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The Newcastle Homelessness Forum incorporates a wide range of organisations involved in providing services to homeless people. This makes it valuable for consultation on policies and strategies within the sector.
The forum has been involved in the development of the following documents:
Prohibition Orders Protocol (pdf 1.41MB) click here
This Protocol is an agreement between the City Council Housing Services (including the Housing Advice Centre and the Private Rented Service), Environmental Health, and Tyne & Wear Fire and Rescue Service. The aim of this Prohibition Orders Protocol is to prevent homelessness amongst use for habitation because of the conditions seen in the property.
A5 Prohibition Orders Leaflet (pdf 1.35MB) click here
Prohibition Orders Protocol Summary (pdf 1.36MB) click here
Clean Homes Protocol (pdf 159KB) click here
This Protocol has been developed with Environmental Health, Health and Social Services, Your Homes Newcastle, Newcastle Private Rented Project, social and private landlords and Neighbourhood Services.
It has been developed as preventing homelessness is a key task for local authorities as every year a number of people are in danger of losing their homes because they fail to keep them clean.
Download the Clean Homes Protocol Summary (pdf 264.44KB)document for further information.
Hospital Discharge & Homelessness Prevention Protocol (pdf 339.7KB) click here
Hospital Discharge and Homelessness Prevention Protocol (2009 update)
The aims of this Protocol are to:
reduce the likelihood of a patient leaving hospital with no where to go and therefore increasing the chances of every patient to be discharged to an appropriate home with appropriate support in place
save staff time which would otherwise be spent looking for accommodation
The Protocol has been developed with the Housing Advice Centre, Social Services, Advice and Support Workers, Newcastle Hospital Trust, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear Mental Health Trust and Newcastle Primary Care Trust.
Contact details have been updated and some staff details have been amended, for the 2009 update.
• Download the Hospital Discharge Resource Pack (pdf 175.8KB) click here
• Download the Hospital Discharge Summary (pdf 187.05KB) click here
Newcastle Drugs, Alcohol and Housing Strategy (pdf 446.73KB) click here
This Strategy has been produced by the Drug User and Accommodation Group on behalf of Safe Newcastle, the Newcastle Housing Partnership, and the Newcastle Supporting People Commissioning Body.
The Strategy is a demonstration of the intention to work together in a different way. It provides a framework and a vision for the 3 Partnerships to work together, and to align their resources and efforts towards a common goal.
The Strategy was launched at a joint meeting of the three Partnerships on November 16th 2006. The Action Plan will now be implemented by groups which are responsible to the Partnerships, and will be overseen by the Drug User and Accommodation Group.
Any questions about the Strategy and Action Plan should be directed to neil.munslow@newcastle.gov.uk (Strategic Housing), helen.wilding@newcastle.gov.uk (Safe Newcastle Drug Support Unit), or rachel.baillie@newcastle.gov.uk (Supporting People).
Download a copy of the Executive Summary (pdf 268.86KB) click here
Newcastle Homelessness Strategy July 2003 (pdf 1.37MB) click here
The Homelessness Act 2002 required all Local Authorities to develop a homelessness strategy. These strategies had to inform how the Council's proposed to help homeless people. In July 2003 the Newcastle Homeless Strategy was published.
Newcastle Homelessness Review, Homelessness Executive Summary, and Homelessness Strategy 2008 - 2013
Below is a copy of the Executive Summary of the Newcastle Homelessness Strategy 2008 - 2013 and a summary of the Newcastle Homelessness Review 2008. We know that the circumstances described will change and we would welcome your input where we have missed things or made any mistakes. The aim of the strategy is to give a direction of travel and to help prioritise, but we know that this is best achieved by on-going partnership work so please continue to work with us to improve the lives of those at risk of homelessness by partaking in the Review Groups, Homelessness Prevention Network and Forum. If you have any comments to make on either of these documents or you would like to see a copy of the full strategy document please contact the Newcastle Homelessness Prevention Project at hpp@newcastle.gov.uk
Alongside the Homelessness Strategy the Action Plan sets out the specific actions required to achieve our objectives. There are 77 actions in all, set out in groups for around 30 areas of work. The Action Plan shows you who is leading on each Action Point, and what action is in hand. It will be updated every quarter so that it is clear what progress is being made, and when the action needed is complete, following the regular meeting of the Homelessness Strategy Steering Group. After the next meeting, it is planned to add some monitoring information, so that we can see the outcomes form the actions as well as the outputs.
If you wish to find out more about any action point, or to contribute to the work in any way, please contact the lead agency or the Homelessness Prevention Project.
Newcastle Homelessness Review Summary 2008 (pdf) 462.KB) click here
Newcastle Homelessness Strategy 2008 - 2013 (pdf 353.77KB) click here
Executive Summary of the Newcastle Homelessness Strategy 2008 - 2013 (pdf 92KB) click here
Homelessness Strategy Action Plan February 2009 (pdf 89.6KB) click here
Newcastle Temporary Accommodation Drug Management Protocol (pdf 304KB) click here
The Drug Management Protocol published in 2007 has now been updated. You can view or download the documents from the links below.
