How to use this handbook

Who is this Handbook for?

This Handbook is for front-line workers, managers and other staff who deliver resettlement services for homeless people. It is also for their clients.

These front-line staff workers have many different job titles: resettlement workers, project workers, support or key workers. In many projects the resettlement role is separate from the day-to-day support or housing management function, but in others different stages of the resettlement process are undertaken by staff with wider responsibility than resettlement.

These managers and staff work in the range of services that are responsible for assisting homeless people in both the statutory and voluntary sectors. They work in housing associations, local authority housing departments, hostels, day centres, outreach services, probation services, youth services and many others.

It will also be a valuable resource for the plethora of other services that come into contact with these services and their clients.

Why a Resettlement Handbook?

In the 10 years before the publication of the original handbook there were significant changes in services for homeless people, with an increasing emphasis on providing resettlement support. This reflected the increasing recognition that simply finding accommodation does not address the challeges that many homeless people face. Additional funding, such as the Rough Sleepers Initiative, was made available and more services came to employ specialist resettlement workers.

Throughout that time there were as many ways of interpreting a resettlement service as there were agencies delivering services. There were no nationally recognised approaches, standards or frameworks for services to use. This made it difficult for: clients, who sometimes move between resettlement agencies; practitioners to gain consistency of service delivery, and the training necessary to provide a quality service; funders to know exactly what it is they were funding; and managers of services to support their specialist resettlement staff.

It became clear that there was a need for a common framework of understanding for all these groups. This work was started by the National Resettlement Forum and taken on by the National Resettlement Project after its launch in 1997. The original Handbook was the result of that work. It was also the result of a wide-ranging consultation process across the UK.

So, for the first time, this Handbook set out what was believed to be good practice in resettlement. It pooled the collective knowledge and experiences of hundreds of resettlement services operating in a wide range of settings.

We believe that since the Handbook was first published, it has proved to be a valuable resource for people working towards the resettlement of homeless people, for these and other reasons. This updated version of the handbook makes that material available online for the first time in a way that we hope will be both relevant and accessible.

A definition of resettlement

This Handbook sees resettlement as a process with a start and a finish and as a discrete area of work separate from generalist hostel work, from counselling, keyworking, from outreach and from long-term tenancy support work. We hope that publishing the online version simultaneously with the Hostels and Day Centres handbooks will allow resettlement work to be seen in its wider context.

For more on the definition of resettlement see What is resettlement?

A definition of move-on

This handbook defines move on as “a positive, planned move from a hostel or temporary supported accommodation, utilising one of a whole range of housing options as appropriate for the client.”

It differs from resettlement in that the move may be to any form of accommodation appropriate for the client at that point in time, not just long-term housing solutions.

However, most aspects of the resettlement process outlined in this handbook will be relevant in supporting clients, regardless of the accommodation type to which they are moving.

For more on the definition of move-on see What is move on?

Objectives of the Handbook

What are the objectives of having a resettlement handbook?

It needs to be very clearly understood that the processes and approaches described in this handbook are intended to be a frarnework, and not a strait-jacket. The Handbook sets out to provide a practical tool for:

• Clients - who are the most important element. They need to know why questions are being asked; what the assessment is for; what their options are; and how the process will work for them, in order that they may be as actively engaged in the process as they can be at every stage.
• Resettlement workers - who will use it in their day-to-day work and as a tool for professional development and training.
• Service managers - responsible for delivering a resettlement service that needs to be client-centred.
• Other agencies - clients now using resettlement services often have multiple and complex needs. An adequate response requires the engagement of other services e.g. substance dependency,
• Physical and mental health teams. These are now very much part of the resettlement process for many clients.
• Funders - need to know about the broad principles of the process that they are funding, and how this can be accountable to clients and ultimately to themselves. Funders also need to be able to recognise the complexity of resettlement work in order to ensure that services are adequately resourced.

Principles behind the Handbook

The principles that stand behind the Handbook are threefold:

• Flexibility - is absolutely a key principle. We are not trying to present a 'cast in stone' process of resettlement. It is important that all of the elements of the process are there, but the way in which it is interpreted will depend very much on local situations. For example you may have the introductory stages undertaken by keyWorkers, and the resettlement worker becoming involved at the assessment stage, or the support work after the move being done by the another worker. What is important is that the resettlement worker, or one designated person, has clear responsibility for the co-ordinator, the facilitator and enabler of the process.
• Practicality - it should be a user-friendly practical tool, and guide for good practice, standards, training and education for practitioners. And a tool for evaluating for the clients and funders.
• Consultation - the Handbook is the result of widespread consultation with practitioners, their clients, and other stakeholders. It contains the distilled knowledge of these services and is grounded in the experience and day-to-day realities of resettlement work.

The client/worker relationship

This key chapter from the work of the late David Brandon, comes from his involvement with the empowerment of clients using mental health services. We have included his work in the Handbook as a way of pointing up the values around user empowerment and the role of advocacy in the resettlement process. We hope that this will stimulate debate within resettlement services about how these values could become a reality in the service we offer to our clients.

How to use this Handbook

The Handbook has been designed to be used in a number of ways. It can of course be read from beginning to end and this will be valuable for many. However, it has also been designed to be something that is kept to hand, within easy reach of the resettlement worker who might use the checklists and guidance in the stages. Online publication will allow additional material to be placed in the relevant place and it should become a real working document.

We have not re-printed the updated material in hard copy handbooks because it will be regularly updated and added to, and maintainining the content online allows for it to be an evolving and improving source of good practice. Hard copy handbooks are not available at the moment, but the website pages can be printed. See here more on printing from the handbooks

Organisations and resettlement teams will be able to use the Handbook to examine their own systems and approaches. There is much material that could form the basis for team meetings, away days or cross-team discussion. In places we highlight issues that need to be discussed and decided upon at an organisational level.

Services should seriously consider how they will make the Handbook accessible to their clients. Some services have already worked with early drafts with their user-groups. Although primarily aimed at practitioners, the Handbook should be a valuable resource for increasing accountability and a tool for empowerment of clients.