Karen Swift the Divisional Director Housing & Regeneration gave a presentation to the Committee on the report issued by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) that had found fault with the way in which Miss X’s homeless application was dealt with by LBTH when she had been threatened with homelessness in February, 2019 and homeless in March, 2019. The main points of the discussions on the report may be summarised as follows:

The Committee:

• Noted that the LGO had found there was significant fault in the handling of Miss X’s case causing her injustice.
• Was informed that homelessness is a significant topical issue, following a change in the relevant law in April 2018 with the introduction of the Homeless Reduction Act (HRA).
• Noted that LBTH agrees with the Ombudsman recommendations and has taken steps to remedy the injustice these faults can cause homeless people.
• Was informed that the LGO had identified that there had been poor record keeping by the Council.
• Noted that the Council had not (i) recorded any consideration of whether transferring hospitals for maternity care would be disruptive to Miss X; (ii) recorded any consideration of whether unfurnished accommodation, over an hour away from its area, was suitable for her. Given that Miss X had not lived alone before becoming homeless and would probably not have any furniture that she could bring to the accommodation.
• Was informed that LBTH had indicated to the LGO that it could not consider providing financial support for Miss X to obtain private rented accommodation until a decision had been made about whether Miss X was in priority need and owed the main housing duty. However, the LGO have expressed concern that LBTH had confused its duties. The relief duty applying to applicants whether they are in priority need, therefore Miss X’s priority need was not relevant to the relief duty. LGO have now clarified this with LBTH.
• Noted that LBTH needed to be more creative in how it helps find accommodation to relieve homelessness.
• Noted that the Housing Options Service had undertaken preparations by way of training and IT system changes to manage the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act in 2018. Those preparations had involved training on the Act and a new IT module had been purchased to meet the requirements of the new data requirements, and undertook a review of processes to provide the relevant statutory notices that were required to apply new prevention and relief duty. Briefings and presentations had been provided to staff to raise awareness of the changes which had come into effect. However, inspite of this preparation the service fell short of the Act’s expectation in relation to Ms X almost a year on since the Act had been enacted.
• Was pleased to note that (i) the Housing Options Service have now helped Miss X to secure temporary discretionary housing payment to obtain affordable accommodation in the private rented sector. This it was noted was in line with what the Act says LBTH can provide by way of relief and homelessness prevention; (ii) Letter of apology will be sent to Miss X; and (iii) £1,000 compensation will be remitted to Miss X’s account.
• Noted that (i) the Housing Options Service are continually reviewing their ways of working and have taken steps to bring extra resources into the Service and have recruited a backlog team who are working through the outstanding cases. In addition, 4 officers have been recruited to assist in dealing with new clients as they present to the service to enable officers to work in line with the law; (ii) the Temporary Accommodation Bookings Team will ensure that all factors are taken into account when assessing suitability of accommodation and that these are recorded on the file for future reference; (iii) the Service will be increasing staffing levels funded through the Flexible Homelessness Support Grant (FHSG) to enable some of the workload pressures to be addressed in the long-term. This will enable employees to manage their work more effectively and meet the requirements of the law, increase preventions, ensure accurate recording of data and more detailed recording keeping. Whilst the additional posts will ensure that a further backlog of cases does not occur once the current backlog has been cleared.
• Welcomed the IT improvements being made that will ensure systems are streamlined and reduce duplication of work and ensure efficiency in service delivery. Whilst the off-line forms it was noted are being devised to enable applicants to complete key forms to speed up the assessment process.
• Noted that apart from an improved IT infrastructure the Housing Options Service also requires offices that are fit for purpose to help people to have the right customer journey.
• Noted that LBTH has 3 months to submit an action plan to the LGO.
• Was informed that managers will be trained on Reflective Practice to enable them to hold sessions with their own teams. The plan is also to hold service wide sessions from February 2020 onwards which will allow staff to share their thoughts and ideas for service improvement; and
• Noted that valuable insight from the Employee Survey is being used to address the barriers that have been identified by staff to deliver a good service. Delivering the service through a ‘prevention and a customer journey’ lens that will form the basis of a service improvement plan; looking at, customer flows and pathways, channel shift, improved IT, collaborative working across teams with clarity of purpose/policies and procedures that support the work of the teams.