At its meeting on 03 October 2019, the Cabinet will consider a report on the Commissioning of services at Floyds Row. This item provides an opportunity for the Committee to comment on the report and make such recommendations to the Cabinet as it wishes.

The Cabinet Member for Leisure and Housing, Councillor Linda Smith, introduced the report. The Floyds Row initiative was part of the Council’s commitment  to doing all within its power to address the issues of homelessness and rough sleeping, driven by the ultimate ambition of no one having to sleep on the streets. Floyds row would, among other things, provide a new ‘gateway’ and significantly increase the amount of night shelter provision. The report drew attention to the increased costs of the project and made recommendations to the Cabinet about how best to respond to that increase. Despite the costs, she commended the project to the Committee given the contribution it would make to addressing one of the Council’s priorities.

The Housing Strategy & Needs Manager, Dave Scholes said Floyds Row was innovative  and set to be a transformative influence not just in the City but in the County. It built on national good practice and was of a significant scale, compared with facilities in other parts of the country, given the size of the City. The facility built, in part, of the outcome of the recent Scrutiny Committee No Local Connection review group and would provide a safe engagement space, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

In relation to the capital funding gap the Leader of the Council had written to the new Secretary of State at the MHCLG, outlining the costs of the scheme requesting a further contribution. While there could be no guarantees, early signs of further funding from this source were positive. The Chief Executive had also requested a funding contribution from the other local authorities and OCCG in Oxfordshire.  Oxford Direct Services (ODS) are on-site constructing  phase one of the project (working to end November 2019) and were well placed to deliver phase two with a target date for that of the end of March 2020.  The new facility was being developed in close partnership with St Mungos andthe architects, and other partners, including Turning Point, Crisis, Health, and Emmaus UK, seeking to create a homely rather than institutional feel.

The Committee was generally very supportive of this important project and went on to raise a number of detailed points. The project would doubtless have a positive effect on the demand for a number of other community services such as A&E, psychiatric and other support for those with mental health challenges.  The significant increase in project costs over a relatively short time was a matter of great concern from a project management point of view and begged questions as to why these costs had not been recognised and addressed earlier. Officers explained that the bid for the bulk of the  project’s original funding had had to be progressed in an atypically short time to meet a MHCLG  deadline. This meant that some of the preparatory work was not as thorough as it might otherwise have been, notwithstanding that it had been through the Council’s project ‘gateway’ process. It was also noted that the innovative nature of the project meant that some desirable improvements in the specification were being added as the project progressed.

St Mungos was evidently a key partner in the project but  concerns had been raised about some aspects of their provision, notably the absence of measurable outcomes as a result of their input, a disinclination by some to make use of the service as they felt “safer on the street” and high staff turnover. Reassurance was needed that St Mungos  involvement would lead to improved outcomes and that those who needed the provision would take advantage of it. Floyds Row was serving as a “catalyst for change” in St Mungo’s provision and the nature of its relationship with the Council which was now seen as a strategic partnership.

The current contract with St Mungos is to be extended  until March 2020 after which it was proposed that there would be a trial period of  a further year for the revised operation before going to full tender. The trial period was considered necessary given that the new service will be different from anything delivered previously and lessons will need to be learnt to inform preparation of  a full and evidenced specification. While St Mungos would be a key partner for the foreseeable future, the new provision would be multi-disciplinary and would involve other services too.

Why could the necessary provision not be made  in-house?  In-house provision would bring with it some additional complexities to do with using licenses for the residential element. It was noted that no other authorities made comparable provision in-house. Furthermore, funding uncertainty mitigated against bringing the provision in house at this stage.

An interim winter night shelter and ‘somewhere safe to stay’ would be opened in late October 2019 as an interim service from Simon House.  This will close as Floyds Row opens the first wing (early January 2020).

It was recognised that there were many and various reasons why people would not engage and therefore no simple means of ensuring that those who could benefit would. The new provision was intended, among other things, to provide a safe and appropriate environment which would at least make the offer as attractive as possible with a view to getting people off the street as swiftly as possible. 

The importance of “move on” was recognised by the Committee and officers alike and the new provision would be geared to expediting that as much as possible.

In conclusion the Committee repeated its warm support for this important  project and endorsed the proposed recommendations being made to Cabinet  but added the following recommendations of its own:

1.    That the contract with St Mungos be extended to require that outcomes from its involvement be better recorded to include, for example, reasons for clients’ engagement or failure to engage; number of client contacts; and staff turnover.  Data to also be collected about how rough sleepers support their lifestyle (eg bicycle theft) which will in turn inform how best to address their needs;

2.    Not to exclude the possibility of in-house provision when it comes to market testing;

3.    While recognising the great pressures of tight government deadlines for submission of bids, that any project management lessons are learned and the project gateway process be streamlined and improved to lessen the likelihood of similar cost overruns in the future, especially for funding bids that require a fast response;

4.    To congratulate officers for progressing the scheme at pace and making the progress to date towards opening the service this winter; and

5.    To recommend Option A