Managing vulnerable households
Updated 12 May 2023
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Background
At the Small Ministerial Group (SMG) on asylum accommodation on 22 February 2023, the Home Office was tasked with working up proposals to end the use of bridging accommodation for legally resettled Afghans.
The enhanced matching process (EMP) will end on 21 April 2023 for all families in bridging accommodation, including those who have previously been offered accommodation under it. Any referrals made to LAs or offers made to families prior to the end of the EMP will be honoured in line with the periods allowed for responses from families.
From 2 May 2023 any settled accommodation allocated will be on the basis of one offer only with no further offers should a household reject it.
This guidance outlines how the Home Office will prioritise offers of settled accommodation, where it is available. It will prioritise households currently accommodated in bridging accommodation who, because of a specific vulnerability, will struggle the most to find their own accommodation and integrate effectively into life in the UK under this new one offer process and through the closure of all bridging accommodation recognising these responsibilities.
Approach
The UK government will support all households through the closure of all bridging accommodation to find and move into their own accommodation, provided they have been continuously living in a bridging hotel or serviced accommodation. A dedicated caseworking team, made up of Home Office Liaison Officers (HOLOs), DWP work coaches, wraparound support staff and charities will be on hand at bridging accommodation to help answer questions and provide advice. Particular support will be given to families with children to help them minimise disruption to education, those with medical needs or disabilities and those with other known vulnerabilities or safeguarding needs.
We anticipate that there will be a limited amount of settled accommodation provided by local authorities with the associated three-year integration support.
The Home Office will prioritise offers of this stock of settled accommodation to households who, because of a specific vulnerability, will struggle the most to find their own accommodation and integrate effectively into life in the UK, recognising that there will not be sufficient settled accommodation to allocate to all families who are found to be in need.
Identifying households
The funding instruction for local authorities in the Support of the United Kingdom’s Afghan schemes (Hotel and temporary accommodation wrap around support) provides funding for local authorities to provide (inter alia) “a full safeguarding support service to all beneficiaries, in line with their statutory responsibilities, channelled via the adult and child LA safeguarding processes”.
The funding instruction also provides for local authorities to support guests to move on from hotel accommodation by holding family “Move On” conversations and completing a “move-on plan” as early as possible to understand the aims, skills, needs and preferences of the adults. This includes ensuring that vulnerable households are listened to and involved through the development of the ‘Move On’ plan.
Local authorities are therefore best placed to identify those households who, because of a specific vulnerability, will struggle the most to find their own accommodation and integrate effectively into life in the UK and will benefit the most from the settled accommodation with associated 3 year LA integration support available.
Wraparound support providers will have overall responsibility for identifying vulnerable households. However, all caseworking teams will work together in bridging hotels as it is likely that each team will have different information for a household which they have gathered or been informed about independently. They will share this information during face-to-face meetings or during case conferences to identify vulnerable households who the matching team will then seek to allocate suitable accommodation to.
Process
All households will be advised in writing of the need to make their own alternative accommodation arrangements before the Notice to Quit expires.
HOLOs and LA wraparound staff will work with all households to support their move on to self-sourced alternative accommodation. However, this is provided they have been continuously living in a bridging hotel or serviced accommodation.
LA staff providing the wraparound support to families in bridging accommodation will identify and put forward (via the HOLO team) households meeting one or more of the criteria outlined in the next section for prioritisation for settled accommodation, based on their knowledge of each household having worked with them and provided the wraparound support, move on plan and safeguarding role in bridging accommodation.
The LA staff (via the HOLO team) will provide the matching team with refreshed data on the vulnerable households as they become aware of a change in their circumstances. However, all caseworking teams have a duty to share information with one another as and when they become aware of it.
Criteria
People who for whom there are particular barriers to finding their own accommodation because:
- one or more members of the household has a specific vulnerability which impacts on their ability to find their own accommodation and integrate effectively into life in the UK, such as (list not exhaustive):
A mental or physical disability or other health need such as:
- a mental illness or disorder
- a physical or learning disability
- chronic or progressive medical conditions
- the need to recover from the effects of violence or threats of violence, or physical, emotional or sexual abuse
- need to be near a specific medical facility on medical grounds
- households who are currently being supported by an LA under their statutory safeguarding responsibilities
- each adult family member has limited English language skills, which affects their ability to negotiate access to PRS plus one or more of the household has one of the vulnerabilities outlined above
Caseworking teams within the hotel should verbally share information with one another to confirm whether any of the points above are present. Where this cannot be confirmed by a caseworking team, the household is required to provide evidence which will be considered by the caseworking team before a decision is made to add them to the list of vulnerable households.
The matching process
The Afghan Accommodation matching team will maintain a list of all households identified by the local authority wraparound staff and caseworking teams. A list of vulnerable households will be fed through to the matching team by the HOLOs.
This list will include all households identified prior to and up to the time the Notice to Quit is served. Households will only be able to be added to this list after that date if:
- they are new arrivals into bridging accommodation and meet one or more of the criteria set out above
- households are found to have a change of circumstances during the notice period in a way which characterises them vulnerable in line with the criteria set out above.
Assessing the criteria and prioritising households
The process for prioritising households will be kept under review as decisions on regional closure plans and regional allocations models are finalised, recognising the need for flexibility of approach and to manage exceptional cases outside of this process. However, the following principles will apply:
The Home Office will categorise accommodation to households in the following order:
- category 1 – Vulnerable households identified by the LA wraparound team from within the region where households have been served notice
- category 2 – Vulnerable households identified by the LA wraparound team from across the UK
- category 3 – Arrivals for whom it has been agreed exceptionally (Minister or Director for Resettlement) hotel accommodation can be used pending settled accommodation being found from within the region where the hotels have been served notice
- category 4 – Other cases categorised as “Priority/Urgent” on the Afghan Matching List from within the region where the hotels have been served notice
- category 5 – All other cases (earliest arrival in the UK first) from within the region where the hotels have been served notice
- category 3-5 from across the UK
Category 1 households
The matching team will develop a template for the LA staff to go through for each family they have identified as potentially meeting the criteria (through the development of the move on plan).
The template will have a box for the LA to tick if the household has that vulnerability criteria. All ticks will be added up to give a score. There will be no weighting.
The Home Office will prioritise the household with the most ticks for the accommodation available, focussing on those households living in bridging accommodation where notices to quit have been served.
Where there is more than one family with the same score we will assess them all against the existing criteria/operational guidance covering employment, education, caring responsibilities, medical, and faith needs.
Where there is more than one household matching all the above criteria the final offer decision will be made based on the date on the date their temporary accommodation is closing and longest stay in bridging accommodation. Consideration may also be given to housing pressures faced by the departing local authority.
Once the suitability of the property is confirmed in principle a household will be referred to the relevant LA to accept and will only be offered that property once the LA has accepted them and confirmed that any necessary property adaptions required can be made within the timescales of the notice to quit period.
If a household rejects the property, or it is found not to be suitable/property adaptations cannot be made within the necessary timescale we will seek to allocate it to another household from level 1, before working through the other levels in chronological order.
If a household rejects the property offer, they will be advised of the need to make their own accommodation arrangements by the HOLO and be removed from the settled accommodation matching list.
Once a household has accepted a property offer, we will follow existing processes for arranging the transport to the accommodation.
Local matching
The Home Office recognises that local authorities with bridging accommodation in their area may wish to use the settled accommodation they are offering for households currently living in that bridging accommodation. Whilst the priority for the Home Office remains to match the accommodation to the most vulnerable families across the UK, we will work closely with local authorities on an individual basis to make any necessary local arrangements if needed.