The new NHS plan for mental health services has a clear offer for people sleeping rough

For organisations who have campaigned for many years on homeless health, the NHS Mental Health Implementation Plan is a cause for celebration. Beatrice Orchard, St Mungo’s Head of Policy, Campaigns and Research, explains why the plan must deliver on its ambition to make sure everyone sleeping rough can access the mental health support they need.

When the Government’s Rough Sleeping Strategy was published exactly one year ago by MHCLG, there were some positive signs that other government departments would also be doing their bit to reverse the dramatic rise in the number of people sleeping rough in England.

One of the most solid commitments was in relation to improving mental health support for people who are sleeping on the streets. Last month, the details of this commitment became clearer when the NHS Mental Health Implementation Plan was published.

The plan is clear that by 2023-24, 20 areas with high levels of rough sleeping will have established new specialist mental health provision for people sleeping rough, which will be made possible with £30m of central NHS funding invested for this specific purpose.

This is a fantastic result for St Mungo’s Stop the Scandal campaign and our continued efforts to press the Government for investment in specialist mental health services to ensure people sleeping rough can access the support they need.

Sleeping rough and mental health – the links

It is fairly easy to understand that sleeping rough has a negative impact on a person’s mental health and wellbeing, as well as their physical health.

Evidence shows people sleeping rough are 17 times more likely to be victims of violence compared to the general population. News reports describe horrifying attacks and abuse on people sleeping rough and our clients tell us about their experiences of feeling lonely, frightened and even suicidal.

Furthermore, we mustn’t overlook the fact that some people sleeping rough have already been through many traumatic experiences in their lives, including violence and abuse from a young age.

All of these experiences can cause mental health problems to develop or worsen, but also impact on the type of mental health support people need and how easy they find services to access.

New avenues into support

The new, NHS-funded, specialist services will make sure that people sleeping rough can access to clinical mental health support by integrating with existing homeless outreach, accommodation and physical healthcare services.

They will be required to adopt a trauma-informed approach, known to help improve the psychological and emotional wellbeing of people with complex needs. We also expect the new services to help people who have drug and alcohol problems and are currently excluded from some mainstream mental health services as a result.

This specialist support breaks down all of the barriers people sleeping rough often face when trying to get help to improve their mental health. Really effective specialist teams can also influence mainstream health services in their local area, encouraging them to become more knowledgeable and understanding of the needs of people who are sleeping rough.

So far, so good. But what about people sleeping rough in other areas not in receipt of this new funding?

A welcome step forward

Research shows 4 in 10 people sleeping rough in England have an identified mental health problem. The latest data from the CHAIN reports on rough sleeping in London shows 50% of people sleeping rough in the capital in 2018-19 had a mental health support need.

It is welcome, therefore, that the new plan for mental health requires all areas of the country to complete a mental health needs assessment for people sleeping rough and take action to increase access to mental health services for this group.

This new approach to mental health for people sleeping rough is a real step forward.

Specialist mental health services have been tried in the past. We know they can make a dramatic difference to individuals’ lives, and help to reduce rough sleeping by supporting people to move on from homelessness for good.

Better still, it doesn’t stop with specialist services this time. Instead all NHS services will need to think about how people sleeping rough can access the healthcare they need in order to rebuild their lives.

St Mungo’s will be watching closely and encouraging all areas to ensure the plan delivers.

Ending homelessness? Fund domestic abuse services

In May, the Government announced proposals for a new legal duty to help secure the future of domestic abuse refuges. With partners from across the housing, homelessness and women’s sectors, St Mungo’s is calling for support for survivors facing homelessness.

Photo fo Cat Glew, Women's Strategy Manager for St Mungo's St Mungo’s helps thousands of women and men find a home away from the dangers of the street. But home isn’t always a safe place.

Many St Mungo’s clients are survivors of domestic abuse. St Mungo’s data from 2016 shows that at least 54% of our female residents with a history of rough sleeping had experienced violence or abuse from a partner or family member. A 2015 study found that as many as 92% of homeless women had experienced violence or abuse during their lifetime.

Creating safety for people facing harm from those they love and trust is a serious challenge. St Mungo’s works with specialist domestic abuse organisations who support our clients, so we welcome proposals to try to provide a more certain future for domestic abuse services.

Working with housing, domestic abuse and homelessness partners, we have responded to the Government’s consultation on future support for survivors of domestic abuse.

