Valuing diversity

Introduction

For street outreach to be most effective, services need to meet the needs of all rough sleepers. Diversity challenges must be addressed in order to meet these needs.

The Homeless Link A8 nationals in London homelessness services research report highlights the increasingly changing demographic of those accessing homelessness services. It is important that street outreach teams are co-ordinated to support these people in the most effective ways.

To introduce two case studies highlighting diversity issues, see Culture conscious by Dr Kishor Patel, of PlainSpeak Consultancy and Training which first appeared in the January 2005 edition of Connect.

Accessibility

One way of conceptualising issues of diversity is to aim to make your service equally accessible to a diverse range of people. This involves thinking about potential barriers to accessibility and minimizing them, as you would with a risk assessment. Some barriers may seem evident, such as language barriers or impairments of vision or hearing that you can plan for (see resources section below). Good practice in street outreach services can be simple procedures such as having information displayed in different languages in building based services or in carry card form for those working on the streets. A good diversity policy will help clients to understand the services available to them. It will not rely on just one medium (e.g. written resources) but will take a wider holistic approach. Wherever possible, having information available in a variety of formats, especially those which are visual, will improve quality of engagement.

Equal Opportunities

Within a service, positive outcomes depend on the interaction and inclusion of everyone using it. An equal opportunities policy should be a start point to ensure everyone has the equal chance to participate in, contribute to, and benefit from, the service. This covers not only staff recruitment, but also thinking about the accessibility of the information provided, the services to which referrals are made to and the appropriate locations that people are expected to visit. Prior consideration of the questions you may ask to accommodate people’s personal preferences is useful and the responses are something you can plan and provide for.

Times of change

Populations are rarely static, and changes in the profile of client groups can be common. Changes may require new thinking or reconsidering engagement procedures. Regular review of the diversity procedures is necessary to deliver the most effective service.

To keep up to date with the latest changes, our develop your service pages contain information specific to working with women, young people, BME people and LGBT people. See also the section in this handbook on working with people with no recourse to public funds.

Resources for overcoming language or literacy barriers

• Sounds Healthy is a web-based resource that provides health information in audio and text formats in several languages.

Sounds Healthy is the result of a Health Action Zone Pilot Project in Sheffield Leicester and Nottingham. The project aimed to make health information more accessible for people from black and minority ethnic communities.

The content of this site was originally created for touch-screen computers with an interface designed to enable users to access audio information synchronised with the written text.

The content has now been re-designed for the web to share the information more widely. It is also available on CD ROM. As Sounds Healthy was a pilot project the information does not attempt to be comprehensive, but covers the preventive aspects of heart disease, diabetes, cervical screening and tuberculosis (TB).

• Also specifically created for use in the health sector but with broad potential for use in a street outreach setting, is the Picture Bank created by ChangePeople, which is a resource of pictures that can be used instead of words in an easy-read format suitable for those who do not speak or read English well.

• The Homeless Link website has a page on Multilingual Supported Accommodation Regulations which may be useful for services when working with other accommodation agencies in throughcare support situations.

Checklist

Checklist for ensuring a positive approach to working with diverse client groups

Has a diversity and equal opportunities policy been written?

Who was consulted in the policy formation? Have clients been involved in this process?

Have partnership services been identified that can support the individual diversity needs of clients and staff?

How often are the diversity policies and procedures evaluated and reviewed?

What resources are used by frontline staff to support the individual diversity needs of clients? Can these be improved or updated?

Back: Ways of working | Next: Quality