Information for professionals - homelessness prevention

Information for professionals - homelessness prevention

The following information is for professionals, volunteers and Councillors who want to support Newcastle residents to secure the foundations for a stable life – somewhere to live, an income, financial inclusion and employment opportunities

Active Inclusion Newcastle

Active Inclusion Newcastle is a partnership approach developed as part of the Newcastle City Council 2013-16 budget setting process. It responds to the growth in demand for financial inclusion and homelessness prevention information, advice and support when resources and certainty are reducing; the transition residents and organisations need to make to a reduced welfare state; the scale of poverty and disadvantage many Newcastle residents face; and the need to change our culture, to promote preventative and partnership response. Active Inclusion Newcastle is guided by our local politicians’ values of fairness, inclusion and social justice and contributes to Newcastle City Council’s priorities of employment, education and skills, and housing. We do this by providing a framework to improve the coordination and consistency of information, advice and support, helping partners to increase residents' financial inclusion and to prevent homelessness. In 2020, as a result of this work, we were awarded a World Habitat gold award

For more information please see, 

This page includes information resources to support our collective work to prevent homelessness, for resources which support our work to increase residents' financial inclusion, visit our Financial inclusion information for professionals and volunteers page.

Ways to get involved

If you are interested in any of the  groups in the Active Inclusion Newcastle partnership arrangements, email the Active Inclusion Newcastle Unit on activeinclusion@newcastle.gov.uk .You  can find more information about our quarterly Homelessness Prevention Forum meetings here . 

Newcastle’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2020-2025

Newcastle’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2020-2025 was endorsed by Newcastle City Council’s Cabinet on 19 October 2020 and can be viewed below 

Accompanying the strategy is Newcastle's Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Review 

Duty to refer 

On 1 October 2018, the Homelessness Reduction Act introduced a new requirement on specified public authorities in England to notify councils of service users they think may be homeless or threatened with becoming homeless. 

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government guide to duty to refer

In Newcastle the duty to refer supplements, rather than replaces, our existing Active Inclusion Newcastle partnerships and protocols, like the our Hospital Discharge Protocol, which has helped to ensure that no one becomes homeless as a result of leaving hospital. Similarly, partners should continue to use the Newcastle Gateway, as they have since 2010, to directly refer to accommodation and support services. You can read here more about our approach to duty to refer  (pdf, 370Kb).
 
To make a referral to Newcastle City Council:
•    complete our referral form and email it to dutytorefer@newcastle.gov.uk 

We aim to respond to referrals within one to three working days. We will contact the resident directly using the information you have sent us. The above email address should not be used if they have nowhere to stay  that night or are likely to become homeless within the next 48 hours. If that is the case, you should contact the Housing Advice Centre directly. 

Documents which support our way of working 

 Our protocols

Our spectrum of advice 

We seek to make the best use of the limited face to face specialist advice services in Newcastle by helping other non-specialist services to prevent and respond to financial exclusion and the risk of homelessness. This means moving from signposting to proportionate responses in which all partners can play a role.

To help us in with this we have developed the following spectrum of advice. This describes three broad tiers (general information, general advice and specialist advice) and acts as a guide to help us to better understand where organisations fit into our provision in Newcastle and what support they need to do this. The support to services and organisations includes the resources described on this page.

Housing and homelessness spectrum of advice (pdf 88kb)

To see our spectrums of advice for financial inclusion, visit our financial inclusion information for professionals and volunteers page.

Active Inclusion Training

E-learning modules

The Active Inclusion Service has produced e-learning modules which are available to both Newcastle City Council and non-Newcastle City Council professionals, volunteers and Councillors.  These training sessions are aimed at staff who are not specialist advisers but may support people who are experiencing difficulties with debt, benefits and housing (described as tier 1 and 2 in our Spectrums of Advice documents)

Debt Awareness - tier 1 
This is aimed at frontline staff and volunteers who are in contact with residents who have money problems but do not provide budgeting or debt advice. It takes about 30 to45 minutes to complete. This training can also be completed by staff and volunteers who provide budgeting advice if they are new in their role and / or they want a refresher.

Introduction to Benefits - tier 1 
This is aimed at frontline staff and volunteers who do not provide active benefits advice but can give basic information and signpost to benefit offices and advice services. This means you are classed as 'tier 1' in the above 'Spectrum of Advice: benefits'. It takes about 15 minutes to complete. It can also be taken by new starters as part of an induction and as a refresher.

Introduction to Housing and Homelessness - tier 1 
This is aimed at frontline staff and volunteers who are in contact with residents who have housing problems but do not provide housing advice. It takes about 30 to45 minutes to complete. It can also be taken by new starters as part of an induction and as a refresher.

Introduction to Benefits - tier 2 
You should only do this module after completing 'tier 1'. This module is a continuation of tier 1 and is for those who can give some basic level of support to people with their benefits but are not welfare rights or benefits advisers. It means you are classed as 'tier 2' in the above 'Spectrum of Advice: benefits'. It takes about 30 minutes to complete.

Introduction to Universal Credit  
You should do this module after completing the two ‘Introduction to Benefits’ modules. This module provides an overview of Universal Credit, where you can learn something about who can claim Universal Credit, how to claim it, the rules, key messages, useful contacts and where to get support. It cannot give you the full rules or go into depth about special circumstances but points you in the right direction. It takes about 45 minutes to complete. 

Active Inclusion Newcastle: Support for people struggling with the cost of living crisis
This iLearn LiVE event is for front line staff in Adult Social Care and Children's Social Care who come into contact with people who are struggling financially due to the current cost of living crisis. You will learn why it is important to know about the services provided by Active Inclusion Newcastle, how we can help the residents you work with, how you can refer into our services and what other support may be available.

The sessions will be delivered via Teams and will last no more than 1 hour and include an opportunity for questions.

How to access our training:

Newcastle City Council staff
Access the training by logging into the Learning Management System (LMS). This is done by clicking the ‘LMS’ button, found in the top right of the intranet screen. 

Non Newcastle City Council staff

Click this link to sign up. 

It’s better to right click and choose ‘Open in new window’ so you continue to view these instructions

  •     If you already have an account, click the 'All other users' square
  •     If it's your first time here, you will need to create a new account by clicking on the 'Support & Login Options' below which reveals simple instructions, then click: 'create an account'

If you have any problems, email activeinclusion@newcastle.gov.uk

Once you have access to LMS, to find our training click 'job related' then 'Active Inclusion'

For information on training available on welfare benefits and budgeting and debt advice, visit our financial inclusion information for professionals and volunteers page.

‘Trigger point conversation’ (information sheet)

Information sheets on benefits, debt and money management, financial inclusion and employment support are available on our Financial inclusion information for professionals and volunteers page. 

For further information on the free multi-agency safeguarding training we offer visit Training - Newcastle Safeguarding

Our evidence base 

The files below may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. If you use assistive technology and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email activeinclusion@newcastle.gov.uk  Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

 

 

Did you know?

Active Inclusion Newcastle sends out a weekly email which includes information and news items on issues related to homelessness prevention and financial inclusion, including future dates of partnership meetings and other items of interest. 

If you want to subscribe please email activeinclusion@newcastle.gov.uk 

For those struggling with money and bills, go to: Support in Newcastle for those affected by the cost of living crisis 

Related Pages

Need more information?

If you have any questions about any of these documents, or would like more information about anything listed you can contact us at activeinclusion@newcastle.gov.uk 

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