We need a strong, specialist domestic abuse sector who can work with survivors facing homelessness. Only then can Government hope to achieve its aims to end rough sleeping and support all survivors of domestic abuse.

But why would improving domestic abuse support help end homelessness?

1. Domestic abuse puts survivors at risk of homelessness – and vice versa

A third of female St Mungo’s clients say that domestic abuse contributed to their homelessness. Escaping domestic abuse can force survivors to make an impossible choice – live with abuse, or face homelessness.

Trying to keep safe while homeless can also be risky. A study by the University of York for St Mungo’s found that women are often hidden homeless: staying with friends, family, or strangers who expect sex in return for shelter.

Women who do sleep rough can form intimate relationships on the street in order to survive – but relying on a partner for protection can expose survivors to escalating abuse and control.

2. Lack of funding and support is forcing survivors to sleep rough

Funding for refuges and other life-saving domestic abuse services has suffered severe cuts. English local authorities cut spending on refuges by nearly a quarter between 2010 and 2017.

In 2016-17, Women’s Aid found that 60% of referrals to refuges could not be accepted. One in 10 women supported by their No Woman Turned Away project were forced to sleep rough whilst waiting for a refuge space.

3. Support for survivors facing multiple disadvantage is in short supply

Survivors with mental health, drug or alcohol problems are less likely to be able to access specialist domestic abuse services, who are rarely resourced to support them safely.

Women’s Aid research found that 31% of women with mental health problems and 65% of women with substance use problems were refused an available refuge space because of their needs.

SafeLives found that survivors facing multiple disadvantage may be unable to work with local domestic abuse services if they do not have a phone or cannot attend regular appointments.

Survivors with no access to public funds because of their immigration status are excluded from most domestic abuse accommodation because they are not eligible for housing benefit to cover the rent.

4. Survivors without a safe home are left in danger

Under the current legislation, survivors of domestic abuse approaching their local council for help are not automatically considered to be in priority need for housing. Instead, people are required to prove they are additionally vulnerable in order to be owed the ‘main homelessness duty’ – and access to settled accommodation.

Evidence shows that survivors found not to be owed the duty are more likely to return to a dangerous situation. Some end up rough sleeping, sofa-surfing or living in unsuitable temporary accommodation where they are at further risk of abuse and are removed from services that could support them.

Calling for change

The Government has proposed a new duty on local authorities to assess local need and commission domestic abuse accommodation.

It’s a good start, but Government must also confirm ring fenced funding to support those services. The proposed definition must be made clearer to make sure that specialist refuges are rebuilt and protected.

Every survivor deserves support, and we think Government should also provide separate future funding for specialist domestic abuse outreach services to work with survivors facing homelessness.

A new programme of investment in homelessness services is also badly needed. As part of this, we need women-only homelessness accommodation in every part of the country as a safe route away from the streets.

And of course, automatic priority need should be extended to all survivors, so that anyone fleeing domestic abuse in England is guaranteed a safe home.

Creating change for women facing homelessness

St Mungo’s has published a new three year ‘Women’s Strategy’ setting out how we plan to improve our services for women and influence policy on women’s homelessness. Our Women’s Strategy Manager Cat Glew introduces our approach.

Five years ago St Mungo’s published our ground-breaking Rebuilding Shattered Lives research into women’s homelessness. We found that homelessness services are often designed with men in mind, and were often failing to support women effectively.

Sadly, it remains the case that women facing homelessness are still at a disproportionate risk of harm from those they love and trust, alongside the existing dangers of homelessness. Since 2014 a growing body of evidence has highlighted the connections between women’s experiences of violence and abuse, poor physical and mental health, substance use and homelessness.

According to the latest figures, 642 women sleep rough on any one night in England, up from 509 in 2016. Many more women are likely to be experiencing hidden homelessness – seeking shelter with abusive partners, squatting or sofa surfing with friends and family – so may be missing from the statistics.

Women’s homelessness often occurs after prolonged experiences of trauma, including physical, sexual and emotional abuse by those closest to them. Violence and abuse are both a cause and consequence of women’s homelessness, with women experiencing further abuse, exploitation and violence while homeless.

Women-only spaces are a matter of safety for many women. Despite this, just 7% of homelessness services in England offer women-only provision, according to data from Homeless Link.

