Swain hails 'success' of unique homelessness conference » Housing » 24dash.com

Construction firms this week linked up with homelessness charities and government representatives in a ground-breaking conference which aimed to help homeless men and women find work.

Jeremy Swain, from Thames Reach, chaired the conference which attracted more than 100 delegates from homelessness agencies, local authorities and the construction sector.

Below are Mr Swain's views on the conference:

"The steering group regard it as a resounding success - although we also feel that this is the first step towards a much substantial and integrated partnership between the homelessness sector and the construction industry. 

"We want to move from a position where both sides feel a relationship is useful to one where it is regarded as absolutely essential - so it would seem absurd not to be working together. 

"In short, the need for skilled, former homeless men and women to be part of the construction industry workforce and for homelessness charities to be a major feeder for companies should be the proverbial 'no-brainer'. 

"To get to this point, training programmes need to be much more strongly linked with the explicit needs of the employer.
 
"The main successes of the conference were:
 
"Bringing together organisations who do not routinely meet to discuss their shared interests. This has helped to break down stereotypes on both sides and the examples of what can be done, for example Tyneside/Esh, were important to create the necessary momentum for the conference.

"From the day I expect some relationships between industry heads and key people from homelessness organisations to blossom into some tangible results in the future.
 
"It was clear that some organisations have been referring to companies people who are clearly not motivated to work or ready to take on the discipline of being a member of the workforce. 

"This is not good enough, so from the homelessness side we need much clearer expectations around selection, preparation and support. 

"We will be developing a protocol which will set this out and which will be signed off by the key construction industry representatives and the homelessness organisations themselves. 

"We hope that Communities and Local Government (CLG) will be prepared to support and fund this work.
 
"We also hope they will be able to fund a support and mentoring initiative where some of the best practice - e.g. Shekinah Mission in Plymouth, is formally 'exported' to other homelessness organisations with the appetite to raise their game and replicate (with local variations) the best practice models and/or to find ways of developing services and programmes that can work collaboratively with the existing best practice services.
 
"There were some great examples of contractors taking on homeless people, but from the construction industry side we want a stronger commitment especially, but not only, from the big players to taking former homeless people and we want them to impose higher expectations on those contractors/businesses which are part of the chain of sub-contractors which, for large developments such as the Kings Cross regeneration, is often extremely long. 

"Of course, they need to feel secure that they are getting motivated employees who can put in a good day's work - hence the need for a stronger protocol setting out expectations. But undoubtedly there is a need to take the risk, as Quinn London has done so willingly in the re-development of hostel in central London.
 
"Expectations about taking on former homeless people can of course be strengthened through the procurement rules. There are examples of expectations around '106 agreements' being circumvented and so not benefiting disadvantaged groups and local communities. 

"Our request to government will be that, particularly with reference to Community and Local Government's Hostel Capital Improvement Programme (HCIP) which we hope will be extended following the Comprehensive Spending Review, that that a mandatory requirement will be included under the tendering processes for contractors to take on a certain number of homeless people within the workforce."