24 February 2023

All our services are experiencing a really busy time at the moment in Gloucestershire, the cost of living crisis has meant our referrals have tripled from what we would normally expect! This said P3 Glos is doing an amazing job keeping things going and ensuring everyone who needs it receives support and advice.

Plus, this month marks ten years since the beginning of P3 in Gloucestershire, which means we need to give a special mention to Louise Jones who has been with us since day one a decade ago! We’ll be celebrating our ten year anniversary in style in the summer, by which time we’ll have clocked up several more ‘P3 Gloucestershire decaders’.

And we have a brilliant new corporate partner on board …  they provided a chef to cook Christmas dinner on Christmas day for 20 people in our Gloucester ABS service and this week they cooked up a Mexican feast, which was delicious. As well as providing chefs and food they have allowed us to use their conference facilities at their head office free of charge for our managers away days. Thanks Green Gourmet! 😊

Read on for more service updates from the Gloucestershire  team below …

Matt Gasside
Head of Support and Community Services

There are three strands to community-based support in Gloucestershire: drop-ins, one-to-one support and groups. The drop-ins are for advice, the one-to-ones offer more bespoke, personalised support for individual needs and the groups are for activities. Cooking, walking, arts and crafts, that sort of thing. They’re a fun way for people to learn life skills, socialise and make connections … all part of creating a fulfilling, independent life 😊

We’ll generally have about 320 people with us at any given point with CBS.

We also have housing-led services, this essentially is floating support for people with more complex needs in their own accommodation, and enhanced housing support (EHS), which assists people who have been through a tough time to understand and manage their behaviour, and offers drug and alcohol support. For EHS, we work in partnership with Gloucester City Homes – they’re the landlord and we’re the support provider.

Both EHS and the housing-led service are newer contracts in the last couple of years, from the Next Steps Accommodation Programme.

And of course, every Christmas we do Hamper Scamper, as you can see in the picture below!

Matt Gasside and I dress very appropriately and our day’s work is to go to the depot that sources the hampers, load them into a huge van and take them around the services. It’s a bit of an operation—we get McDonald’s for both breakfast and lunch on the day—how else could we keep going? 😄 

Today there are about 15 of us here who were part of the original cohort, delivering the service back before P3 held the contract. Times have definitely changed, (it used to be quite bureaucratic and corporate) but since we’ve been part of the P3 team we dress and work in a way that relates to the people we work alongside. It’s relaxed and definitely focussed on doing the right thing for people.

After this long, we know what we’re doing as a team and I really do love the work I do here. I’ve not had a day off sick since starting with P3!

Stuart Allen
Operations Manager, Community Based Services, Gloucestershire 

The Big Sleep Out for ABS Gloucester

When I started working here, P3 didn’t exist in Gloucester. I was a support worker, and it was Sean Wimhurst and Sam Bailey who came down to set the service up. There were only a couple of us here, but then the community-based support team joined the P3 portfolio to become P3 Gloucester – and we just kept growing!

Time for some team fun!

Back then, Gloucester had had a night shelter for a long time; when it closed, the people who had been going there came to P3. P3 was completely new to Gloucester and I was completely new to this line of work—working alongside people who had been homeless—but I talked to people, went on training courses and picked things up along the way. And now, today I’ve had six roles within P3, including Link Worker, Service Coordinator and Support Worker, all in different P3 Gloucestershire services. It’s been good to keep shaking things up and learning new skills!

Managers at Gloucestershire

Ten years ago, there were two small hostels in Cheltenham and Gloucester and that was it, but P3 have won more and more contracts and now we have several services. It seems like we just got massive! I’ve seen a lot of colleagues come and go, but we have such a good team here. And as I’ve worked for most of the services, I know how they operate and I know what it’s like on the frontline. I like to get into the thick of it and be involved as much as possible.

ABS Cheltenham

All in all, it’s been ten mad and wonderful years!

Louise Jones
Service Manager, Enhanced Housing Support Link Worker Service

Here at Acorn House, we have ten beds plus a one-person ‘crash pad’. It’s really beautiful; we have a quarter-acre of land with trees and a garden. We’re also hoping we can work with a local charity to put in a summer house and stone circle, eventually. The people we work alongside need to be referred to move here, but the crash pad is available for emergencies. We also have 24-hour CCTV and 24-hour waking staff, so people always feel safe.

