Agenda item

The County Council’s Senior Commissioning Officer presented the report detailing the work of Devon’s Social Care services in protecting vulnerable people, supporting independent living and providing improved life outcomes for children and young people. He highlighted the work undertaken to ensure children with housing problems are kept safe and work to help adults with housing problems to independence. A joint protocol had been agreed to deliver some shared services for specifically preventing homelessness in 16/17 year olds. His report also detailed the delivery through the commissioned services. The different roles of social workers and Care Direct was explained and he advised that there had been a move away from gender specific accommodation.

The City Council’s Housing Options Manager reported that the health needs of the homeless community had been highlighted through the development of the ICE project and a potential service redesign was being put forward including integrated health care options with SHOT, health clinics at Gabriel and St Petrock’s to address health inequalities and increase engagement opportunities and a multi agency approach to homeless hospital discharge cases.  Help for single Homeless Funding had been obtained from the DCLG for Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) with around £80,000 of this directed toward implementing a MEAM approach to clients with the most complex needs, many of whom were homeless clients. Further, front line workers were receiving in depth Appreciative Enquiry training to assist in unlocking barriers to engagement.

Rough sleeping had been a problem for many years with no easy solution to this complex and challenging problem. Rough sleepers gravitated to Exeter where there were greater support opportunities for their lifestyle including health and accommodation resources. The majority of rough sleepers accepted as in ‘priority need’ had alcohol and substance misuse issues with some with mental health problems, and it was often difficult to provide the right type of community based treatment options for people that could or would not use the normal referral pathways or client engagement approaches.

Good progress was being made with support workers becoming increasingly skilled at engaging clients who tended to keep themselves to themselves and contract holders had developed their understanding of higher needs homeless people and adapted their services to meet specific needs. The eviction rate from hostels/supported accommodation had substantially reduced and was now only used in exceptional circumstances with more people choosing to complete recovery programmes at hostel/supported accommodation services as services were re-designing their provision around the needs of the residents.

Devon County Council’s Social Care Commissioning Team was one of the partners currently supporting Devon Partnership Trust (DPT) plans for the re-commissioning of a Devon Dual Diagnosis service, the aim being to offer accommodation to people that have problems with both mental health and substance use. It provided a practical forum for Health, Housing and Social Care commissioners to work more closely together on the delivery of better services for people with complex needs who were typically at greatest risk of rough sleeping. 

Members thanked the officers for the comprehensive reports which helped explain in detail the work being undertaken in this area. They acknowledged that there had been significant improvement in joint working between the City and County Council and important progress made in the joined up approach between authorities and agencies.

RESOLVED that future reports on this issue be made to the Exeter Health and Wellbeing Board.