Objectives and Activities
Overview:
Pembrokeshire Care Society (PCS) which incorporates Pembrokeshire Action for
the Homeless (PATH) and Pathway Lettings (PL) was founded in 1979. Our service users are often the most
marginalised groups in society and the majority will receive very limited statutory assistance. We
attempt to manage the ever increasing demand on our services with the reduction in funding through innovation and change.
As an organisation serving Pembrokeshire people our success
is based on local knowledge and expertise in our field which allows us to provide the most cost effective service, within
the given resources, which has been acknowledged by individuals and independent audits as at an exceptional standard.
Our services
include housing and homeless advice assistance and advocacy both practical and legal, welfare and debt advice, administration
of bond schemes and tenancy support. We also now manage a number of properties through our Pathway Lettings
service. Although we work with all customer groups we continue to provide the majority
of our services to the non priority homeless. Pembrokeshire geographically comprises of a large rural
area with a number of large towns surrounded by villages and small rural communities. The difficulty of
‘provision of services to all’ remains one of our biggest challenges. We use a balance of outreach
surgeries, floating support, a free phone number and our travel warrant scheme to enable our customers a number of options
to access PCS services
During this year we had great difficulty in managing the enormous increase in the demand for our services.
Consequently we have had to accept that we can no longer operate our open door policy within our existing funding limits.
Discussion and planning is already underway to reduce the pressure on employees and make the best use of
current resources.
We
successfully retendered for the Generic Support Service which we have ran for the last four years. We
have worked closely with the Local Authority’s Supporting People Team to review and adapt this service to meet the changing
needs of the customers and Pembrokeshire. We have developed and now run additional services to make the
GSS a real asset to those customers with tenancy issues and those organisations working with them.
Due to the high demand for our core
services, during the year, we have had to put most of our development plans on hold. This strategy cannot
continue in the long term. We have had no option but to make major changes to our service delivery, bond
guarantees and restrictions to the level of service provided.
As in line with the majority
of similar organisations and public sectors we have frozen salaries for the second year running. All employees
have accepted this freeze and are wholly committed to reducing the impact on our customer group as funding issues become even
more challenging in the future years.
Achievements and Performance
This year we have had, yet again, an increase in the number of new clients seeking assistance. We
had expected our previous year’s change in service delivery strategy to have alleviated the unsustainable pressure on
our organisation. Unfortunately this was not the case and due to the constant increase in demand throughout
the year we had to make additional changes to service access and level of service provision to enable us to keep caseloads
at a manageable level. For our advice, assistance and Bond scheme services we had 1166 new customers
approached us for assistance our target figure of 800 was well surpassed. We also had 526 existing customers
from the previous year who were still working with us and a further 285 bond recipients still in situ and being provided with
follow up work. A total of 1977 customers have been provided with a service by PCS during the year.
In addition our Generic Support Service and SPRG support Service received 556 referrals of which 398 went on to receive
support. As more than 75% of referrals to our support services have already accessed our other core
services this is an additional 139 new customers. A total of 2116 customers were provided with a service
from PCS during the year.
We continue to hold the Legal Services Quality Mark and the results of other
external audits have been excellent. There is no change to our general ethos as we try to provide the best
service within the current resources whilst ensuring all caseloads are manageable.
Advice Assistance and Advocacy:
1166 new customers applied for assistance directly to this service. This service
is usually our first contact with those in need of our services and begins with our full assessment to identify and plan the
individual’s service needs. Of the 1166, 61% (709) are non priority single homeless or threatened
with homelessness, 39% (457) are priority groups and 20 were not yet classified. We have seen an increase
in debt related issues which has been the main reason for the request for assistance with housing or homeless problem.
Our aim is primarily prevention and we continue to believe that this is the most effective method of working for both
the customer and PCS.
Note: graph showing referral groups the SS referrals are
priority need with some having intentionally homeless decisions. For the statistics we also class all probation
referrals as priority need but many would be non priority homeless if they presented with the Local Authority.
Historic and
continuing trends show that white/Welsh-British remain the predominate ethnic group of our customers. Pembrokeshire
has a high percentage of white welsh/British residents in comparison to other Local Authority areas and this high white/British
trend continue throughout the majority of all Pembrokeshire’s services.
Customer statistical data remains relatively constant with
regard to age groups. The majority of our customers are aged between 18 and 25.
There is a small
shift back towards a majority male to female client ratio.