Where we are, the Forest of Dean, is very rural and people don’t tend to move away from it, so they can become very isolated. It is a beautiful area, but it also has high levels of deprivation. The upside, though, is that there isn’t so much pressure on social housing and it is more affordable. So while people certainly have their challenges, there are fewer obstacles to independent living here than there might be in some other more built-up, densely populated places.

We have a really strong emphasis here on recovery without pressure. We help people and give them time to settle in and work towards whatever goals they want to achieve. If they feel they can’t change because they’re too far gone, then we work to make them comfortable.

Providing a culture, an environment, where there are opportunities to change is really important. Some people take the opportunity, some don’t, but everyone knows deep down that it’s there and that matters. There’s a positive atmosphere all around as we try to help inspire people to make that internal shift they need to make changes – but we don’t pressure them. And some people have made amazing changes and are now on the People Shaping P3 Board.

Ray Donaghue
Service Coordinator, Acorn House

Here in Gloucester we work with Streetlink and together we really have made a difference. One of the people we work alongside, who is now a P3 Peer Mentor has told us about the difference it made when Streetlink got him in contact with us – in fact he’s just spoken to a committee in Parliament about how the service helped him, and he’s not the only one.

I manage our street outreach team of eight colleagues plus volunteers and together we locate people who are sleeping rough. We have one team for Cheltenham, the Cotswolds and Tewkesbury, and another for Gloucester, Stroud and the Forest of Dean. So, two teams who go out early in the morning, including weekends. If we get a Streetlink contact, especially a new one, we’ll go out to verify the person, contact the council to make sure they are aware of them and try to direct them to our Safe Spaces project to find them somewhere safe to stay.

This said, there are a number of people in Gloucester who are known to our service, who are rough sleeping and choose not to access our Safe Spaces. We never give up, we check in with them on a regular basis and are always working to establish the trust needed to enable them to exit the streets and to someday be ready for the housing pathway. I sometimes wonder whether fear is a barrier, if they might be scared or worried that if they try to live independently, they won’t succeed first time. This said, I think what really matters is the team is there and ready to support them if they ever decide to try.

We did have one man who absolutely would not move … His was an unusual case, so we spoke with our commissioners to allow us to buy a bespoke tent for him, although of course that isn’t usual policy. Now he lives in it on a glamping site and he has a gas burner and log burner and says he’s as snug as a bug in a rug! He’s very happy.

We have another man who was found rough sleeping, but thanks to the support from our outreach worker he is now back in his family home and doing well. Another man had accessed multiple services and then ended up back on the streets, but he went through our Safe Spaces in Gloucester and the assessment centre in Cheltenham and is now in supported housing. He got the help he needed to manage his mental ill-health and now he is a different person.

It’s a lot to deal with, locating people, making contact with the council, all the daily emails and phone calls. Everyone works so hard, in fact they work their socks off! They are all just AMAZING and I’m so proud of them.

Janet Mustoe
Service Coordinator, Street Outreach Team

We’re commissioned to assess people and support them to move to somewhere appropriate, where they will be settled and comfortable, within three weeks – obviously we want to do it as quickly as possible for their benefit, but we’ll support people until an appropriate housing solution becomes available.

We have two services. In Gloucester, we have a place with five bedrooms and an extra ‘crash pad, sit-up space’ for three more people – that is an emergency space which gives people somewhere safe to sleep when it’s too cold or wet outside. In Cheltenham, it’s eleven bedrooms and two crash pad sit-ups.

There’s not much we haven’t seen! We’ve worked alongside everyone from people who have never been homeless before to people who have been sleeping rough for the long-term. We offer support for people to overcome any personal challenges with substance misuse, mental ill-health and more; luckily, we have our own multidisciplinary team for drug and alcohol support. One young chap came in on Friday and I knew he wanted to join Change Grow Live (CGL), so I ensured the CGL worker was there and waiting. He was thrilled that it could happen so quickly.

We also provide activities for the people we work alongside and recently had a professional chef came in for a Mexican fajita night. We shared the evening with everyone from our assessment centre and we had such a nice meal! People really enjoy cooking. We have a mental health worker who comes in once a week for Bacon Group – some people won’t get out of bed unless there’s a bacon sandwich in it for them! We also have pizza nights, film nights and game nights. Sometimes people are unsure about it and watch from the side for a bit, but then decide they don’t want to miss out and join us 😊

P3 Safe Spaces have a very honest and open culture; a lot of people we work alongside have a negative view of services so we work to change that and let them know we are here to support them, not judge them.

