GREATER MANCHESTER TRIPARTITE AGREEMENT
Our motivation & achievements
A safe, warm and secure home underpins people’s ability to build a better quality of life; it improves general health outcomes and enables people to maintain independence.
Poor housing is a driver of poor health and of pervasive and growing health inequalities. However, housing also has a huge influence on our mental health and wellbeing, affordability has a major impact on our ability to keep homes warm, how we are able to travel to work and how we maintain social connections. Living where you can afford and having security in knowing you won’t be’ kicked out’ at a moment’s notice helps us to put down roots and have a stable base, a sense of community and belonging.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the same opportunities for good health. Those who are elderly or young, isolated, without a support network, and adults with disabilities are more likely to be affected and this has a significant impact for society and individuals. People are unable to work because of poor health and will need more support and care. Poor health carries a high financial cost for the state, including the costs of treating avoidable illness and social security costs associated with poor health.
Delivering affordable, good quality housing in safe, clean and quality neighbourhoods is not only a matter of social justice, it also helps to support and improve people’s immediate and long term health prospects – and is fundamental to a society where people can grow up, get on and grow old. That is why the high-quality homes built and managed by the Greater Manchester Housing Providers in safe and secure neighbourhoods make such an important contribution to healthy communities, preventing illness caused by damp, cold conditions and overcrowding. It is why every area of public service in Greater Manchester has health benefits as one of its recognised objectives, just as inclusive economic growth is recognised for its health potential by NHS partners. Housing, crime, transport, employment and economic inclusion, community resilience, employment and skills all play a part too.
Our focus has been about improving the quality of lives for people living in Greater Manchester; that may be by building new homes, a priority for the Greater Manchester Housing Providers, delivering a range of joint services, such as the Healthy Homes Services to enable people to live well and for longer in those homes, reducing our carbon footprint through investment in our assets and being good employers. We focus where we can make the most impact and challenge where we cannot, bringing innovative thinking and approaches.
A ‘Bed Every Night’ (ABEN) has been developed and delivered as the Greater Manchester system wide response to the immediate crisis of street sleeping.
Our partnership and expertise have made us integral partners in ABEN providing accommodation and personal support for anyone who is sleeping rough, or at imminent risk of doing so. GMHSCP and its commissioning partners invested £2m into ABEN, acknowledging the considerable impact homelessness can have on person’s physical and mental health. It has also undertaken additional activity to support the service, offering workforce training and coordinating alignment of health services to support people accessing ABEN. GMHP have collaborated across their partnership to provide accommodation, delivery of support to service users and practical assistance to set up provision. During the period that ABEN has been running, the rough sleeper figures for Greater Manchester have decreased substantially from 241 in November 2018 to 151 in November 19, a drop of 37%.
Through our joint working and learning, we have strengthened our offer to armed forces veterans.
GM Housing Providers train and support staff to identify opportunities to bring together those who might be socially isolated and to connect those in need with specialist armed forces agencies. The GM Housing providers have offered guaranteed interview schemes for armed forces veterans, provide flexible policy approaches to families of the armed forces when they return from an operational deployment and they ask all new potential customers if they have served in the armed forces.
Through our shared expertise and knowledge, GM Housing Providers have established the Housing Options for Older People service in Manchester providing information and advice for people over 50 and their families. The service is targeted towards those whose health condition is being exacerbated by inappropriate housing, and aims to allow people to stay independent, active and in good health by maintaining networks and ensuring people are in the right accommodation, reduce isolation for older people, and support people to move or remain in their accommodation as appropriate. The HOOP service expects to handle around 750 cases per year across Manchester. Referrals are received from health and social care services, local authority services and charitable organisations. Over the three years that the service has been operating in north Manchester, 778 people have received advice or support, with 236 supported to move to a more appropriate home.
A ground-breaking collaboration of private and public organisations, housing providers, the GMCA, health and social partners and charities operates a Social Impact Bond working with entrenched rough sleepers to provide long-term, sustainable accommodation, employment, education and training, and personalised support.
The learnings and best-practice will have a lasting impact on the way Greater Manchester approaches and tackles rough sleeping. To date the GM Housing Providers have enabled 320 participants into accommodation, sustained 214 to remain in their current home, supported 180 into mental health, alcohol or drug support and enabled 50 to start employment, training or education.
Greater Manchester Housing First is a three-year pilot project that aims to provide safe, secure homes for more than 400 people who are homeless or at the risk of being homeless, Housing First is an internationally evidence-based approach, which uses independent, stable housing as a platform to enable individuals with multiple and complex needs to begin recovery and move away from homelessness. Through the provision of intensive, flexible and person-centred support, evidence shows that 70-90% of Housing First residents are able to remain housed. Having a place to call home also leads to improvements in health and wellbeing and reduces ineffective contact with costly public services. By working together our partnership can tackle accommodation requirements as well as care and support packages to create stable futures for people.
This Tripartite Agreement builds on the success of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2016 between the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Greater Manchester Housing Providers. The focus was on growth and reform and shortly afterwards developed its health and housing work stream. We have a track record of partnership and delivery and our early success has made us eager to do more, faster.
Let Us
Let Us, the Greater Manchester Ethical Lettings Agency is a collective of housing providers working together to improve quality and increase access to private rented sector homes at affordable rent levels. The project offers a range of services to private sector landlords, from advice and support to make property improvements, through to a full property leasing option. Properties leased or managed by a Let Us member are made available to households who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. In this way Let Us contributes to the wider strategy to end the housing crisis.