BHT Intern Programme

Last year BHT secured funding from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation to launch its Intern Programme. The Intern Programme will boost the chances of those people embarking on a work career after, in many cases, years on the margins of society.

It is our aim that at any one time 40 Interns will be working across the organisation (on six-month placements for a minimum of two days a week) gaining valuable workplace experience and undertaking a tailored training programme.

Our vision is for the BHT Intern Programme to be recognised as an ‘Academy of Excellence’, where a reference from the Programme is regarded as a significant endorsement by future employers in the locality. We want to overcome prejudice of potential employers, so that the training and expertise gained through the Programme combined with the life-experience of our Interns will provide a blend of experience and expertise that cannot be bought.

BHT as an organisation will benefit from furthering our Mission to “create opportunities and promote change”. We will gain from the experience of clients, embedding their experience within staff teams. BHT, and other local employers, will also benefit from workforce planning, where we are training up the next generation of staff including in the care and support sector.

Our existing staff will benefit from engaging with former clients as peers, challenging prejudice and testing individual commitments that change is possible. Staff will also benefit from the opportunities for career development. They will receive training and practical experience in the mentoring and supervision of Interns, together with a small salary enhancement for the added responsibility of supervising an Intern.

The target group for the Programme will predominately be men and women who have been clients of BHT’s projects (or other local projects working with our client groups), who face multiple barriers to employment, including poor educational attainment, lack of confidence, self esteem, lack of workplace experience and workplace discipline and facing strong competition from people recently unemployed.

We will expect those applying to become Interns to have addressed any issues that might have led to homelessness or unemployment. For example, if someone has had an addiction, a prerequisite of joining the programme might be that interns must have followed a recognised abstinence-based treatment programme and/or have been clean for a period of at least two years.

There will be a range of placements available, initially within BHT projects (possibly with other local agencies once established) and each placement will be advertised with a full description of the role and its requirements. Each placement will have a dedicated, specially trained mentor to work with the Intern from within the existing staff team they will be working with.

Interns can either be referred into the programme by staff or refer themselves. They will need to complete an application form for the placement they would like to undertake and have an interview. If successful the placement will be organised with the Intern, HR, the Projects’ Manager, the staff mentor and the training department.

The Interns will gain on the job work experience (for at least two days a week) focussing on building confidence and self esteem, introducing and explaining workplace processes, PC and internet training and skills specific to the placement.

Whilst in the placement they will be required to produce a personal development plan which will be regularly reviewed and updated with their mentor.

All interns will be expected to attend a tailored training and induction programme to introduce BHT’s processes and inform around health and safety, professional boundaries and other areas relevant to their role.

Interns will also be supported to undertake further training within BHT or with other external learning providers such as City College, Brighton and Hove. The type of further training could include NVQ and City & Guilds courses, where funding will allow.

Successful completion will result in a placement certificate, a reference, a portfolio of BHT training courses undertaken and a possible job-related qualification.

I am really excited about this programme and I am sure it will help change the lives of those on it.

Preparing clients and staff for move on into the private rented sector

Last week I chaired a seminar organised by BHT’s Private Rented Sector Initiatives project. The theme was “Preparing for Move On”. The first question that crossed my mind was “Who are we preparing? Staff or clients?”. We have found ourselves in a world where the social policy and financial climate has fundamentally altered over the last twelve to twenty four months. Gone are the days where social housing was an achievable objective for many of our client. Gone are the days when clients remained perhaps longer that necessary while “waiting for my Council flat”.

At BHT we have been preparing for the current environment for several years. The setting up of our Private Rented Sector Initiatives project is an example of this preparation. But still there are those (some in BHT, others not) who fail to accept the reality of where we are. In BHT our Mission (“combatting homelessness, creating opportunities, promoting change”) has been challenged. It has been suggested that we should reverse it ot reflect the reality that our work increasingly promotes change, allowing people to take advantage of opportunities so that they can combat their own homelessness.

I like the ‘promote’ concept. Promote is an active verb, that requires action, not waiting for someone to find the motivation themselves.

