Agenda item

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services presenting the Rough Sleeping Initiative Year 4 Funding Proposal and the following points were made:

·         The Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) was launched by the Government in March 2018 with the aim of reducing overall rough sleeping numbers in the 83 local authorities with the highest numbers of people sleeping rough, based on the 2017 rough sleeping snapshot.  The City of London Corporation had submitted a proposal for Year 4 of the RSI scheme totalling £1,070,244.  This included continuing existing RSI interventions from Year 3 including a Rough Sleeping Coordinator, the Tower Hamlets and CoL Navigator Project, an additional City outreach worker, two additional Anchor House EU beds and continuation of the No First Night Out principle of homelessness prevention to part-fund emergency accommodation.  It was proposed to introduce further interventions in April 2021 including a Rough Sleeping Tenancy Support Officer, Psychotherapy service and the Mobile Support Intervention Team. 

·         In response to a question from a Member, the Rough Sleeping Service Manager confirmed that a quarter of the RSI Year 3 grant totalling £347,500 would fund all existing interventions from April to June 2021, including a number of staff on fixed-term contracts.  The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government would notify local authorities of the outcome of the Year 4 RSI funding award process in May 2021, at which point it was hoped to extend the fixed-term contracts of these staff for a further year.  The Head of Homelessness Prevention and Rough Sleeping confirmed that the difficulties of long-term planning in relation to the RSI Grant had been flagged with the Government; however, as the planned programme had been co-produced with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, it was anticipated that the grant award was likely to be successful.  A further update on the RSI Year 4 Funding Proposal would be presented to the next meeting of the Sub-Committee on 28 June 2021.

RESOLVED, that the update be noted.