Our greatest challenge and our most important aim is to create an environment of physical and psychological safety for women in homelessness services. We’ll be working hard to make sure that each of our female clients has a safe place to live and has every reason to feel safe in our services.

We know that funding for women-specific work is falling, but we also understand that our female clients cannot wait for the Government to prioritise women’s homelessness.

As a homelessness charity, it is our responsibility to make sure that we are achieving the best possible outcomes with women, as well as men. We have made the decision to make women’s safety and women’s recovery a priority. Our new Women’s Strategy sets out some ambitious aims that will help us improve our practice and influence government policy.

Our ambitions for the next three years include:

Offering women-only services and spaces as an option for all female clients, at every stage of their recovery
Supporting and equipping St Mungo’s staff to better recognise and respond to violence and abuse
Improving rough sleeping services so that they are even safer and more effective for women
Working with specialist agencies to offer individual support to women around domestic and sexual abuse

There’s plenty to do, but I’m really looking forward to working with all our clients, staff and partners to make our ideas a reality. Listening to the ideas and experiences of St Mungo’s women is an amazing privilege and the very best part of my job. I hope that partners, politicians and the public will read our strategy and join us as we create change with women facing homelessness.

Read our brand new women’s strategy here

‘A place for strong women – for 25 years’

This July we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the opening of St Mungo’s North London’s Women’s project. Julia Jarrett MBE, project manager of the women-only service, and Olivia Smith, deputy manager, talk about how the project supports its residents to make positive changes in their lives.

Julia: “I was working for St Mungo’s when the North London Women’s project opened 25 years ago, in July 1993. It was such a big thing to have a women-only project.”

Olivia: “One of the things we emphasise here is about feeling safe. In an all-female hostel, our residents know that they’re safe, their ex-partner not being here, they’re not going to feel that harassment or abuse from them. We support 31 women at any one time. Our residents can be fleeing domestic violence or abusive relationships. Some women may have mental health problems or be tackling alcohol and substance use as well.”

Julia: “Having also worked in mixed hostels, that’s one of the main difference in services. Women here might experience the same complex issues but they handle them in a different way to men. A lot of the women here have had quite traumatic experiences in their lives around men, which may go back to childhood. Sometimes the men they are trying to escape find them and try to get them back into a lifestyle that is not good for their physical and mental health. Having this women-only space, where they don’t feel harassed or get abuse from men is safer for them.”

Re-establishing contact

Olivia: “Also, a lot of the women have lost their children or they’re in care or with guardians. One of the things we support women with is to establish contact, whether it’s by letter, or to re-establish contact with extended family who are looking after their child, or contact with social services. It’s not always a happy ending but at least we can help.

“We also work with women who have a history of involvement in prostitution. We work with women who have been raped and who then come to us the next day to tell us that they have been sexually assaulted by a pimp. You have to work through that trauma with them. Sometimes this can take a toll on the team, but we are not easily fazed. The amount of work our team put into supporting women with horrific complex trauma is testament to their dedication.”

Julia: “I’ve worked with people who had been given up on completely. People said they’re never going to change or they’re going to die. Next thing you know they have a partner, a flat and kids. It can take somebody decades to change. We keep the atmosphere quite laid back, focus on building up good relationships.

“We’ve just finished some trauma informed training. I want the service to be more trauma informed and staff to have a better understanding when women behave the way they do, that there is reason they do that. We’re also looking at PIEs (psychologically informed environments), focusing on making the hostel friendlier and more welcoming to improve people’s psychological and emotional wellbeing.”

The small things that count

Olivia: “Sometimes it’s the small things that count. Sometimes it’s about making their lives a little richer. Sometimes you can do that with a small amount of food and general basic items. You don’t have to do the heavy things a lot of the time; it’s just being there and having a listening ear because you don’t know what’s best for the client. The client knows what’s best. If someone doesn’t want to engage with recovery at the initial stage, I’m fine with that, as long as long as they are feeling safe. We can offer support and comfortable and safe surroundings. But if they are willing to engage in their recovery journey and willing to receive support from staff, hopefully we can move them on to a richer life.

“Some of the highlights for me have been the two photo calendars we did with the women. We were also involved in producing the Pregnancy Toolkit for expectant mothers who are homeless. That was quite inspirational. It’s also the little moments. If the client gives you a compliment about the work we’ve done with them. That’s what’s is moving for me. That ‘thank you’. Sometimes we get external agencies especially with clients who have been referred and have very complex trauma and they thank us for our work, our patience and tolerance, and how we’re willing to work through women’s journeys with them.”