The theme of the seminar was how can we begin to prepare clients for the financial realities for move on and independence? My feeling is you start on day one, and you start with finance. Many years ago, when I was the manager of BHT’s Recovery Project, I introduced a policy that resulted in clients being issued with a Notice to Quit if they missed even one weeks service chancre. There was criticism along the lines of “you want to evict someone with just £7.17 service charge arrears?”. Of course I didn’t want to evict anyone. That was the whole point. If someone was issued with a NtQ, residents could agree a repayment scheduleand it maintained the NtQ was reviewed and then withdrawn. Over a period of several years not a single resident was evicted for arrears. The output of this policy was very low bad debts, the outcome very few arrears, and the impact several generations of clients who understood the importance of paying rent.

A while ago I was speaking to a worker (I won’t say reform which organisation) who was complaining that a client had been rejected by a landlord. She said that her client had “only £200 arrears”, that this was an indication of real progress for someone with her clients chaotic lifestyle. I responded by saying that there should be an expectation that they have no arrears whatsoever. Nor do I think that arrears cleared the previous day is enough. For those hoping to secure accommodation in the private rented sector, months with no arrears should be the norm.

We have a moral obligation to prepare clients for the harsh realities of the world we know and the world yet to come. To make excuses for our clients is to infantalise them. Another worker said to me, “We have to allow him some lee-way. He has made progress and isn’t as chaotic (with his drugs) as before”. Nonsense. If I was his dealer he would have been 15 minutes early!

I believe in change, and I have witnessed clients achieving real change. For those without hope, it is our job to inspire. For those with hope and aspiration, we must never betray them because of our own poverty of ambition. Clients can achieve amazing things. In a cruel and harsh world, we must be the agents of change who prepare clients for move on and independence.

Reflections on 25 Years at BHT

I started working for BHT 25 years ago today. I hope you will forgive me for posting something more lengthy than usual: my reflections on BHT, what we are here to do, and the need to increase the pace and scale of change for the benefit of our clients.

BHT’s Mission (“combating homelessness, creating opportunities, promoting change”) doesn’t go back quite 25 years, but it continues to provide a neat summary of what we are about. Or does it? We have recently reviewed the Mission and what we mean by it, and fresh challenges have emerged, not least because of the economic and social policy changes we are facing.

In his speech in Downing Street, immediately after being asked to form a government, David Cameron said he aimed to “help build a more responsible society here in Britain… those who can should and those who can’t, we will always help. I want to make sure that my government always looks after the elderly, the frail, the poorest in our country”.

Since that speech, government ministers have emphasised the message that individuals ‘who can’ are expected to take responsibility for addressing their situation and for moving from dependency on benefits and into work. Measures are being put in place to put pressure on claimants to seek work. The change to housing benefit eligibility is an obvious and high profile measure that the government seems determined to implement in spite of wide-spread opposition.

There are some proposals which I, personally, welcome and endorse. The government is determination to tackle drug problems. Those with drug problems will have to engage in treatment or they will lose their benefit entitlement. I have some serious concerns about this, but not so the treatment model that Ministers are promoting. They have instructed the National Treatment Agency to “champion abstinence”, a 180 degree change from that of the previous government where stabilisation and harm minimisation was the objective. This is a policy change that I, personally, have advocated for more than a decade and one which I warmly welcome.

I believe that if we are to see lasting change for those with addictions, achieving abstinence is not the end goal, it is merely the starting point for a transition to normal living.

The services provided by BHT remain as relevant as ever, and the need is likely to increase. What each service seeks to achieve will need to be reviewed, partly in light of the changing social policy and financial environment, but mainly because regular reviews are the right thing to do.

BHT must retain and enhance its reputation of ‘doing difficult’, working with homeless men and women, including those with complex needs, and we must retain our ability to work with people where they are at. But we must also ensure that by emphasising the vulnerabilities and problems experienced by some of our clients, we do not ‘ghettoise’ all clients. Many of our clients are in housing need simply because of the lack of affordable housing. As my colleague John Holmström continually reminds me, we must put housing back into homelessness!

