully independent.
Who provides what?
This analysis of the 176 providers shows the main services they deliver specifically for homeless people. Services delivered primarily for other groups are not shown. The categories are: outreach, day centre, direct access accommodation, second stage accommodation, floating support, advice, employment training and education, offenders, drugs and alcohol, health, and other. The last category has been used sparingly to highlight providers whose services mainly fall outside all the other categories.
In this analysis we taken a fairly inclusive definition of services provided. For example, we have recorded providers as delivering advice even when this could be viewed as part of a day centre service, or as providing drug services when they may be providing accommodation aimed at drug users, rather detoxification or rehabilitation services. The maps in the later part of the Atlas generally cover services which are focused very specifically on the relevant area of need.
See the tables on pages ten to 15 of the Atlas.
Download the second edition of the Atlas of Services for Homeless People in London (Currie, Irwin - 2009)
Outreach teams
Eleven different voluntary sector providers deliver 16 official outreach services between them. Since the re-organisation carried out by the Rough Sleepers’ Unit, responsibility for outreach to rough sleepers in London has been divided between outreach teams sanctioned (and in large part funded) by the local authorities. These official outreach teams have priority access to direct access accommodation and other resources under the full or partial control of local authorities, and as a result they dominate this subsector.
A number of unofficial outreach services do remain, but these tend to be more like soup or tea runs. Westminster Council has replaced the traditional street outreach approach with a system known as Building Based Services, a kind of outreach which relies on rough sleepers coming in to day centres, sometimes under their own steam, sometimes assisted by police action, or unofficial forays onto the streets by day centre workers. This approach highlights the crossover between the functions of outreach teams and day centres, which both act as a first point of contact for people new to services. A major difference from an entitlement point of view is that outreach teams generally define their clients quite strictly, while day centres generally see all comers.
See pages 18 and 19.
Download the second edition of the Atlas of Services for Homeless People in London (Currie, Irwin - 2009)
Day centres
There are 56 day centres, delivered by 50 providers. This is a very diverse subsector, which encompasses large centres employing many staff and tiny centres run by a few volunteers. Some centres offer highly-structured services which would be instantly recognisable to a statutory social worker, others offer tea and sympathy and make an occasional referral.
Some are secular and many are still church-run, reflecting the movement’s origins. These different characteristics combine in pretty much every permutation.
See pages 20 - 25.
Download the second edition of the Atlas of Services for Homeless People in London (Currie, Irwin - 2009)
Direct access accommodation
The table shows 24 providers delivering 40 direct access accommodation projects, with 1,643 bed spaces. Hostels range from small specialist units such as the one provided by Depaul (12 beds), to very large generalist units such as Forest YMCA (110 beds). This is a declining category in terms of volume: the first edition recorded 2,587 direct access beds (although that figure was probably already out of date in 2008).
Today few projects are literally direct access in the sense of taking self-referrals, or referrals from day centres. Many of the old direct access projects have been (or are in the process of being) refurbished under the Places of Change initiative, generally reducing the number of bed spaces as facilities are upgraded. There is also a stronger sense of the need to move people rapidly through front line services and on towards independence, which seems to have contributed to some projects being recategorised as second stage hostels.
See pages 26 - 29.
Download the second edition of the Atlas of Services for Homeless People in London (Currie, Irwin - 2009)
Second stage supported housing
This table shows 82 providers delivering 295 second stage projects, with more than 9,717 bed spaces between them. This accommodation is generally designed for people who are moving towards independence, but still need some support. In contrast to direct access, second stage accommodation is a growth area. The number of bed spaces listed here is 55% up on the number listed in the first edition. Some of the difference is the result of the same projects being called something different, and some projects are new to the Atlas, rather than new to London. Never the less, it does look as though this category is expanding.
See pages 30 - 45.
Download the second edition of the Atlas of Services for Homeless People in London (Currie, Irwin - 2009)
Floating support
The table shows 41 agencies delivering 105 floating support schemes, with the capacity to support 10,056 people. Capacity figures were not available for all schemes, and not all schemes will be operating at or even near full capacity, so this figure is something of an estimate.
Floating support shows 10% growth since the last edition. This could be caused by a range of factors, from greater accuracy and comprehensiveness of the Atlas, to downward pressure on prices paid by Supporting People funders creating more places as overall funding has been held constant by ring-fencing. It will be interesting to see what happens next year as ring-fencing ends.
See pages 46 - 50.
Download the second edition of the Atlas of Services for Homeless People in London (Currie, Irwin - 2009)
Support services
All the remaining services have been characterised as ‘support services’. The boundaries of support subsectors are rather subjective. For example most services, from outreach through day centres to accommodation, do provide advice of some kind. In order to reduce duplication, in this section we have covered only those advice services which have an independent existence. Similarly, it is arguable that accommodation provided for offenders constitutes an offender service, but here we have only covered services which directly tackle offending behaviour. Health services are also difficult to define, because many NHS services treat homeless people within the mainstream. Here, we have picked out distinct services entirely dedicated to homeless people.
Specialist support services are relatively few in number, and people are often prepared to travel significant distances to reach them. In some cases they may also provide telephone-based services, or hosted services in other premises. For these reasons their exact location may well be less significant than the locations of (say) day centres.
Find out more about each of these categories of support service:
Advice
There are 20 advice services, delivered by 20 different providers.
Employment and training services
This covers 22 different providers of education, employment and training services. Many hostels and day centres also provide employment and training services, and we have not generally listed these separately. We have tried to list those day centres which mainly focus on employment, or which have a substantial provision in this area, which might attract clients not using the main facilities. These distinctions are fairly subjective.
Offender services
There are 10 providers of offender services. The map shows the head office locations of these agencies, rather than their service delivery locations; these are often in prison as well as community settings.
Drug and alcohol services
This table shows 59 drug and alcohol services, delivered by 22 different providers. It concentrates on services which provide specific interventions in relation to substance misuse: it does not provide a separate listing of hostels and day centres which are largely used by people with substance misuse problems. It also does not cover services provided under the Drug Interventions Programme (DIP). These services take their referrals from the courts, and as such they stand somewhat outside the mainstream of the voluntary sector.
Health services
Most health services are provided by the NHS rather than the voluntary sector, and homeless people are increasingly treated in mainstream services. These range from GP’s surgeries to hospital A&E departments. This table covers 12 providers of large-scale physical and mental health services which are specific to homeless people. It does not attempt to cover smaller-scale services, such as surgeries provided in day centres and hostels, often on a part time basis.
Download the second edition of the Atlas of Services for Homeless People in London (Currie, Irwin - 2009)
Authors: Daniel Currie & Rachel Irwin for the London Housing Foundation November 2009