To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Adult Social Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board held on 12 June 2025.

The minutes of the meeting of the Sub-Board held on 12 June 2025 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairwoman.

To receive an update on the revised Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Plan. 

The Divisional Director Community and Customer Services – Tara Harris and the Heading of Housing Needs – Lianne Hancock, provided the background and overview of the submitted Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Plan and responded to questions. 

Members raised the following questions:

·         what provision was available for members of the public to meet with Housing Needs Officers face to face when faced with possible homelessness;

·         what action had been taken by Officers to build on the cross organisational dashboard;

·         do the users of the storage lockers have access to the service at all times of the day;

·         what support was available to help residents to remain in their allocated accommodation;

·         would Torbay Council Housing Needs Officers be learning from the successful work completed by Harbour Housing in Cornwall;

·         what impact would the upcoming changes to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill have on services provided to the young people in Torbay;

·         what involvement do Housing Services Officers have with Landlords to prevent unlawful evictions; and

·         what process was completed to count the numbers of rough sleepers within Torbay.

The following responses were provided by the Divisional Director Community and Customer Services, Head of Housing Needs and the Director of Adult Social Care and Community Services – Anna Coles:

·         Face to face appointments have been held in both Torquay Job Centre and Tor Hill House, due to the damage at the Connections Office which is the normal location for face to face appointments.  Officers have looked into expanding this service further to make more face-to-face appointments available, including Paignton and these discussions are ongoing.    

·         The Action Plan dashboard will include wider data sets, to enable a wider understanding of homelessness in Torbay, including wider society impacts, as some residents other organisations such as Citizens Advice for assistance. 

·         There was a set procedure for the use of the lockers for storage and how they can be accessed and how items will be stored etc.  The exact location was not widely advertised.  There have not been high numbers of requests for the service received to date, however it was expected to be used more in the Winter months.  When people were rough sleeping, they were issued with a basic mobile phone with pay as you go credit, to enable them to contact their Support Officer for advice and to gain access to the storage lockers at set times, if required.  The aim of the scheme, was to reduce items being left on the street, to provide a safe and dry place to store items. 

·         Torbay Council have a Tenancy Sustainment Team who work with residents prior to moving into their allocated accommodation and continue to provide assistance to ensure residents remain in their accommodation.  This work was predominantly focused on those that have been rough sleeping.  The service could be assisting with registering for utilities etc so that initial debt was not accrued by tenants, placing their accommodation at risk.

·         Housing Services Officers were aware of the success of the Harbour Housing projects  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To receive an update on the implementation of the actions of the Sub-Board and consider any further actions required (as set out in the submitted action tracker).

The Sub-Board noted the submitted action tracker.