We began managing the Tenancy Sustainment Team in north London (TST North) in April 2016. This covers 16 London boroughs. Between April 2016 and March 2017, staff supported more than 800 people with sustaining their accommodation, better health and enabling access to Education, Training and Employment (ETE).
The service is contracted as payments by results. As examples of what’s been achieved:
- One target outcome was that 80% of those people assessed as having High Support needs maintain their tenancy for one year. The team achieved 84% for this outcome.
- Another target was that, in this first year of the contract, 15% of clients would attain or maintain employment. In total, 170 clients were in employment, meaning a 20% achievement outcome.
- Another was that the 95% of tenants actively on the caseload would sustain their tenancy. For all four quarters of 2016-17 a 97% tenancy sustainment was achieved.
- Of 187 people with a substance misuse support need, about 60% were linked in with services and were engaging meaningfully, and 20% were engaging sporadically. About 45% were reported as being currently abstinent from substances.
- Another performance target was for 95% of people to be registered with a local GP. At the end of 2016-17, the team had achieved 99% local GP registration. Of 704 people with a physical health support need, by the end of the year only nine were not engaging with any treatment at all.
Within 2016-17, at any one point, we had up to six clients who were not accepted by mental health services. Through staff training and partnership working with EASL, we ensured that staff have access to trained mental health professionals who have made one to one client interventions and ensured that we have brought this number down to zero.
Positive move on is part of the work of the team. Given pressure on housing in the South East, people are being asked to consider moving to the north of England. However, the team were finding that, even though interested, people were choosing to stay in London. We therefore started regular move on groups and events focused around choices and how to prepare successfully for moving on, which are being well-attended by clients.
Employment is another. One client we supported moved into his accommodation in May 2016. When he initially moved in he wanted to spend time settling into the area and his flat and was not motivated to find work, or do any courses. Following contact from the ETE team, he agreed to meet to discuss his ambition to become a reiki practitioner. Since March 2017 the team supported him to access a level 1 and 2 certified Reiki course which he has successfully completed and enables him to join the Reiki Guild and get insurance to work professionally as a Reiki therapist.
