Kent Integrated Homelessness Support Service for Vulnerable Adults

Kent County Council (KCC) provides housing related support services for vulnerable homeless young people and adults across Kent, delivered through a number of contracts. All of those current contracts are due to end in September 2018, providing an ideal opportunity to review and improve services, taking into account local need and ensuring good levels of access and provision across the county.

The three main types of homelessness support services KCC currently funds are:
- Supported housing: support is provided within a specific housing scheme or address and people have to live at the address to receive this support;
- Floating support: delivered to people, wherever they are, to support them to gain / maintain a tenancy, prevent eviction, claim benefits, access other support services etc.;
- Rough sleeper outreach: support workers go out to meet people who are rough sleeping and work with them to access accommodation, access health care and support appropriate to their needs, to recover from homelessness.

KCC aims to achieve consistency of service whilst meeting demand across the differing demography of the county.

The new service provision for young people will focus on care leavers and 16/17-year-old homeless people, in support of the council’s corporate parenting duty (this means the collective responsibility of the council, elected members, employees, and partner agencies, for providing the best possible care and safeguarding for the children who are looked after by KCC).

Eligible vulnerable homeless adults, aged 18 years and above, with support needs, will be supported in a new integrated service.

In order to improve outcomes for vulnerable homeless people, KCC intends to bring services for adults together, ensuring that they wrap-around the person and work for them to address their recovery from homelessness and unique needs, rather than funding individual services which are not always linked together. By joining up services, the council anticipates clearer pathways into and out of provision, better outcomes for vulnerable adults, more efficient service delivery and greater opportunities for innovation.

Through a more integrated model, with service stakeholders and suppliers working collaboratively, a coordinated community response to homelessness services for vulnerable adults across Kent could be introduced. This would mean that vulnerable people and their families could benefit from flexible, tailored, recovery-focused provision(s), which respond to their needs, and a service able to deliver more joined-up community support to clients, regardless of their level of risk, helping them to recover from homelessness and live successfully within their local communities.

The council is currently developing a new service specification, incorporating feedback from stakeholder engagement and service design events, and lessons learnt from a public consultation which ran from 22 January until 4 March 2018. The council aims to publish the specification and a formal procurement opportunity to the market from May 2018.

This represents a truly exciting opportunity for providers to work with us to deliver this new service in Kent. We would encourage you to begin thinking about what you can offer towards delivering outcomes for the new homelessness service for vulnerable adults, and look out for future notifications.

Do note that this is currently only a Prior Information Notice (PIN), not yet a tender opportunity. There is no need to express an interest.