Housing Support Services

The Borough Council of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk is committed to ending homelessness, person by person. It is about to launch its new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy, which outlines the steps that the Council (and its partners) should take to work towards this aim.

The Council also intends to let a contract for an Early Intervention and Prevention Support Service that will support households (who may have children) at risk of homelessness predominantly (but not exclusively) from private rented accommodation and those living with family and friends who are at risk of homelessness. This support is intended to be short term and may assist people to access settled accommodation or (where appropriate) sustain their current accommodation.

This should reduce the Council’s reliance on temporary accommodation and positively affect individuals’ wellbeing. The service should complement existing homelessness prevention services commissioned in the borough.

The services will work across King’s Lynn and West Norfolk and will support people to access and maintain suitable, safe accommodation. The Council is open to creative ideas as to how the service(s) could be delivered and how you could bring any added value to these services.

The tender has been split into two lots, one for a Intensive Homelessness Support Service and the other a Early Intervention and Prevention Support Service. Bids can be made for one or both lots.

The Intensive Homelessness Support Service is intended to support service users with multiple and complex needs that includes but is not limited to substance misuse, mental health, offending history, and those who may be or have been rough sleeping. The service is designed for individuals whose housing needs have not yet been met sustainably, or who need support to maintain accommodation they may have obtained.

The service will be required to provide a reactive outreach response to rough sleepers. However, the number of rough sleepers in King’s Lynn and West Norfolk are low, so most of the support will be provided to service users who have been accommodated in temporary accommodation, which would include welfare checks.

The support will then continue with the service user (as necessary) into self-contained, settled accommodation. Additional information: To respond to this opportunity please click here: https://www.delta-esourcing.com/respond/PD495V73SC

This service is intended to provide low to medium level support to households including families, childless couples and single people to assist them in accessing and / or maintaining accommodation by providing short term support typically between 3 to 6 months. The households for this Lot are intended to be those households that require short term support to prevent them from becoming homeless and supporting them to access accommodation by intervening at the earliest opportunity with a focus on homelessness prevention.

The service will emphasise preventing households from becoming homeless. This could be by supporting households being asked to leave by family / friends to prevent them from applying as homeless and instead exploring and assisting households to access alternative housing solutions.