Combating Homelessness

BHT recognises that there is a genuine shortage of affordable and social housing and that alternate provision is required to meet housing needs of our clients through the private rented sector. Securing social housing for our core client group is becoming a less achievable outcome and will remain so, at least during the lifetime of this parliament. Councils are using new legal freedoms to give people with a job an advantage over unemployed people when it comes to gaining social housing. Already Manchester, Rochdale, Newcastle, Barnet, Uttlesford and Westminster (who between them manage almost 86,000 homes) are amongst those who plan to give people in work or training priority in the allocation of social housing.

BHT’s current policy is to campaign for greater provision of social housing. While we will continue to argue the case for public investment into bricks and mortar, in the current environment our clients are likely to be best served by increasing access to the private rented sector. In doing so we will need to be upfront and honest with our clients that social housing is not likely to provide a solution to their housing need. We need to ensure that they are focused on preparing themselves for housing in the private rented sector and all that that entails. If our clients are able to secure social housing, that will be a bonus.

Creating Opportunities

BHT creates opportunities and circumstances that will increase the potential for clients to be housed, undertake training and education, and secure employment since poverty is a major reason for homelessness and ill health. In the current environment, our clients will not thrive if they opt out of engaging in rehabilitation, training and employment opportunities. Our staff must ensure they motivate clients to actively engage with this approach, and they should spell out the consequences of ‘opting out’ in terms of housing opportunities and future welfare benefit entitlement.

We must ask if we trap people with their labels, get people identified by their problem. Do we inadvertently create ‘ghettos’ by reinforcing the problem by providing services that might suggest that mainstream services are for others? Do we have the right attitudes, culture and expertise to ensure that clients have ambitions, and that those ambitions are meaningful and achievable? And do we nurture hope and aspirations within our clients?

On the whole I think we are doing ok and in some areas very well, but there are some areas and individuals who may argue that clients have a right, for example, not to address their alcohol or drug problem, who will excuse a failure of a resident to pay rent, or who will focus on a ‘counselling approach’ at the expense of housing, training and employment solutions. I believe that should such attitudes or work practices exist, they need to change.

Promoting Change

‘Combating homelessness’ and ‘creating opportunities’ are fairly straightforward concepts. Not necessarily so with ‘promoting change’. Most, if not all, staff would support the concept of ‘change’, and BHT does some inspirational work in facilitating change for our clients, but we now need to go to the next level by being clear exactly what “promoting change” means. There may be a few who would qualify a commitment to change with “only if that is what the client wants” or “but clients have the right not to change”. What the client wants or does not want should not be the defining factor for us. We have a moral duty to work in the best interest of the client and clients as a whole. True advocacy requires the advocate to spell out what is best; it is not merely giving a voice to a client’s wishes regardless of how unachievable or non-sustainable such wishes are.

I believe that the pace and scale of change can and must be increased, firstly, because it is right for our clients and, secondly, because of the prevailing economic and social policy imperatives that have emerged following the 2010 general election. There should be an expectation that staff ‘drive’ change. The concept ‘promoting change’ is not passive. In doing so we must equip clients to manage their problems and to sustain progress made.

Whatever our views are of the approach of the Coalition Government, those “who can” who remain dependent on welfare benefits and state support will find fewer opportunities (accommodation, benefits, etc.) and a more ‘coercive’ approach from government. We must prepare our clients for this reality. There needs to be a sense of urgency about this agenda.

During the remainder of 2010/11, we need to review our approach to ‘change’, its scale and pace, and put in place new policies and approaches should they be required.

 There are a number of issues that will need to be explored further. For example: 

• How can we understand the difference between ‘can’t change’ and ‘won’t change’, and how we should continue to work with clients in each group? We don’t want to create new classes of excluded men and women.
• How should we position ourselves regarding choices and consequences? For example, with rents, should we only support move on if someone has no arrears, or no arrears for 3 or 6 months, etc.? This is a real client-centred approach where we treat them in the real world, not in some cotton-wool world.
• What can we expect, even demand, from clients when considering what is “for the greater good”?

How we do this must be left with individual services, but I am giving out a clear message that we need to increase the pace and scale of change. It is a message that should be welcomed by most, not least because the greater the change, and the sooner it happens, can only be good for our clients. BHT, its staff and supporters have a lot to be proud of, and we can be excited about the difference we will be making to the lives of our clients for the next 25 years.

