Campbell Tickell, has been commissioned to co-ordinate liaison between Northern Ireland’s 38 homeless accomodation providers and statutory services.
As we all come together in staying apart from other people, small comforts can make a significant difference: another cup of tea, more wear of comfy slippers and extra time in the garden. But we cannot all enjoy these small comforts: the latest official statistics published in February 2020 estimate that 4,266 people sleep rough across England on a ‘typical’ night, with thousands more ‘hidden homeless’ people on top of this sleeping on sofas, living in unsuitable temporary accommodation or staying in shared hostel accommodation. In Northern Ireland, the latest figures indicate that 2,166 households were living in temporary accommodation on 3 July 2019. People in these situations often cannot safely self-isolate.
Homeless accommodation providers and statutory agencies in Northern Ireland have reacted quickly to support people without a stable home in this period of crisis, due to the spread of COVID-19. Campbell Tickell has been commissioned to co-ordinate liaison between Northern Ireland’s 38 homeless accommodation providers and statutory services: the Housing Executive, Public Health Agency, Health and Social Care and the Department for Communities. Nicola McCrudden, Senior Associate Consultant, is leading on this co-ordination. We are proud to be able to support these organisations in their crucial work to protect their service users and staff.
One of the immediate tasks has been to assist in interventions to tackle workforce challenges and keep services open. Last week, the Crisis Cover Initiative was launched, calling on people from across Northern Ireland to become ‘ordinary heroes’ by registering as emergency relief staff for homeless services. This has had an extremely positive response and we hope more people will continue to offer their time and skills.
We are facilitating ongoing discussions on other pressing topics, including the supply of personal protective equipment across the sector, testing for frontline workers and the sourcing of additional bed spaces. As a result of swift action by statutory agencies and providers, Communities Minister Deidre Hargey has been able to confirm that there has been no-one sleeping rough in Belfast or Derry for two weekends in a row. This is a fantastic achievement.
Through working together, we are certain that the sector will be able to continue their critical work to support homeless people safely and compassionately. We are hopeful that we will come out on the other side of this pandemic with a continued and strengthened commitment to ensure everyone has a safe, secure home of their own.
To discuss this article, contact Annie Field on : annie.field@campbelltickell.com or Nicola McCrudden on nicola.mccrudden@campbelltickell.com
| Campbell Tickell is an established multi-disciplinary management and recruitment consultancy, operating across the UK and Ireland, focusing on the housing, social care, local government, sport, leisure, charity and voluntary sectors.
We are a values-based business and firmly place the positioning of our support and challenge on helping organisations to attain change that is well thought through, planned and sustainable. At CT, we want to help organisations create the landscape within which we ourselves would like to exist: fair, inclusive, diverse, engaged and transparent. We build from our values in how we approach all our work as a practice. Find out more about CT’s Services |
