Guidance on using the NHAS P1E Homelessness prevention and relief outcomes – Partner Agency Reporting Toolkit
Pilot Version – April 2016
Contents
1.0 What are P1Es in relation to homelessness prevention and relief?
2.0 Recording outcomes?
3.0 What are ‘predictive outcomes’?
4.0 What are positive actions – homelessness prevention or homelessness relief casework interventions?
7.0 Recording cases on the P1E Spreadsheet
8.0 The ‘Follow Up’ column and checking predicted outcomes
9.0 Reporting the quarterly P1E figures to the council
Appendix for P1E reporting: (for the partner agency spreadsheet these relate to A1-12 and B1 -10)
P1E positive actions to achieve homelessness prevention – E10 part A1 – A12 household able to remain in existing home as a result of:
1.0 What are P1Es in relation to homelessness prevention and relief?
1.1 Actions taken which result in an outcome which either prevents homelessness or relieves homelessness, are reported by local authorities to the Department of Communities and Local Government – these reports are known as P1E returns, the relevant section for the P1E quarterly return for prevention or relief is E10.
1.2 Partner organisations are entitled to report prevention or relief outcomes to their local authority following ‘positive action’,as part of the Local authority P1E reporting process. A partner organisation is any organisation which is assisting the local authority in tackling and preventing homelessness and is either:
- Funded by the LA to assist it in tackling and preventing homelessness, or
- Is an organisation to which the local authority refers clients for assistance to help prevent that person becoming homeless
1.3 Positive action for P1E purposes is assistance over and above providing just general advice and information (under s179 (1) of the 1996 Housing act). Assistance must be provided on a casework basis, with a file based record. Quality checking and control should confirm the outcome recorded.
1.4Homelessness prevention for P1E purposes is where positive action has been taken to provide housing assistance to someone who considers him or herself to be at risk of homelessness in the near future, and as a result the person is able to either remain in his or her existing accommodation or obtain alternative accommodation, providing a solution for at least the next 6 months.
1.5 Provided the case fulfils the other requirements set out in this guidance, as an agency (partner organisation)you can record for P1E preventionpurposes any client who:
- Has sought assistance from the local authority or the partner organisation
- Considers him or herself to be at risk of homelessness
- The authority may or may not have reason to believe the person is homeless or likely to be homeless within 28 days
- Positive action is not being provided to discharge a duty to secure accommodation under the homeless legislation
- Positive action is being provided by the localauthorityor the partner agency or both working together
- The local authority or the partner agency consider that the positive action provided will prevent homelessness for at least 6 months
1.6 Relief of homelessness for P1E purposes is where ‘positive action’ has been taken after a homeless applicant has received a s184 (Housing Act 1996) notification and where the following duties apply:
- The authority has accepted a duty under section 192 that the person is unintentionally homeless and is not in priority need – ‘positive action’ could include the local authority exercising its power under section 192(3) to secure accommodation for example by a rent guarantee bond (if the accommodation will be available for at least 6 mths)
- The authority has accepted a duty under section 190(3) that the person is intentionally homeless and not in priority need
- The authority has accepted a duty under section 190(2) that the person is intentionally homeless and in priority need. The authority will have a duty to secure accommodation to allow the person a reasonable opportunity to secure accommodation themselves. ‘Positive action’ could also include an offer of a rent in advance payment to enable the person to secure accommodation
The authority will also have a duty to assess the applicants housing needs & provide advice and assistance to help the applicant to secure accommodation themselves. As a partner organisation you may take action to ensure the applicant secures accommodation and can be recorded as positive action to relieve homelessness
For further advice regarding the above duties you can call the NHAS Housing Law Consultancy Line on 0300 330 0517 Monday to Friday.
2.0 Recording outcomes?
2.1Prevention outcomes will be for households previously at risk of homelessness, who have had their homelessness prevented by remaining in their existing home or where they have had assistance inobtaining alternative accommodationwhich is available for at least 6 months.
Outcomes recorded do not have to be restricted to households who have made an application for housing assistance or been considered under statutory homelessness provisions.
To record a successful outcome, you must be confident that homelessness will be prevented or relieved for at least 6 months. As you must record the case on the P1E spreadsheet when you have done the casework, rather than waiting for 6 months to see if the client is still actually living in the accommodation, you must make a prediction about the P1E outcome – see 3.0.
2.2Relief outcomesare where alternative accommodation is secured after a s184 decision has been notified and that duties under either s192, s190 (2) or s190 (3) are owed (see above).
Where these duties apply the council has a duty to assess housing need and provide advice and assistance in any attempt the client makes to obtain accommodation for her/himself (and the applicants housing needs must be assessed before such advice and assistance is given; s190(4) s 192(4)). Therefore, any P1E casework intervention undertaken by the council to achieve a P1E outcome of ‘homelessness relieved’ by positive action, to secure the types of accommodation as listed in the Appendix (E10 part 1B), will be above and beyond the duty to provide advice, assistance and information about homelessness and homelessness prevention (provided under s179 (1)), for example, providing rent in advance. This also applies to your agency if it is funded to carry out statutory advice and assistance work for the council.
