Written by Rebecca (Bex) Pritchard, Director of Sector Services at Homeless Link.
We know from our members the challenges of working in the sector, including the risks of burnout, services being unequipped to accept referrals for people with complex needs, and sometimes struggling to recruit or retain staff. At the same time, I’ve felt inspired by members speaking passionately about the positive changes to people’s lives their work enables and empowers individuals to achieve.
Andy Burnham pledged to end rough sleeping in his first speech as PM. Clearly, in order to achieve this, we need to invest in the sector’s workforce of over 50,000 people. This is something that we successfully highlighted when helping to shape MHCLG’s A National Strategy to End Homelessness, thanks to the insights of our members and the championing of this need by our CEO Rick Henderson and my colleague Kate Alaway, Head of National Workforce Development.
What the National Workforce Programme entails
Included in MHCLG’s strategy is the 3-year National Workforce Programme, which aims to meet the current and future needs of the workforce.
As part of the programme, Homeless Link will deliver work to strengthen the foundations of the sector through research and insights into current challenges and opportunities for the workforce, and developing workforce capacity, accredited qualifications, recruitment campaigns and career pathways.
Key partners include Shelter and Housing Justice. We also look forward to working closely with St Martin-In-The-Fields Charity and Expert Link to ensure the voice and insights of people with lived experience of homelessness and of the frontline shape the programme.
As the new Director of Sector Services at Homeless Link, my role is to lead Homeless Link’s work and champion the programme within and outside Homeless Link – alongside my brilliant colleagues – to help create the conditions for us to work effectively with our other pillar 1 partners and more widely across the whole programme.
Legacy and impact
It is my hope that the programme’s work of the next three years will have a lasting legacy and impact for the sector and for people facing homelessness, including:
- Establishing working within the homelessness sector as a career of choice and creating new routes in and opportunities to develop and progress.
- Upskilling and raising the profile of the skills and expertise of people working in the sector, so we’re recognised as key professionals working alongside colleagues in housing options, social care and health, supporting people facing homelessness and often multiple exclusion.
- Strengthening systems – helping commissioners to understand the importance of investing and developing their workforce to deliver and achieve their supported housing and homelessness strategies.
- And most importantly, improving outcomes for individuals at risk of or experiencing homelessness - preventing them from becoming homeless and helping them recover from the trauma of homelessness by improving the recruitment and retention of people with the necessary knowledge, skills and values.
