Housing Related Support - Floating Support

Tender description

We are looking to hold a Market Engagement event for this opportunity in March 2025, if you are interested please contact craig.forster@essex.gov.uk for an invite to our event. In 2019, ECC commissioned the Floating Support Service. Operating a peripatetic model, the service delivers flexible, outreach support across the County; providing cost-effective interventions to vulnerable adults and their families, who are at imminent risk of losing their accommodation, or whom may be experiencing a period of crisis. The service is aimed at people across a range of housing tenure, including those accommodated in social housing, owner-occupiers, private rented accommodation, as well as people who are homeless and need to make a housing application to their relevant Local Housing Authority. Interventions include, but are not limited to, help with maintaining tenancies, including development of basic living skills, budgeting, applications for benefits, debt advice, reducing antisocial behaviour, and liaising with landlords regarding repairs etc. The service also supports with making applications for housing and finding suitable/alternative accommodation. While the Service continues to work in close partnership with the Local Housing Authorities (LHAs), it has also forged strong links to wider statutory and voluntary agencies, including Adult Social Care, drug and alcohol treatment providers and criminal justice agencies. As noted above, this has become increasingly important due to the prevalence of complexity of needs. The service therefore takes a holistic view of the person/s they are supporting to identify co-occurring and or other underlying needs, such as mental-ill-health and substance misuse, which are likely to be driving and or compounding their needs around housing. As such, the service ensures that managed referrals are made to relevant services to address these. Similarly, the service also facilitates access to education, training and employment opportunities. Support is targeted and intended to be time limited (generally working with individuals for up to around 6 months) to enable people to reach a point where their circumstances are stabilised, and they can continue to manage independently. However, where needs cannot be met, or issues remain unresolved at the end of six months, the service will continue to support and monitor progress until, as far as possible, a positive outcome is achieved. Lot 1: ECC is seeking to procure one provider to deliver the Floating Support Service, which will continue to focus on preventing homelessness for vulnerable individuals, who also have a number of co-occurring needs which are likely to be driving and or compounding the risk of homelessness or other accommodation related issues. The service is therefore integral to the wider local system to identifying and engaging with individuals who have a range of multiple and complex needs, working in close partnership with a whole range of statutory and voluntary specialist services. The service is also a key early intervention and prevention service, working to address potential homelessness before it happens, and providing solutions where this is unavoidable.