3.0 What are ‘predictive outcomes’?
3.1 All P1E outcomes are predictive outcomes: you have to predict the likely outcome of your positive casework intervention, using your knowledge and experience to judge whether the accommodation retained or secured will be available for at least 6 months.
3.2 Predictive outcomes avoid the need to wait for 6 months to see if the client is still in the accommodation before recording them on the P1E Spreadsheet. They also mean that the casework actually done in the relevant quarter is recorded in that quarter.
3.3 However, predictive outcomes could result in caseworkers recording more P1E outcomes, particularly successful ones, than might be warranted. To ensure this tendency is minimised, there are two deterrents in place. Firstly, you should enter your initials on the P1E Spreadsheet, which confirms that this is your prediction, and your supervisor or manager’s initials are also entered, confirming that your prediction is justified by the casework done.
The spreadsheet tool also allows you to enter the date you have recorded the outcome, so that you can track the relevant quarter the outcome was recorded and it will also help you determine a relevant date to complete any follow up sample.
Secondly, a sample of successful P1E outcomes should be followed up to ensure the client is still in the accommodation 6 months after the date you recorded the predicted outcome.
3.4 Since it is important to ensure that your predictive outcomes will stand up to scrutiny, you should take all relevant factors into account, including but not restricted to the following:
- The type of tenure involved
- The condition of the property, including accessibility issues
- Affordability, including eligibility for benefits, benefit shortfall, availability of discretionary housing benefit
- Debt or risk of debt, including sustainability of debt re-payments, particularly rent or mortgage arrears, including those under a suspended or postponed possession order
- The risk of relationship breakdown, including wider family and friends who may be offering accommodation, particularly where there is overcrowding, statutory or otherwise
- The need for support to sustain the accommodation, and whether the need is likely to be met, whether from statutory to voluntary provision or informal support networks.
3.5 Once you have recorded a successful predictive outcome on the P1E Spreadsheet, it should not be changed if the client subsequently returns for further assistance within 6 months that indicates that the prediction was wrong. Instead, if you do further casework that merits another P1E outcome, you can enter it as a separate case on the P1E Spreadsheet, whether or not it is treated as a new case by your agency. If the work is done under the same reference number in your agency, add a capital R after the case reference number when you enter it on the P1E Spreadsheet (see 7.0) to indicate that this is a returning client and not accidental double counting (see 6.0).
4.0 What are positive actions – homelessness prevention or homelessness relief casework interventions?
4.1 P1E outcomes can only be achieved by carrying out one of the prescribed list of P1E definitions in the P1E quarterly return guide (July 2015).The list is divided into two sub-lists: E10 Part 1A is where homelessness was prevented and the household able to remain in their existing home. E10 Part 1B is where homelessness was prevented or relieved and the household was assisted to obtain alternative accommodation.
4.2 E10 part A1-12 and E10 part B1-10are defined in the Appendix (starting on page 14), and some examples and explanations of the different types of casework that might be carried out under each one, are provided. For the partner agency spreadsheet these will relate to outcomes A1-10 & B1-12.
4.3 A homelessness prevention or homelessness relief casework intervention requires that you intervene on the client’s behalf with a third party (such as a landlord, the Housing Benefit department, the county court, etc.) to achieve one of the P1E outcomes. Providing only advice and information to a client, who then pursues her/his own case with a third party, cannot be recorded for P1E purposes.
4.4 Exactly what type of intervention could be counted is a matter of judgment, however, for general guidance, the more vulnerable the client, the lower the level of intervention.
For example:
Completing a Housing Benefit application form for a client who has learning difficulties or is too chaotic to do so, without which the claim would not be made, resulting in immediate rent arrears, would be a valid P1E casework intervention.
However, if you would usually give the form to a client without any such disadvantage for self-completion, you should not record this as a P1E casework intervention nor complete the form on the client’s behalf in order to record this as a P1E case.
4.5On the spreadsheet the drop down menu will give you the relevant options for either prevention or relief dependent upon the circumstances of the case whether the client remained in their home or alternative accommodation was provided.
4.6 On your agency’s version of the P1E Spreadsheet, some of the E10 part A1– A12 and E10 part B1 B1-10 outcomes may have been removed. This will be because your agency has agreed with the council and other local agencies reporting P1Es that your agency will not record these particular casework interventions/outcomes. This might be because this is not the type of casework that your agency does, or it could be that local agencies have agreed to report only casework of particular importance to each. Broadly, the E10 partA1-12 casework interventions will be more relevant to an advice agency, while the E10 part B1-10 interventions are more likely to be carried out by an accommodation provider / support agency and the council.
