Starting Point - For Professionals

A dedicated team of frontline caseworkers, at the core of the multiagency Complex Lives Alliance, working with people facing homelessness, living complex Lives. The team are their consistent point of contact and champion their assets, needs and outcomes. We work together to identify, engage, and work to provide a strong accommodation and support plan for people.

Who are we and what do we do?

Starting Point provides holistic wrap-around support for people with little or no support services in place, in a cycle of rough sleeping and deeply entrenched complex needs such as substance misuse, offending behaviour, poor mental and physical health often underpinned by other trauma.

We work across the Doncaster borough providing both street based support and person centred case management for rough sleepers and those that meet the criteria for the service.

 

Our Criteria

How Can We Support?

Currently Homeless or at risk of becoming Homeless 
Are they currently rough sleeping, sofa surfing or in temporary accommodation.
The individual may be on notice, risk of eviction or leaving an institution (prison/hospital)

Are support needs being met by other agencies?
Risk of other agencies pulling out of support when it is clearly needed.

Is the individual subject to social exclusion?
Social exclusion is the process in which individuals are blocked from (or denied full access to) various rights,
opportunities and resources that are normally available to members of a different group,
and which are fundamental to social integration.
(e.g., housing, employment, healthcare, civic engagement, democratic participation, and due process)

Is the individual facing multiple disadvantage?
People facing multiple disadvantage are those with a combination of problems including homelessness,
substance misuse, contact with the criminal justice system and mental ill health

 Some of the things we can help with are:
  • Applying for local grants for furniture
  • Applying for housing costs and other benefits
  • Getting involved with their local community
  • Learning to budget properly and look after their home
  • Addressing anti-social behaviour and harassment
  • Advising about the support we offer, including finding temporary accommodation
  • Connecting to other agencies that might be able to help
  • Managing finances and budgets
  • Completing a homelessness application
  • Putting them in touch with housing associations and private landlords in their area

How can I contact Starting Point?

If you see, hear or suspect that an adult at risk is being abused or is at risk of being abused, or if you yourself are being abused

If you believe someone's safety to be at risk, please report this to Adult Safeguarding

Report a safeguarding concern

To contact the Starting Point Team

Email: StartingPoint@doncaster.gov.uk
Telephone: (01302) 309800 (Ask to speak to the duty officer)

For any referrals into the service, please use the email above to request the appropriate form.

Out of Hours

Our service currently operates Monday-Friday 09:00am-17:00pm. 
The St Leger Housing Association (SLHA) out of hours service first point of contact is the CDC ARC suite. ARC suite staff support SLHA in the initial conversation and support members of the public to connect with Home Options officers.
The preferred contact method is via a telephone call and the out of hours number is: 01302 737199.

However, not all rough sleepers and those ‘homeless tonight’ have access to a phone to be able to make that call. For people without access to a mobile phone, you can contact ARC via the buzzer mounted on the wall at the rear of the Civic Building, opposite from CAST.

What other help is available?

Changing Lives

Changing Lives operate the outreach initiative Doncaster No Second Night Out (NSNO), which supports anyone who is found rough sleeping.
Contact on their 24/7 helpline to report a concern about someone sleeping rough: 01302 558014

Changing Lives

Changing lives also operate Open House and Wharf House which are direct access hostels for single persons of mixed gender. Support offered is centred around stabilising a person who has experienced homelessness, the people supported here are considered vulnerable and often with multiple and complex needs such as mental health and substance misuse.

St Leger Homes

Offer advice and support whether you are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless in the future. If you approach for assistance, you would be expected to engage with the private sector and registered providers (housing associations) to secure suitable accommodation.
If you are homeless or think that you are going to become homeless you should contact us on 01302 736000 during the office hours of 8.30am and 5pm Monday to Friday.

St Leger Homes

Real Help Doncaster

Real help Doncaster is a local fund that helps homeless and vulnerable people off the street and into a healthier and safer lifestyle. If we all work together, you can help make a difference in supporting people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in Doncaster. Homeless people will be provided with practical items they need to build new lives off the streets. This can include help with setting up a new home, furniture, training course or clothes for an interview.

Real Help Doncaster currently works in partnership with the following organisations, who can apply for funds for individuals:

Aspire, Changing Lives, Doncaster Housing for Young People, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, Doncaster Mind, Hall Gate United Reformed Church, Manna Community CIC, St Leger Homes, Target Housing.


Real Help Doncaster

Service Areas

Housing First

Housing First is an approach to ending homelessness through housing and support provision. It prioritises access to permanent housing with tailored, open-ended, wraparound support for the resident that emphasises choice and control.

The intensive support is free from conditions, apart from the willingness to sustain a tenancy. Individuals are not required to be housing-ready before moving in to their home; rather, secure housing is a stable platform from which to address other issues.

It focuses on a specific group of people with histories of repeat homelessness, very complex needs, experience of multiple disadvantages and for whom other services have not been successful in ending their homelessness. Evidence shows that the model helps these people housed and helps them to make improvements in their health, wellbeing and social and economic integration.

As awareness of the Housing First model and its apparent success has become widespread, more housing associations have started to get involved and others are considering how they might offer the service.

Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme (SHAP)

 

The government announced the Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme (SHAP) following the publication of the Rough Sleeping Strategy in September 2022. SHAP is a government fund to deliver homes and support services for people sleeping rough or at risk of sleeping rough and aims to address the rough sleeping need within a local area’s individual pathway. The programme will be directed at two groups in particular:

  • those with the longest histories of rough sleeping,
  • or the most complex needs, to help them recover from rough sleeping and its associated traumas.

Funding will be targeted at those areas where data suggests there is need for further accommodation for SHAP’s target groups.

Supported Housing Improvement Programme (SHIP)

The Supported Housing Improvement Programme (SHIP) is an England wide £20 million funding programme available from 2022-2025. The City of Doncaster Council was successful with its bid for funding and began operation of SHIP in mid-2023. SHIP focuses on three main areas of Supported Housing; Housing Benefits, Housing Standards and Support Review. The project aims to ensure supported housing provides safe and appropriate accommodation, delivers positive outcomes and provides value for money for the taxpayer.
For more information please visit their web page.

Doncaster Supported Housing Improvement Programme

Starting Point Hub

The Starting Point Hub is a service for those who have more difficult housing barriers to overcome, it is ran by Starting Point and based within Wharf House. uAt the Starting Point Hub, we aim to understand housing needs by completing assessments and finding suitable move-on accommodation. The hub is made up of 5 bedrooms which have either ensuite or communal bathrooms, a communal room, and an office space for support staff. At the Starting Point Hub you will be intense wrap around support is provided for up to 12 weeks, during their time at the Starting Point Hub residents will be allocated a Navigator within the team, who will offer one to one support.

Outreach

Outreach services play a leading role in the contact, assessment and support of people sleeping rough in the area. In order to provide timely and purposeful interventions, Outreach offers a flexible approach to support people who are rough sleeping, with the ability to target the most marginalised people. Rather than workers being confined to building-based services and rigid opening hours, the Outreach team conduct excursions into the city and surrounding areas to meet street homeless where they are. Working closely with Changing Lives' Outreach team, they are able to locate and support people without the them having to venture to a building and wait to be seen.

 

Useful Resources

 

 

 

 

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Last updated: 21 January 2025 13:18:31

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