Kent Homeless Connect Consultation

Update 22 September 2022

Following the Adult Social Care Cabinet Committee on 13 July a decision has been taken to end of the Kent Homeless Connect service from 30 September 2022.

After this date, KCC have agreed to provide protection funding, to ensure continued support for people who use the service for at least the remainder of the financial year (2022/2023). Transitional plans are being drawn up with city, district and borough authorities and other stakeholders, in order that alternative arrangements for support in the future can be put in place.

The record of decision is available in the Documents section.

Update 21 July 2022

Thank you to everyone who took the time to participate in this consultation.

The consultation report is now available in the Documents section. The report was discussed by the Members of the Adult Social Care Cabinet Committee on the 13 July 2022.

The Kent Homeless Connect service went live in 2018 and the council put a contract in place with two providers to deliver it in every district in Kent for four years.

Homeless Connect provides:

• support to people in their own home to prevent them becoming homeless or to help to resettle people in their new home after a period of homelessness
• support in specially designated schemes such as homeless hostels
• outreach support to people who are rough sleeping
• welfare support to buy one-off items, like curtains or a bed, that can help to resettle people into their new home or to avoid homelessness.

The financial pressures on KCC’s budget mean that the council faces a very challenging time ahead, where tough decisions will need to be taken. The impact of this does unfortunately mean that the council is having to consider saving measures across a whole range of services.

To meet the financial challenge posed by the budget this year and in years to come, we are being asked to consider whether the county council could stop funding the Kent Homeless Connect service when the contract runs out on 30 September 2022, saving the council £2.5m in 2022 and £5m annually each year after that.

The council has made a commitment to provide transitional funding after the contract ends, for at least until the end of the 2022/23 financial year so that arrangements can be made with other organisations and councils to find new ways and funding to provide support to service users in the future.

The council has begun engaging with the Providers of the service and districts and boroughs partners to develop plans that set out what that future support could look like and how to achieve this, including identifying alternative sources of funding.

The consultation document provides details on the proposed change to Kent Homeless Connect and gives you the opportunity to tell us how this change could impact you.

We are particularly keen to hear from:

• People facing homelessness
• People who have been supported or are being supported by Kent Homeless Connect
• Friends, relatives, or carers of people facing homelessness
• Professionals supporting people facing or experiencing homelessness

Have your say

Before any decisions are made, we want to hear your views on:

• how the proposed change to Kent Homeless Connect could impact you
• the assumptions we have made in the draft Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA)
• any additional information that you think we need to consider about our approach and the proposals we have set out in this document.

Please let us know your views by completing the questionnaire below.

Alternatively, complete the Word questionnaire starting on page 12 of the consultation document and return by email or by post.

The responses to the consultation will be analysed and presented in a consultation report. This report will be published and presented, along with an updated EqIA, to the county council’s Cabinet for decision in July. It will also be presented to the council’s Adult Social Care Cabinet Committee in July. After this we will publish the decision that was made. Following the meeting, we will publish the decision on this page.