Jobs in Renfrew South and Gallowhill, Renfrewshire

TPS works with adults who are experiencing a range of support needs. This includes housing and homelessness, learning disability, autism, acquired brain injury, fluctuating mental health, physical disabilities, problematic alcohol and/or other drug use and involvement in the criminal justice system. We believe that people matter. We believe they are the experts on their support needs. It is for us to work creatively with them and with partners to ensure we meet those needs.

Every day we work with well over 4,000 people and every year around 8,700. We help them to address issues they are experiencing and recognise their own skills and interests.

We embed our approach to support in a framework of Citizenship. Using this we deliver a holistic approach promoting the recovery, self-determination and inclusion of people experiencing challenges in their life. And we do this through focusing on their strengths and the valuable contributions they can make to their communities.

We define Citizenship as a measure of the strength of an individual’s connection to the 5 R’s of rights, responsibilities, roles, resources, and relationships that society makes available to its members.

Homelessness work within TPS

TPS are the biggest provider of services to people experiencing or at risk of Homelessness across Scotland. We deliver support to over 2800 individuals on any given day, and over 5,100 each year. This number increases when taking into account our services accessed through Justice or Alcohol and Other Drugs funding streams.

We believe that in many cases, Homelessness is entirely preventable. It is failures in the silo’d and complex systems that we have designed to protect people that prevent us from achieving this. Where Homelessness is not or cannot be prevented the experience should be short lived, and we should meet that with a psychologically informed response. A menu of options should be available to individuals to prevent or support someone to move on from Homelessness. This ensures we use a no wrong door approach to accessing services.

We deliver a range of service models. These include Outreach Housing Support, Outreach Housing First, Outreach Crisis Support and Supported Accommodation. In line with our Citizenship approach we have a specific focus on key areas. These are; Building on people’s strengths, skills and interests as well as meeting their needs; Connecting people to communities, people and / or places; Harm reduction and / or Recovery; and providing a Psychologically informed /

Trauma informed approach.

We also deliver a range of additional services across the country. Examples include Peer Mentoring services, Community Connectors, TPS Moving Service and TPS Connects amongst many other initiatives.

We recognise the importance of animals in people’s lives and helping individuals move on from the trauma they have experienced. We are currently developing our policies and frameworks to engage with stakeholders and develop our policy and procedures to make our services as pet friendly as possible.

We are also active members of the European Federation of National Organisations with the Homeless (FEANTSA).

Service Model

Service Model - Outreach Housing and Wellbeing Support

We provide a range of different outreach Housing support services supporting individuals with short to medium term interventions to either move on from their experience of Homelessness or prevent it happening in the first place. We also deliver longer term Housing Support often funded through personalised budgets / Self Directed Support (SDS) to meet individuals housing and wellbeing needs. We believe that Housing Support can be delivered upstream before Homelessness is even the faintest possibility, often where it is difficult to quantify the impact of our prevention work. Similarly, we see the importance of housing support to move people on from their experience of Homelessness and also any long term physical and emotional needs.

Service Model - Outreach Housing First

In 2010 TPS invested in the UK’s first Housing First pilot project. This was in response to the clear evidence that there was a small population who were experiencing multiple and enduring support needs and were being failed – and worse, increasingly traumatised – by the homelessness system that is supposed to help them. Since then we have grown our services across multiple local authorities including Consortium partnerships with other agencies. We believe that a home is a human right and that an individual is best placed to deal with the issues that often made them homeless in the first place, in a place they can call home. We believe that Housing First should be the default model for people who are experiencing homelessness and have multiple and enduring support needs. We believe strongly on delivering Housing First with high fidelity to the 7 principles and working towards ensuring we deliver Systems Fidelity within the wider systems that Housing First effects or is effected by. We deliver the Housing First Academy focussed on the Communities of Practice Hub, Training Hub and Housing First Europe Hub. We are also active co-founding members of the Housing

First Europe Hub.

About the Service

Renfrewshire Housing Support Service has been established since 2013. The service provides outreach support to individuals aged 18 or over who live in the Renfrewshire area and are homeless, at risk of homelessness or require support to maintain their home. The service supports people to access a permanent tenancy within the local authority.

There are many factors that can contribute to an individual experiencing homelessness therefore staff will offer a wide range of support to individuals with complex needs.

As well as providing support with the practical aspects of maintaining a tenancy, people will also receive support to access services relating to mental health, addictions and social opportunities. Services users will be offered support to find something in their life which is meaningful to them, through leisure activities, voluntary work, education or employment. The emphasis is always on what the individual wishes to have in their life, at a time when they are ready for it. Support is time limited.

Renfrewshire Housing First Service The premise of Housing First is that housing is a basic human right and is an integral part of a holistic support package offered to individuals.

The programme aims to support people with long histories of homelessness to access a permanent home and to receive the support they need to remain there. Staff will provide support on the maintenance of a tenancy, addiction, mental health, social inclusion, life skills, employability and other areas as appropriate. This support is non time limited. The service will act on the seven principles identified for a Housing First service.