4.7 Casework that does not seem to fall under any of E10 part A1- A12 or E10 B1 -10should be included under E10 part A1 or part B1Other. If you select the drop down option of ‘other’ then you will be able to record a note of the casework carried out in the notes column on the P1E Spreadsheet. Given the extra work involved, as well as the possibility of such cases being questioned during an audit, E10 part A1 row 12 and E10 part B1B10 (other) should only be used as a last resort.
5.0 Do we record any other monitoring on the P1E Spreadsheet?
5.1 Your agency may have be asked for other client monitoring information to be added to the Spreadsheet, such as household type, age group or postcode. Any such additional monitoring will require an additional column to be added on the right hand side– highlighted in pink to show it is additional monitoring information. You may require support to add this, as you will need to ensure the monitoring information is collated correctly.
6.0 Referrals and how to avoid double counting of P1E cases
6.1 Only one agency, and only one caseworker or department within an agency, may record a P1E outcome for a client’s case. Casework that requires the referral of all or part of the client’s case to another agency, the local authority, or even another caseworker or project within your own agency, has implications for recording P1E outcomes because of the importance of avoiding double-counting of cases.
6.2 Double counting occurs when two or more agencies, or individuals or departments within an agency, record a P1E casework intervention against a P1E outcome for the same case. (There is only one situation in which a form of double-counting is acceptable – and that is there a returning client has received casework which resulted in another outcome.)
6.3 It is essential to do everything that is practically possible to avoid double-counting, otherwise the figures, used by the council, the government and other funders to determine the value and efficacy of casework in preventing homelessness, will be wrong. This could result in provision of services, including advice, for people at risk of becoming homeless being inappropriate to the need. Agencies like yours rely on being able to accurately demonstrate the level of prevention casework they provide to secure funding and contracts to carry on your service.
6.4 You could share identifying client details with other agencies, including the council. To avoid breaches of client confidentiality you need to seek client consent to share information. Good case management, referral arrangements and recording systems can reduce double counting to a rare occurrence.
6.5 The guidance here covers referrals of cases (or parts of cases) between you and other local agencies, including the council, and internal referrals to other caseworkers or projects within your agency, whether or not they report P1E figures.
6.6 It is essential that you know which other local agencies, including particular individuals, projects or departments (within the council), report P1E figures, so you know what to do if you need to either make or accept a referral. If there is any doubt, check the situation with the other agency at the time of the referral.
6.7 It is not good practice to continue to provide casework to a client on the same issue as another agency (including a council’s advice team but not council service provision), once the duplication became known. This is to avoid confusion for the client (who may receive conflicting advice) and for third parties (over who they should deal with as the client’s representative), and for contractual reasons, as funders will not pay for two agencies to do the same work on the same case.
6.8 You should, therefore, routinely ask clients if they have had advice in relation to the presenting and ancillary issue(s) from any other agency, including the council. If the client is being assisted by another agency, this should be noted in the case file. The client’s consent should then be sought to speak to the other agency to discuss overlaps of work on the case and possible referral. (Remember, a client is under no obligation to disclose contact with another advice agency and is within her/his rights to seek advice from any source available to her/him.)
6.9 If there is duplication of work, the client should be advised on which agency is better placed to assist with the issue, and referral arrangements for all or part of the case should be made.
6.10 Referralsto another agency may take placewhere the referring agency is unable to provide the service a client requires. The referring agency should contact the other agency, with the client’s consent, to arrange an appointment for her/him to be seen and assisted.
6.11 Depending on the nature of the case, the referring agency may discuss the client’s situation and needs with the potential receiving agency, to ensure that the referral is appropriate and can be accepted. An appointment is then made on the client’s behalf and arrangements to transfer any case documents held by the referring agency are agreed.
Where the referral of a whole case is made, the referring agency carries out no further work on the case.
6.12 An agency may refer part of a case where a specific specialism or service is required. The client may be referred to the other agency in the same way as above, for that part of the casework. In this situation, the referring agency continues to work on the appropriate parts of the case and is likely to liaise with the accepting agency, particularly where one part of the case affects the progress of another.
6.13 Signposting:when an agency signposts someone to another agency, s/he is simply given details for other suitable agencies for her/him to choose to contact or not.
6.14 Signposting would be appropriate if a client approaches the wrong sort of agency or needs help of a general nature, or needs help from an agency that is easily accessed by the general public. However, other than in these cases, referral represents better client care, as there is a greater likelihood of the client being sent to the right agency and of actually presenting there to get the help s/he needs.
6.15 The need for signposting or referral of the whole or part of a case may be identified either during an initial interview, before any substantive casework has been done, or after some casework has already been carried out.
6.16 Recording referral cases under P1E.With the client’s consent, a referring agency may ask the accepting agency to report back the outcome of a referral. This is not appropriate if the client is just signposted to another agency. The agency accepting a referral should be prepared to report back to the referring agency on the case outcome, again with the client’s consent.