Recovery isn’t a quick fix

Julia: “Recovery isn’t a quick fix. People forget that and they want to move people too fast or if they’re not doing this or not doing that, they’re not going to change. People do change. You just need to give people time. We’re not on a schedule.

“Olivia does a lot of mindfulness and yoga with clients and staff. Sometimes the issues of the women here can lead to burn out and other consequences. The women who work here are so committed to the women that live here. I think we are quite resilient women ourselves. To work here, you have to have sorted out your own issues.

“We marked the 25th anniversary with a small party, food and music for residents and staff, to celebrate what the women themselves have achieved, and the project, over that time. The project is for strong women – and it’s still standing, still going strong.”

Hope from terrible tragedies

Niamh Brophy is St Mungo’s Palliative Care Coordinator. We are the only homeless organisation to have such a person, supporting both clients and staff with ‘end of life’ experiences.

For most of us, I hope Dying Matters Week is an opportunity to talk to our loved ones about death and the things that feel important to us: where we’d like to be cared for (for most of us it would be at ‘home’), and how we’d like to be remembered by our loved ones.

But what if you don’t have a home? And what if you don’t have a family or support network to have these conversations with?

This is the reality for the rising numbers of people experiencing homelessness. For many, their death will go ignored, not given the dignity or respect they are due, and with little planning given to their end of life wishes or preferences.

This year’s Dying Matters Week (14-20 May) comes at a particularly poignant time. Recently, news that the number of deaths of people sleeping rough has more than doubled in the past five years shocked the public.

These are individuals dying in car parks, on street corners and park benches, with no one around to support them as their lives draw to a close. This is desperately sad, and something most of us would think completely unacceptable in our society today.

But from these terrible tragedies has sprung some hope. Campaigns have been launched to address and prevent these deaths from happening in future such as the #makethemcount campaign.

Ed Davey MP has also proposed a new Homelessness End of Life Care Bill that aims to ensure people do not die homeless and alone on the streets, but have access to care and accommodation for the end of their life.

At St Mungo’s we contributed to both of these initiatives. But more work is needed to ensure people get access to the care they need. That’s why we’re calling on the Government to ensure a review is carried out every time someone dies on the street, as part of their new rough sleeping strategy. This would ensure deaths no longer go ignored, and that lessons can be learnt to ensure such tragedies are not repeated.

St Mungo’s were also involved in research published last year that explored the unique challenges in providing end of life care to people in hostels. What emerged was a picture of great complexity, but also plenty of opportunity to improve the experience of residents and staff when faced with such difficult situations.

It’s now a decade since St Mungo’s first acknowledged the importance of providing end of life care to people who are homeless by establishing a Palliative Care role.

In response to the increase in need of our residents, and the growing numbers of people dying on the streets, we will be expanding the service in 2018 and recruiting another member of staff to ensure all residents can be supported and cared for in the way that feels right for them.

We continue to work every day to ensure our residents can access healthcare and be supported to approach the end of their life with dignity and respect. This Dying Matters week, we would encourage everyone to start a conversation on how we as a society can prevent the unnecessary deaths of people sleeping rough, as well as how we treat homeless individuals with dignity as they approach the end of their life.

Towards a new rough sleeping strategy

Beatrice Orchard, St Mungo’s Head of Policy, Campaigns and Research, writes about our priorities as the Homelessness Reduction Act and other measures seek to end homelessness

The Homelessness Reduction Act comes into force today. This is a landmark piece of legislation with the potential to have a hugely positive impact on the lives of many more people who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, compared to the previous system. It places new duties on local authorities to help prevent and relieve homelessness for people regardless of ‘priority need’ criteria.

This follows news last week of a new initiative to reduce rough sleeping and a decision to reinstate entitlement to housing benefit for all 18-21 year olds. These are very welcome steps towards ending the misery of sleeping rough, an aim that surely unites us all.

In 2016, we at St Mungo’s launched our Stop the Scandal campaign calling for a new national strategy to end rough sleeping and this is what we want to see next.