Putting housing back into homelessness

This is one of the favourite sayings of John Holmstrom, BHT’s Asistant Chief Executive.  Like me, John is approaching the 25th anniversary with BHT.  I know nobody who understands the complexity and inter-relationship between housing benefit, welfare benefits, government subsidies, demand and supply, need, etc. as well as John does.

In the last few months he has repeatedly said that we need to put housing back into homelessness.  What he means by this is that, in recent years, we have explained the situation of homeless people in terms of associated problems, including substance misuse, unemployment, mental health problems, and so on.  And BHT has a range of services designed to address these real issues so that, when someone is referred for housing, they should be able to sustain that accommodation.

However, in recent times, we have seen people who are homeless for the simple reason that there is not enough affordable accommodation.  When talking about homelessness, we should point to this one factor as being of critical importance.

A colleague recently reported to me that, in discussion with a couple of landlords, the perception was that ‘DSS’ tenants were “all a bunch of scrounging drink and drug addicts or social misfits that have no conception of, or going along with the norms of society”.  We know that this is untrue, but we have to recognise that there are people ‘out there’ (as my colleague more acurately described it “in the real world”) that believe this.

We need to find ways of challenging this.  Putting housing back into homelessness is one way.  We need to work in partnership with our clients, and help them to understand what they need to do to overcome prejudice against them.  It is a cruel, hard world out there and our clients won’t benefit from being anything but frank and honest with them.  A great example of an approach that works is that of our Firm Foundations Project that approaches work with clients from the perspective of a future landlord.  “Don’t expect to be housed if you have a history of rent arrears”, “don’t expect a landlord to look on you favourably if you are late for an appointment”, “how you present yourself will decide if you get a flat or not”.

For those clients who have issues beyond the lack of accommodation, we need to think about the scale and pace of change that is needed.  Not only is that in the best interest of clients, it is essential in the new social policy and political frameworks within which we work.

How are we getting on about employing former clients of BHT services

We have recently undertaken a survey about the personal experience of homelessness amongst BHT’s staff.  We have a target that, by the end of 2012/13, 15% of our staff should be former users of our services.

So how have we done?  9% of our staff have used BHT services in the past, and 33% have received a homelessness service (although not necessarily from BHT).  We are not there yet, but it is a start.

Being a former client doesn’t necessarily make one a good worker, or a better one than those who are not.  We don’t employ someone because they were once a client.  No, we employ people because they are the best person for the job.  We employ them because they are professionals, that they understand the ethical framework within which we work – competence, confidentiality, non-judgemental attitudes, and integrity.

One reason we have this target is to ensure that we continue to facilitate learning and work experience opportunities for current and former clients.  We recognise that there can be prejudice against men and women who have a history of homelessness, unemployment, mental ill health, substance misuse problems, and so on.  Part of the role of BHT is to challenge prejudices.

Another reason for the target is to demonstrate that our Mission (tackling homelessness, creating opportunities, promoting change) is more than six words.  It shows that change is possible.

There is no tokenism at work here.  I want the best possible workers within BHT, and I want all our projects to be of the highest quality.  Who knows, the person who knocks on our door today needing help and support may one day be the person answering the door when you and I are in need.

Change …. and I’m feeling good!

This week has been an absolute joy for me.  For two days I convened a series of Project Presentations where project managers and others, including clients, have presented their annual reports to a panel which has included other clients, senior managers and members of our Board of Management.

Over the next few days I will be blogging some highlights of these presentations.  There was so much content that was inspiring, demonstrated best practice and innovation, as well as demonstrating how clients influence what BHT is and how services are planned, reviewed and delivered.

As one example of many, this is what one resident of the Route 1 Project said: “When I moved to Route 1 in Sept 2008 I was depressed, anxious, very messy and unorganised. Also I worried lot, was lonely and scared of the future which made me drink and smoke more. I now drink and smoke much less, I am more tidy and organised, I’m not scared or lonely anymore as I have some friends I meet with. I attend all my classes at college and am not depressed anymore. Looking at what I’ve just said I can see I’ve made a lot of progress which makes me feel good”.

And it makes me feel good too!

PS  BHT is now producing an electronic newsletter about our work.  If you would like to receive it please email lucy.enever@bht.org.uk.