The manager of the Housing Support Team is registered with the Scottish Social Services Council in the part of the Register for Managers in Housing Support Services maintained in terms of section 44(1)(b) of the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001.
These regulations make provision in relation to the duty of local authorities to assess whether certain homeless applicants or applicants threatened with homelessness need housing support services.
If a local authority has reason to believe that an applicant may be in need of a prescribed housing support services, it must assess whether the applicant, or any person residing with the applicant, is in need of such support.
The housing support team will provide support, assistance and advice to individuals with particular needs with a view to enabling that individual to occupy, or to continue to occupy, their accommodation. This may mean providing services such as:
For more information, please refer to the Scottish Government's Guidance for Local Authorities - Housing Support Duty to Those Found to be Homeless or Threatened With Homelessness - Amendment to Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 (inserted by Housing (Scotland) Act 2010)
The Housing Support Services (Homelessness)(Scotland) Regulations 2012 have introduced a duty for Local Authorities to assess and provide for the housing support needs of households who are unintentionally homeless or threatened with homelessness.
The regulations prescribes four types of housing support services which apply for the purposes of the duty.
If you are accepted as homeless by Clackmannanshire Council, the Housing Options team will discuss with you making a referral to the Housing Support Team if there is reason to believe that you would benefit from support.
The Housing Support Team will contact you to arrange to meet and agree the support that the team can provide you with to:
If you are currently a Council tenant and are at risk of losing your tenancy, a referral can be made to the housing support team on your by your housing officer.
Your consent must be given before we can accept a referral made on your behalf.
Support is person centred which means that we will work with you to provide the support that you need to enable you to manage your tenancy independently.
Support is normally offered for an initial 3 month period. A review of your support will be completed at that point and your case closed or extended for a further period of time if we agree that there is still work to do.
You do have the right to opt out of support at any time and can speak to your housing support officer or the housing support co-ordinator if you are considering ending your service.
Throughout your support you will be given the opportunity to provide feedback on the service you are receiving at your support reviews.
Your views are important to us and are used by the team to continually monitor and evaluate the quality of the service that we provide.
The team send out an annual questionnaire to help us monitor and evaluate the service. This questionnaire is sent to current service users of the team and is linked directly to the Care Inspectorate Self Assessment and Grading inspection process.
If you are working with the team when a Care Inspectorate inspection is due to take place, you will also be asked if you would like to be involved in inspections of the service. This is voluntary and may involve completing a questionnaire for the Care Inspectorate, or you may even decide that you would like to meet with an inspector to tell them about your experiences as a service user. You can discuss your preferences with your housing support officer.
When you stop working with the housing support team, you will be sent an exit questionnaire.
You can choose to provide your contact details or you can remain anonymous. Any comments or feedback you provide will be treated in confidence by the Housing Support Co-ordinator. Any urgent issues that are highlighted will be identified by the Housing Support Co-ordinator upon the return of the questionnaire.
Exit questionnaires will be evaluated by the Housing Support Co-ordinator on a 6 monthly basis. Your comments and feedback are used to ensure that working practice meets the National Care Standards for Housing Support Services and that the service the team are providing is meeting the needs of service users.
The team also send out an annual survey to other professionals who have made a referral to the team or who have been involved in partnership working with a mutual client.
Stakeholder surveys are another important source of information on the teams performance and also help us to continually monitor and evaluate the quality of the service provided.
These surveys also help to identify any issues with partnership working and help promote relationships between professionals that help us to work towards the best possible outcomes for our service users.
For further information or to discuss making a referral please contact us using the details below.
Community Safety and Advice
Kilncraigs, Greenside Street, Alloa, FK10 1EB
Tel: 01259 450000
Email: housing@clacks.gov.uk