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SAFE Protocol Campaign

SAFE Protocol Campaign

SAFE Protocol Campaign

Friday, February 14, 2025
Article written by Justlife

The SAFE campaign, launched by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Households in Temporary Accommodation, aims to foster increased collaboration between local authorities and their support services, when a homeless household is placed in temporary accommodation (TA).

This campaign comes off the back of various pieces of research Justlife and the APPG have conducted in recent years, including the call for evidence in 2023, and the Better Vision for Temporary Accommodation report, to be published this spring. These pieces of research showed us how homelessness creates barriers to accessing a good quality, safe support package. The SAFE campaign would establish a notification system, allowing services to tailor their support to the needs of homeless households, and thereby improve the help they receive.

Currently, the Homelessness Code of Guidance details how local authorities should be notifying receiving councils when placing households in another local area. This guidance is not always followed, which can result in households, including vulnerable families with children, becoming lost in the system. This guidance should be more strictly followed, so that we can ensure those in TA don’t become forgotten, and instead continue to receive the support they are entitled to.

The SAFE campaign aims to expand this system of notification. It seeks an amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which would place a duty on local councils to notify GP surgeries and schools as to the status of a newly homeless family. It also seeks an amendment to the Renters Rights Bill, which would place a duty on local authorities to notify all support services which a homeless household is accessing.

The SAFE campaign also hopes to encourage ongoing collaboration between these services and the local council, to offer a more holistic support package for households in temporary accommodation.

We can’t continue allowing people's health and education to suffer because of their homeless situation. We want homeless households to experience a continuity of support so that they can one day move back into settled housing.

While the SAFE campaign is working to change the legislation, we are hoping Local Authorities are able to take the brave new step in immediately implementing this new notification process. Some councils have already begun to notify and we welcome conversations with others to assist in this new process.

Please email your MP asking them to support an amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill that would allow this notification protocol to be a statutory requirement. We'll continue working on amending the Renters Rights Bill in the House of Lords.

Shared Health Foundation, our co-secretariat of the APPG, has worked in collaboration with local authorities, schools, health professionals and families with lived experience of homelessness, to develop Guidance for Local Authorities, Primary Care and Schools.

Here at Justlife, we are working alongside them to spread the message of the campaign through our work on the ground, our broader networks and via our research and policy team. We know that a little can go a long way in providing homeless households with a sense of hope during a very difficult time, and that support services are well-placed to provide the stability that people need to continue to thrive.

For more information, please visit the APPG for Households in Temporary Accommodation website.

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