Countywide (Gloucestershire) Assertive Outreach Homelessness Service

The wider Gloucestershire Grouping, comprising of Cotswold District Council, Cheltenham Borough Council, Forest of Dean District Council, Gloucester City Council, Stroud District Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council, commissioned St Mungo’s charity to deliver a rough sleepers assertive outreach team from April 2015 to September 2016, following a tender process.

This was to bolster front line provision to prevent homelessness, rough sleeping and to support the national roll out of the ‘No Second Night Out’ (NSNO) initiative, and was funded by a grant from the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

Outreach includes having regular contact with rough sleepers and those at threat of rough sleeping, assessing and determining individual needs, and delivering a person-centred plan that enables the individual to make a sustainable move away from the streets.

This tender is to continue this outreach work, from 1st January 2017 and will be funded by a partnership of the 6 district councils above, Gloucestershire County Council, Gloucestershire’s Clinical Commissioning Group, and Gloucestershire’s Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC).

Cotswold District Council has been selected as the lead authority with regard to procurement.

The funding partnership has agreed to fund an outreach service for a minimum period of two years from 1st January 2017, with the possibility to extend for a further 1+1+1 years.

There will be a contract which will be signed by all nine funding bodies.