Homelessness prevention by Llamau and Newport City Council

Specialist domestic abuse service, co-located in housing options team

The context

We know some service responses to women presenting in housing crisis due to domestic abuse in Scotland have room for improvement, despite progressive legislation in both areas. Women’s Aid pinpoints common challenges in service delivery, including default responses which push women into homelessness, simplistic thinking on housing options and inadequate frontline knowledge of legal action, safety planning, risk assessment and trauma-informed approaches.

In broad terms, this picture suggests that too many women enter the homelessness system in Scotland without exploring safe alternatives or being offered appropriate support. One effective way of addressing both challenges for local authorities is to embed an independent, specialist domestic abuse service (or worker) in the housing options team, as Newport City Council has recently discovered.

The intervention

Newport City Council invited homelessness charity Llamau to co-locate a specialist domestic abuse worker in their homelessness service in 2020. This is funded through the Welsh housing support grant, with an element of funding from the homelessness service. People who contact or present to the Council at risk of, or currently experiencing, homelessness as a result of any form of violence against women, domestic abuse or sexual violence (VAWDASV) are directed by homelessness staff to the specialist worker. This is a voluntary service, which victim/survivors are free to decline if they would prefer to deal with the Council alone (albeit this is rare).

The worker completes an initial assessment of need, carries out safety planning with the victim/survivor and provides direct housing advice/advocacy and support, including on non-housing matters such as finances, mental health or childcare. The worker is person-centred and looks into all options, without directing a person into any particular one. The aim is to provide consistent advice and support, ensuring people are well informed enough to make decisions. This can result in a person becoming (and feeling) safe to remain at home with additional measures in place, rather than being forced to flee.

Llamau workers explore legal options (such as injunction orders or occupation orders); sanctuary schemes (whereby security enhancements are provided); managed moves, if a person is social tenant; and coordination of emergency/safe placements, including women only refuges, whilst ‘target hardening’ is carried out on a home. The worker liaises with the wider options team to access suitable temporary accommodation, where risks are such that this is necessary to create safety. They continue to support victim/survivors through the homelessness process where that option is taken.

The outcome

In its first full year (2020-21) Llamau’s co-located service received 318 referrals. 264 people (83% female; 17% male) engaged in support. Of cases since ‘closed’, 41% remained safely in their own home, 33% were supported to access settled housing whilst 26% entered temporary accommodation and the homelessness system.

It is the assessment of partners that the proportion of people able to remain at home or make a planned move - after exercising legal rights, acquiring security enhancements or simply receiving safety planning and support - significantly increased in Newport following introduction of the co-located service, when compared to a previous, signposting-based service model.

Key insights

an independent VAWDASV service/worker embedded within housing options can reassure local authorities that all appropriate prevention options have been explored without risk of ‘gate-keeping’
a co-located independent advocacy worker in options teams (VAWDASV or other) can improve relations and mutual understanding between authority and third sector staff, reduce litigation and offer a more ‘joined up’ service to customers
co-location improves access to and engagement in specialist support for victim/survivors who approach the Council for housing during a crisis

Find out more…

Nicola Fitzpatrick, Head of Service, Llamau
nicolafitzpatrick@llamau.org.uk