Male
55% (637) - Female 45% (529).
Our Service Level Agreements remain fairly constant. The Social
Services Leaving Care agreement of which we had historically included other Social Service groups was affected by our change
in service delivery implemented during the year. We did however still surpass our set targets.
This current three year SLA has only one year to run and we will be discussing with the Leaving Care Team the likelihood
of this being continued as funding becomes more difficult for all.
The Probation SLA which has been a long term agreement and renewed on an annual
basis may also be at risk as the Probation Service overall funds are being cut. We have again surpassed
our targets set in the SLA but have had to restrict the additional work that we have previously provided to Probation customers
due to the overall increase in demand for our services. We have already informed Probation that we will
require confirmation of continuation within three months of the end of the contract to ensure employees contractual requirements
can be met.
We continue to work closely with the LA’s homeless and prevention teams. There are obvious
challenges to funding for both organisations but together we aim to make the best use of Pembrokeshire’s current resources.
The Assisted Tenancy Scheme which has provided Bonds for homeless priority groups and the Prevention Team’s Extended
Scheme which has assisted in prevention of homelessness by way of a bond has allowed us to assist 58 priority groups to secure
accommodation in the private rental sector. Our aim of affordable sustainable accommodation ensures that
everyone we assist will have been through an affordability test and payment methods are in place.
Debt Advice:
Our debt advice is now well integrated into our holistic approach to homelessness
and homeless prevention work. This year’s referrals were 634 and increase from last year’s
566 putting additional pressure on the service. As previously negotiated, due to the higher demand as was
originally expected, we continue to provide low level and intermediate level services to a higher number of referrals rather
than in depth debt services to a limited number. We have well developed referral procedures to other organisation
who can assist and we also only provide the debt service to those with a homeless or threatened with homeless status.
Supporting People:
Supporting People Grant Scheme (SPG) Generic Support Service (GSS)
We applied and were successful with our re tender for the GSS. The
existing service will change to the new service on the 1st June 2011, we expect this change to be seamless as there
are very few changes required. This service has been operating for four years and we have seen the benefits
of low level support not only to our own customers but to those of other agencies both statutory and voluntary who have customers
with tenancy related problems. We received this year 556 referrals to the GSS of which 398 attended for
assessment and were offered support. We on average work with 234 customers in any four week period.
Supporting People Revenue Grant Scheme (SPRG)
Our longstanding specialist floating support scheme continues to provide a high
level of support. We previously reconfigured the service to give a more efficient and cost effective service.
All referrals come from our GSS and are identified whilst low level support is being provided.
Our Main Office:
Our main base in Haverfordwest remains the hub of operations. We are again
unfortunately outgrowing the facilities but due to funding restrictions are unable to re-locate or take over further rooms
in the building. We took over 11,000 telephone calls held over 1800 booked interviews and provided
interviews for an additional 628 who dropped in and were seen by the duty caseworker.
Appointment Times:
As we firmly believe that time is important to both customers and the organisation
we offer a service delivery commitment to our customers. Anyone with a booked appointment would not have
to wait longer than 15 minutes to see their caseworker. We have again been 100% successful in achieving
this commitment with the exception of customers who have not arrived at the arranged time and for those without appointments
who drop in and access our duty worker as demand dictates waiting times.
Outreach Advice Centres:
Our target to provide 120 outreach advice surgeries during the year was again surpassed. We
provided 186 outreach advice surgeries during the year. We continue to provide our services in Milford
Haven, Pembroke Dock and Fishguard. We also provide a weekly service for probation customers in the local
probation office. This enables probation officers, ex-offenders and PCS housing advisors to work closely together.
Duty Worker:
We continue to provide a duty worker during our core opening times. Although we encourage appointments
whenever possible we are fully aware that housing and homeless issues can arise and require immediate advice and intervention.
This is more apparent with the non priority homeless as they have no safety net with regard to temporary accommodation.
We were able to provide a duty worker for 95% of our core opening hours.
Bond Scheme and RIA:
We this year have had to reduce the number of bonds we administer in line with
funding cuts. This enforced change of reduction in bonds and our need to reduce our overall bond liability
to ensure that we can remain within our claim liability budget has been partly successful. Unfortunately
we have had to decline some customers the offer of a bond guarantee.
This year we administered a total of 162 bonds and reached
all our SLA targets. We have reduced our own liability to £48,000 the difference between the total
liabilities of £85615 being stood by other agencies. We will continue to reduce PCS’s liability
during the following years.
