AGENDA ITEM 8
REVISED REPORT ISSUED 3/9/08
INCLUDING FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
BOROUGH OF POOLE
CABINET
9TH SEPTEMBER 2008
BEST VALUE REVIEW OF HOMELESSNESS AND HOUSING REGISTER
AND HOMELESSNESS STRATEGY: REPORT OF HEAD OF HOUSING
AND COMMUNITY SERVICES
1.
Purpose of the Report
1.1
The purpose of this report is to present Members with the findings and
subsequent improvement action plan following the review of the
Homelessness and Housing Register Services. The final report and
improvement action plan can be found at appendix a to this report.
1.2
The findings from this review have shaped the proposals made in the
Homelessness Strategy, a copy of which can be found at appendix b.
2.
Recommendations
2.1
Members are asked to approve the Best Value review final report and
Improvement Action plan.
2.2
Members are asked approve the Homelessness Strategy and
accompanying action plan.
3.
Background
3.1
Community Support Overview Group (CSOG) agreed to a fundamental
review of homelessness services on 20th July 2006. Three Elected
Members (two Conservative and one Liberal Democrat) from CSOG
were nominated to the Review Project Board. It was subsequently
agreed that the review would include the Housing Register.
3.2
The Review Project Board agreed the following Project Outputs for the
project;
Final Report including;
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Customer Satisfaction Analysis
Value for Money Statement
Performance Analysis
Challenge Statement
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Improvement and Development Action Plan
Reviewed Homelessness Strategy
3.3
On 29th April 2008, the Review Project Board was presented with the
findings of the review and recommended that the action plan and
homelessness strategy was reported to Cabinet for approval.
3.4
The Homelessness Act 2002 requires councils to compile a
homelessness strategy and to renew it every five years. The last
strategy for Poole was published in 2003. It should be noted however,
that following Poole’s recent CPA inspection and the result of an
excellent status, the Council is now exempt from this requirement.
However, in order to shape the service over the next three years it is
recommended that we produce a strategy which will guide the work of
the Council and its partners in relation to homelessness and related
services, and indeed that in doing so we aim to improve upon our
strategic work in this area, and therefore, take an excellent service
delivery even further.
3.5
In compiling the new strategy, the Best Value review has enabled us to
take a comprehensive look at the Housing Options service and the
result is a holistic approach to planning how homelessness services
will be delivered over the next three years.
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Best Value Review Report
4.1
The report sets out the findings from a fundamental service review that
has followed Best Value principles. The purpose of this review was to
assess the homelessness and housing register services within Housing
and Community Services to ensure that the services deliver best value
and to give direction to these services over the next three to five years.
4.2
The report gives a picture of trends relating to service and
performance, and then goes on to challenge the services, compare to a
national picture of housing authority performance in the service areas,
considers how competitive the service is, and finally, reports on the
views of stakeholders of the service. From the wealth of information is
the result of this analysis, conclusions are drawn and actions are set in
the Improvement Action Plan at the end of the report.
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4.3
From the various conclusions drawn throughout this report, we can be
confident of two services, which are performing well and providing a
valuable service. In the area of homelessness particularly, some
elements of the results shown are evidence of best practice when
compared against the national picture. For those where actions are
shown, in the main, these are set with the intention of making
improvements to further the good standard of performance and service
delivery rather than to rectify the lack of.
There are 6 themes emerging from the review;
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Expand and promote a range of Housing Options
Improve Access to Services
Improve effective partnership working
Maintain and develop a strong portfolio of prevention activities
Maximise resources available to meet need
Provide an efficient and effective service that offers value for money
and excellent service quality
And within those themes, a set of objectives and actions which can be
found within the action plan.
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Homelessness Strategy
5.1
The Homelessness Strategy considers the services currently being
provided across a range of service areas and sets out the resulting
issues for each. These issues are then considered within the strategic
themes at 4.3 and actions are set out in the accompanying action plan.
5.2
A range of consultation methods have been adopted throughout both
the review of services and through consultation of the draft strategy.
This has included customers, stakeholders and staff at these stages.
Consultation with these groups has involved a number of descriptive
and interactive responses, which have been responsible for enhancing
the recommended strategy. A number of detailed responses from these
groups will form our integral partners in delivering the strategy.
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Financial Implications
6.1
No additional resources have been set aside as part of the Council’s
Medium Term Financial Plan to implement any of the improvements
detailed within appendix a.
6.2
The current assumption is that the cost of any proposals implemented
will be achieved within the current budgetary resources made available
by the Council.
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Conclusion
7.1
The Homelessness Strategy sets ambitious targets and seeks to
achieve a holistic housing options service that will benefit the wider
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community in providing options which will provide housing solutions, as
well as ultimately preventing homelessness and the crisis this brings
with it.
7.2
A comprehensive review of services has informed this strategy. It has
told us that we are starting this new period from a position of great
strength in terms of current performance. Through working with
stakeholders, service users and partners we have been able to set
goals for the future to build upon that success and we can be confident
that these aims and objectives set the direction of travel towards a
position of further excellence.
Officer Contact
Kelly Ansell
Acting Head of Housing
Email: [email protected]
Tel: (01202) 633493
Ben Tomlin
Housing Needs Manager
Email: [email protected]
Tel: (01202) 633414
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