Shelter – A partnership approach to homelessness
What is it?
Shelter is a national organisation which aims to help people to find and keep a home, and campaigns for decent housing for all.
Shelter has made partnership working the backbone of its operations. In England, Shelter has focused on developing five types of homelessness partnership at a local level:
• A multi-agency monitoring project
• A health and homelessness partnership
• A social services and homelessness partnership
• A criminal justice and homelessness partnership
• A partnership aimed to address issues of personal safety for homeless people
Shelter has worked at a local authority level to establish a series of partnerships across England which focus on the key issues of monitoring, health, social services, criminal justice and personal safety.
These partnerships aim to understand the needs and experiences of homeless people living in the local area. This is so that statutory agencies and other organisations can plan services to meet the needs of homeless households in their area.
Who are the partners?
The partners differ in each area. In most cases, these partnerships involve key agencies including local housing providers, social work services, probation service, advice agencies, support providers, day centres, youth projects, hostels, resettlement projects, and lodging schemes.
Critical success factors
These multi-agency partnerships have been successful in identifying trends and experiences amongst the homeless population. This means that partners can develop a better understanding of the underlying reasons for homelessness across the county, and at a regional and local level.
Shelter believes that the success of these partnerships has been driven by:
• Trust – time has to be dedicated to establishing relationships. For example, when establishing a health and homelessness partnership in Richmond, the partners spent two years on networking and sharing good practice before the partnership was formally established.
• Understanding - agencies involved in the partnerships also went to lengths to ensure they understood the priorities, working practices, organisational structure and legal obligations of partner agencies. This meant that any false perceptions could be eliminated before misunderstandings led to resentment and confusion.
• Regular attendance at meetings - the importance of regular attendance at meetings of designated staff from each agency has been critical in the establishment of trust between partners and demonstrating the priority each organisation attaches to being a partner.
• Focus on core issues - Shelter emphasises that the most effective homelessness partnerships appear to be those that focus on key issues, and ensure activities link with and compliment the strategies of partner organisations.
Find out more
More information is available on the Shelter website