The government has committed to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and to eliminate it altogether by 2027. To meet this pledge, a ministerial taskforce has been established to produce a new rough sleeping strategy. A Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel made up of homeless sector representatives, including St Mungo’s, is providing guidance to this ministerial taskforce.

Rough sleeping has increased by 169% since 2010. On any given night, 4,751 people sleep rough in England.

Behind these stark figures are people who are living each day at risk of violence, abuse and serious ill health. We have evidence of this from the people themselves, from our outreach teams and our research with people who have experienced rough sleeping. Put simply, it is a scandal.

That’s why it is good to see a sense of urgency from the government.

We agree immediate action is needed to move people off the streets and out of danger. Effective outreach services are part of this. So is emergency accommodation and access to mental health and substance use treatment and support. This must also be aligned with measures to prevent people sleeping rough in the first place and long term support to ensure people don’t return to the street.

The new strategy must protect and expand existing services, which support people off the streets. That includes supported housing, which is the primary route out of rough sleeping for people who need both a safe place to stay and support to recover from homelessness and associated problems, including poor health and experience of violence and abuse.

However, the government’s current proposals to change the way homeless hostels and other short term supported housing is funded puts the future of these life-saving services at risk.

As rough sleeping continues to rise nationally, available places in supported housing have fallen due to major cuts in local authority funding. Research by Homeless Link found there was an 18% reduction in bed spaces in homelessness accommodation between 2010 and 2016.

Despite this, the government now wants local authorities to become responsible for funding the housing costs in hostels, in addition to the support services which councils are already struggling to fund.

Instead, we think the government should adjust its plans in line with calls from the supported housing sector and continue to provide funding for housing costs via the welfare system.

Beyond this, ministers will need to consider the role for innovative approaches, such as Housing First, which has proven successful for ending rough sleeping among those with the most complex problems. Government investment in three Housing First pilots is, again, welcome, but ministers will need to establish long term funding arrangements to make this approach work.

An integrated rough sleeping strategy will also need to be underpinned by a legal framework to help ensure services benefit from sustainable funding and can respond to fluctuations in demand. The Homelessness Reduction Act is a good start, using new legal duties to shift the focus of councils in England towards providing help to prevent homelessness in the first place.

But if the Act is to be a success, councils must be able to help those in danger of sleeping rough find the right housing and support. Sadly, the reality is the unacceptable shortage of affordable housing options for too many people, and this is another long term challenge for the ministerial taskforce.

St Mungo’s has always supported people to move off the streets into accommodation and to access the services that can help them rebuild their lives. This can take days, weeks, sometimes years.

We don’t think it is an easy challenge the government has accepted, but we share their ambition of ending rough sleeping and welcome the opportunity to help get on with it.

Here’s to 2018 and Thank You

St Mungo’s Chief Executive, Howard Sinclair, reflects on the achievements by clients, staff and volunteers this year and looks ahead to 2018.

This time of year – however you mark the holidays – can be a time of reflection, gratitude and goodwill.

Reflecting on 2017, I’ve been thinking about our clients’ achievements this year.

Mandy (pictured centre), for example. Her story has included mental health issues, family relationship breakdown and sleeping rough.

Mandy now lives in a St Mungo’s project in Islington which is for people who need some support. She’s also connected in with our client representative group Outside In and our innovative Recovery College. In Mandy’s blog she wrote: “I am at a turning point in my life, where my life is more positive. I can honestly say I am doing things I never thought I would do. If it wasn’t for St Mungo’s I would most likely be dead, they saved my life.”

On 21 June 2017 she and her friend Claire, who is also a client at St Mungo’s, led a team of St Mungo’s clients and staff up Snowdon. Between them they raised over £40,000 for St Mungo’s.

It was a tremendous thing to do and a privilege to hear her talk about it at our Carol Concert this year. My very best wishes to her and all of the Snowdon Challenge team. Please do read more about what they accomplished and why.

And Paul (pictured right). He’s an apprentice in our Housing First scheme in Brighton. This year he told us: “I have peace of mind, a safe home, a pound in my pocket, food in the cupboard and good friends – that’s a world beyond my wildest dreams.”

My congratulations to him and all those involved in our award-winning apprenticeship scheme for people with lived experience of homelessness. Apprentices like Garry (pictured left), who works in one of our projects for people with mental health needs.

He told us about his new role: “It feels really good that I’m helping people to recover – it’s that old cliché ‘giving something back’. I’m being a resource rather than using the resource.”

