Nice to see Mr Flack with another thought provoking post over at on his blog.
It reminded me of an incident last week. I was flicking through the local papers job section as I usually do each week in the vain hope of trying to find a better job. I saw a job as a Homeless Assessment manager at a nearby Local Authority and it got me thinking and that thinking got me rather depresssed.
I believe I'd make a great Homeless Persons Manager.
If I got an interview for the job I'd state that I would make sure every Homelessness officer was fully up to speed on the Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities. I'd make sure they knew that any homeless prevention should go hand in hand with seeing what duties might be owed to them should the homelessness officer have reason to believe the client might be homeless or threatened with homelessness in 28 days. I would make sure that I took the views of the applicant's GP's and specialists into proper consideration. I'd make sure the Housing department had proper joint assessment protocols in place with Social Services.
Then I snapped back to reality and remembered that I was a homeless officer once. I gave a stuff as William politely put it. I was fair and open minded. I didn't last that long. My manager who was also the reviewing officer used to tell me to find people not to have a priority need where I believed after having come to a reasoned decision that they were.
Why should Local Authority homeless officers and social workers give a stuff? They are actively dissuaded from doing so. When it comes to promotion I would put my money on the Homelessness officer who has 'prevented' applications by any means necessary getting the job over the caring, law abiding officer who then probably quits.
Local Authorities receive money for reducing the number of Homeless cases. Can you blame them therefore in this statistic obsessed society for preventing such cases by any means necessary? If one Local Authority manager starts gatekeeping and thus reducing their departments spend can you really blame the next door Local Authority manager who does the same in order to stop their costs spiralling due to helping all the homeless people who have come from the adjoining LA?
I'm not condoning the actions of any LA's such as Hounslow in X v Hounslow [2008] All ER 337 I'm just wondering how much it would cost if every Council started obeying the spirit and wording of such acts as the Childrens Act 1989 and the Housing Act 1996.
Perhaps every CLS advice worker should spend a year in a Local Authority to see just why they don't seem to give a stuff!
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As you said homelessness officers are prompted to make negative decisions by management. The pressure to refuse B&B is intense in the Authority I work. The senior officers who authorise it are held accountable and questioned why they are booking more applicants in than their colleagues!
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