The Drug Management Protocol is designed to help staff and managers in supported housing to work safely and within the law with people who use illegal drugs, and to supoport them into treatment. It describes what the law says about how to deal with the use and supply of drugs in shared accommodation, and helps staff to understand what they must do to comply with the law. It also sets out when and how the police should be involved, how the "bag and tag" system works, and what the role of the police is. The Protocol also describes the way that drug treatment agencies are asked to work, to support the work that their colleagues in supported housing are doing with drug users.
The main changes in the 2009 update are:
New routes for contacting the Police
A focus on warning people about risk to others, and on getting drug users engaged in treatment
Suggesting that information about suspected supply is relayed to police as soon as possible
Reminding the Police to collect Incident and Substance Collection Forms, and bag and tags
A revised wallchart for staff, with simpler explanations about what to do
Training on the revised protocol is being held in May 2009, for all supported housing organisations working with homeless groups, for drug treatment agencies, and for the police.
Contacting the Police about an incident
A) If you are contacting the Police about an emergency, ring either Emergency Response Teams on 03456 043 043 or 999 if there is any danger or risk to life, or a crime is in progress.
B) If you are contacting the Police about an incident which is not an emergency: ring 03456 043 043
This ensure that the call is logged, and that it will be dealt with as soon as possible. Tell the Police that you are ringing to report an incident under the Newcastle Drug Management Protocol. You can ask for your Neighbourhood Beat Team to be notified about your call. Record the Incident Number you are given on the Incident & Substance Collection Form.
Give your name, and the name and address of your organisation, and provide contact details. Say whether you are ringing to:
- report an incident
- ask the Police to come out to deal with an incident that is happening now
- seek advice from the Police, or
- ask for a suspected illegal drug to be collected
C) If you want to talk about the protocol and howe it is working, ring the Newcastle Criminal Justice Unit on 0191 221 8345 (between 7am and 5pm, Mon-Fri)
There are 5 documents as part of the Protocol (2009 versions):
• The full Protocol (pdf 304KB) click here
• A service user guide to the Protocol (pdf 133KB) click here
• A leaflet for service users (pdf 948KB) click here
• A wall chart for staff in temporary accommodation (pdf 1,107KB) click here
• A poster to be put up in entrances or public areas of temporary accommodation places in Newcastle (pdf 1,420KB) click here
Any questions about the Protocol should be addressed to the Homelessness Prevention Project on 0191 277 1731 or 0191 277 1733.
Please note that contact for the Criminal Justice Unit has changed. The e-mail address is now newcastlecju@northumbria.pnn.police.uk and the phone number is 0191 221 8345. For further police contact details click here.
HARP Protocol (pdf 281.88KB) click here
The HARP Protocol (Housing and Returning Prisoners) is a framework between local authorities, the prison and probation services and the voluntary sector housing providers to reduce homelessness amongst offenders and people returning from custody. The protocol seeks to address the housing needs of people in custody prior to, during and following the making of a custodial sentence.
Pathways into independence and preventing homelessness
For information on routes into sustainable independent living and threatened evictions.
Preventing Evictions Protocol April 2009 (pdf 104.47KB) click here
The Preventing Evictions Protocol 2009 replaces the Preventing Evictions and Repeat Homelessness Protocol which was agreed between Strategic Housing, Social Services, and Your Homes Newcastle in 2006. It has now been extended to other social housing providers (Housing Associations) working in the city, as well as YHN, and has been signed up to by Adult Services and Children's Services, and Probation, and is supported by health agencies and the Drug Support Unit.
The simple principle behind the establishment of the Protocol is that where somebody is receiving support, social landlords will meet with those support agencies to work together to support the person to remain in their home. The Protocol sets out a series of good practice principles for staff in all age ncies which will help to identify when someon e ap plyin g
for hous ing or moving into a new home is vulnerable. This will help to establi s h w hat should be put in place to help them to sustain that tenancy. It also helps to identify what each type of agency is able to do when supporting a vulnerable tenant, and suggest ways of working together if problems do arise. In this way, we can work toget her to try to ensure that tenants are not set up to fail by being given a tenancy they cannot cope with, as risks will have been identified, and support and other arrangements will have been put in place from the start.
The Protocol is accompanied by a Resource Pack which sets out what is expected of each type of agency, and explains how to contact them. It also contains other useful information for staff working with vulnerable tenants, and in particular, with familes with children. A leaflet summarises the Protocol.
Preventing Evictions Protocol 2009 Leaflet (pdf 106.43KB) click here
Preventing Evictions Protocol Resource Pack 2009 (pdf 218.59) click here
Young Offenders Housing and Resettlement Protocol (YoHARP) (pdf 435.34KB) click here
The main aims of this new Protocol are:
The Protocol has been developed with the Youth Offending Team (YOT), YHN, Supporting People, supported housing providers, and Social Services.
The main thrust of the Protocol is (as with HARP) to develop better joint planning between all the agencies, and to identify the need for action to find housing on release much earlier in the process. The Protocol sets out each of the six stages in the process, and what is expected of each agency. An Information Pack accompanying the Protocol (see below) explains the role of all the agencies involved, key points about the law, and gives practical advice such as how to make appointments to visit a young offender at a Youth Offenders Institution.
• Download the YoHARP Information Pack (pdf 206.59KB) click here
• Download the YoHARP Summary (pdf 263.63KB) click here