The graph below shows only 7 probation bonds but we have actually administered 14 ex offender
bonds the additional bonds have been logged under an alternative statutory agency heading as we do not want to distort other
statistical information and we are able to produce more accurate priority and non priority statistics.
PATH forum:
The forum continues to encourage new members to the
quarterly meetings the four meetings held during the year covered the issues around ‘How do you access Social Housing
in Pembrokeshire?’, ‘Substance Use or Misuse?’ & ‘How will the Housing Benefit Changes affect
the people you are working with?’. A meeting was also held where forum members had an opportunity to raise local housing
issues with the newly appointed Housing Manager of Pembrokeshire County Council.
Resettlement
Work:
The nature of our work and the often chaotic lifestyle
of a small percentage of our customers require us to provide a quick response and crisis interventions service which we now
provide under our resettlement service. This service is often repeatedly utilised by the same customers
who only engage when a crisis arises. The service is limited to availability of a caseworker which this
year, due to the high demand for our other services has been more restricted. We have however intervened
at some level on 1592 times.
Crisis Donations:
We continue our partnership
with PATCH (Pembrokeshire Action to Combat Hardship) a local based charity that specialises in the distribution
of crisis donations using volunteers continues. The partnership benefits both
organisations with PCS being able to reduce the time spent on managing our donations which can now be used to provide
our other services. We continue to raise awareness and fundraise locally for the necessary items
required by homeless people and those setting up a new tenancy whilst PATCH prepares the donation pack which we collect and
distribute.
Furniture Grant Scheme:
We assisted twelve clients move into their unfurnished accommodation with the aid of a furniture
grant. Unfortunately due to limited funds this is only to a maximum value of £150 per client. This money was then used
to purchase items which allow them a basic living ‘standard’, this consists of a bed, seating, table and a microwave.
We are very fortunate to have an excellent working relationship with Pembrokeshire Frame and this enables us to purchase second
hand furniture at a discounted rate enabling us to maximise the money available.
Travel Warrant Scheme:
The Travel Warrant Scheme enables clients to access public transport enabling them to attend appointments
at our main office in Haverfordwest or at one of our many Advice Centres across the County. We continue to provide this service
for the Local Authority Social Care and Housing Department, West Wales Careers, Probation Service, Social Services over 15’s
Team, Drug Intervention Programme, Youth Offending Team, Princes Trust and the Prolific & Priority Offenders all use this
scheme and reimburse PCS for the travel costs incurred by their clients.
Freephone:
Our freephone service is available for anyone who is homeless, it is often the only way they can access
advice and assistance. We hope to retain this service in the future but costs may be prohibitive to this
aim we have tried this year to reduce access to this service for those customers in the most need.
Fundraising Events:
Easter Draw
Christmas Draw
Homelessness Sunday
Client Database and Intranet:
The Client Database continues to evolve and is an invaluable tool in ensuring caseworkers have instant access to client
information and also to provide accurate statistical data for all funders. The intranet also allows for ease of access to
all relevant information needed in providing our services.
And finally our thanks to all who have supported
our organisation:
Without the continued support and funding we receive
we would not be in a position to provide any of our services. To funders and individuals who have and continue
to support us we thank you on behalf of Pembrokeshire Care Society and all our customers.
Special Thanks to
Welsh Assembly
Government For your continued funding and support
Our Landlord Pool
Continued support for our clients
Probation Service
Partnership Agreement
Social Services Department
Partnership Agreement
Housing Department
Partnership Agreement
Careers Office
The use of your offices for outreach centres/
PATH forum meetings and distribution of our
Travel Warrants
McDonalds
Meal Vouchers
Bus Companies
Accepting our Travel Warrants Scheme
Frame
Discounts on purchases
Meadow Carpets
Discounts on purchases
Local Churches
Your continued donations and thoughts
Local Rotary
Your continued donations and thoughts
The local people of Pembrokeshire Continuation of
your donations of food and
Items which assist our clients to set up home.
Training Courses Conferences and Meetings Attended:
document and as described in the Achievements and Performance section of this report.
Where clients are in need of assistance to purchase basic furniture for their new accommodation
or require initial financial assistance to budget for their transfer to independent living, grants for furniture and/or food
are available.
The Society acts as guarantor
for the bonds required by landlords from their clients. Whilst no payment is made initially, on many occasions the landlords
call on the guarantee and funds are made available by the Society.