I agree with his sentiment that: “There’s outside stuff beyond St Mungo’s where frustrations lie, for example, things that should be different with the government, but you have to work with what you’ve got. There are only some things you can impact.”

We live in a complicated world, where homelessness is rising and, without more joined up national and local strategies, the concern is that welfare changes, lack of affordable accommodation and other social factors may see even more of a rise in rough sleeping and homelessness.

But homelessness is not inevitable. In 2018 I will be sitting on the Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel, made up of people from charities and local government. Our role is to support a new Ministerial Taskforce, which brings together ministers from key departments to provide a cross-government approach to preventing rough sleeping and homelessness. I will be making sure our client voices are heard as we feedback on ways we can work together to end homelessness and rebuild people’s lives.

Thank you to our clients, staff and amazing volunteers and supporters for their dedication and commitment this year. May I wish you all a happy and peaceful holiday. Here’s to 2018.

Five ‘giant evils’ of 1940s still exist for today’s homeless

The welfare state was established to fight the five ‘giant evils’ Lord Beveridge identified in his 1942 report. 70 years on, is the welfare state just as spritely when it comes to vanquishing those giant evils? Denis, from St Mungo’s client representative group Outside In, doesn’t think so: “The five evils are still evils in today’s society. They still continue.” Tanya English, St Mungo’s Executive Director of Communications, examines some client perspectives and considers our response…

Giant evil #1: Squalor

Beveridge wanted to break the cycle of poverty, where health problems caused by inadequate housing restricted people’s ability to work. Today, thousands of people still end up sleeping on the streets each year:

“On many occasions I woke up and I’ve been covered in snow” Mark, 37

“When I woke up sometimes, my foot would be so frozen that I wouldn’t move it until it proper thaws out because it felt like I had frost bites and my hands were hurting because it was so cold” Michael, 31

Giant evil #2: Ignorance

Beveridge thought that higher social classes were ignorant of the problems affecting communities. Our clients still experience this prejudice:

“[Homeless people are] treated bad. Low life, dirty junkie, prostitutes, worthless dogs, but we’re not. We haven’t committed a crime; we’ve just had a bit of bad luck and made a terrible mistake, you know?” Linda, 52

“I think people who have problems with the homeless…whatever problems they’ve had, however they end up that way; I personally think [people] should consider them a bit more. Whether you’re homeless or not you’re still human beings at the end of the day. We are all still human beings.” Leon, 36

Giant evil #3: Want

Beveridge was concerned with ensuring everyone in society had what they needed to survive. Unfortunately, many people who are homeless feel they have to resort to crime just to be able to eat:

“[Homelessness] actually turned me to crime and…I’m a bit ashamed because I’ve caused a lot of damage to properties having to steal lead and that was just to survive… when you get your dole money if it doesn’t last or you get robbed, you’re going to find it very, very, very hard. I found that very, very difficult to, you know, to get a meal most days.” Stuart, 44

Giant evil #4: Idleness

Beveridge called for training and work centres to be set up across the country to help everyone find a job. Although many people who are homeless would prefer to work, many still struggle with overcoming bureaucratic hurdles:

“[When] you do go for a new job you say, ‘I’ve been homeless; this is why I’ve been out of work’, they just say, ‘What have you been doing?’” Michael, 30

“I was at the job centre. Loads and loads of work, but it was the same answer every time I picked the phone up, ‘We need proof of your address in London’” Jason, 39

Giant evil #5: Disease

Beveridge believed that tackling health issues was central to helping people out of poverty. Health is a significant barrier to work for a number of people who we help:

“I’ve nearly been killed three times doing [prostitution]. I’ve been raped doing it. I’ve… as a result of that I got HIV doing it.” Angela, 38

“Some people don’t understand [depression]… A lot of the time I have kept myself to myself. It’s only recently I’ve started to push myself out there a bit more. But even still there’s stigma. Any hint that you’ve got this, especially when I’ve been in the mental hospital, people think straight away strait jackets; nutjob.” Michael, 30

At a time of great financial uncertainty, Britain’s welfare system was set up to direct limited resources towards those who needed them most. Now in the middle of another financial crisis 70 years later, those who are most vulnerable are still tumbling through the gaps in the safety net to the streets below. Our response must be to strengthen the net, not cut more holes.

(more…)

Go back