Rebecca Craig,
Service Manager, Safe Spaces Gloucester

Michelle Wells

Assessment is an important part of the housing pathway from street homelessness to independent living. By discussing a person’s situation, their physical and mental health, any history of crime or substance misuse, it allows us to get a deeper understanding of their circumstances and specific needs, which in turn, ensures they are able to access the right support.

Through our work with the P3 drop-in service, we found many people coming to us for the first time hadn’t known we existed, slowing their access to much needed support. This is something we have worked hard to change by ensuring the local council, counsellors and other support agencies know about us and how to refer people to our service.

Once someone arrives at the drop-in service we begin by encouraging them to speak about their specific housing situation and then we look at the best way to access support for this. We always work to ensure we put the person at their ease, offering somewhere warm and comfortable to sit, providing hot drinks and listening to the information they share. Next, we will signpost to other agencies in the area if they are needed, complete a START referral (Gloucestershire’s single assessment and referral process to allocate supported accommodation to people experiencing homelessness in the county), make a homeless application and liaise with the local council.

In Gloucester, we have eight rooms in the Assessment Centre, giving us the opportunity to support many people. These places are usually filled through our commissioners referring people to us who aren’t known to services, as well as some drop-in and START referrals.

When someone first moves into the Assessment Centre, we discuss any risks, build a support plan and signpost them to other services in the local area that will be an asset to their support, such as Change Grow Live for substance misuse and Homeless Healthcare for support with their physical and mental health. However, we are always mindful it can simply be life’s circumstances that have resulted in someone becoming street homeless, and so all that is needed is the right support to access somewhere comfortable and settled to call home for the long-term.

We work encouraging people to be independent, supporting them to plan and cook healthy meals, open bank accounts and budget money efficiently, and keep appointments for their mental and physical health; plus we have a real focus on getting people involved in the community, attending a range of support groups, volunteering and learning new skills to enable them to rebuild their lives and feel connected.

We recently had a man come through who wanted to get his life back on track and make a fresh start away from crime. After going through his assessment, we were able to find him somewhere to live in social housing and he got himself back into work – he’s a qualified engineer. That was absolutely amazing!

Another lady needed support to recover from a situation that had led to her using drugs. She moved into the assessment centre and we supported her to engage with Change Grow Live, beginning a treatment plan with them. At her request we contacted her family which led to her returning home to Ireland. Today she is continuing to engage with substance support as well as reconnecting with her friends and working locally with animals. If she hadn’t come to P3, she might not have got home.

Our team does its best to support everyone who attends our drop-in or moves into our accommodation, and we couldn’t do this amazing work without the support we receive from other agencies, together we work to ensure we are providing the best support possible to the people we support.

Darren Fury

Our assessment centre has six spaces, but we also have a lot of Intensive Housing Management (IHM) places. We do exactly the same thing here, although Homeless Healthcare is available in Gloucester and not in Cheltenham. But we’re working to put something in place to help with that …

Essentially, we receive people from the outreach team and sometimes Streetlink. As Michelle says, the assessment is really, really important. Sadly, I think some people are prone to saying: “Oh, just send this person there and that’ll do.” But that’s not what we do! We want ensure people are going on into the correct move-on accommodation for them. As well as the assessments we do, the outreach team can tell us a lot about a person and what their specific needs might be.

Today, I was talking to someone who is in his mid 50s and has an issue with alcohol misuse; I referred him to Change Grow Live. He didn’t engage because he wasn’t comfortable in the group setting, but he was so comfortable here. He was nervous at first because he thought we’d look down on him, but when he found out that wasn’t the case, he engaged with his support workers and appointments and was able to reduce his drinking. Now he’s been sober since November and is ready to move into a long-term home.

Another person came to use after a long history of street outreach approach, but would want to be left alone. He then decided to try and made fantastic progress. Now he’s in an IHM and he volunteers with us!

Here at P3 Gloucestershire we are very collaborative. There are drop-ins in both Cheltenham and Gloucester and we work together with the street outreach team and Safe Spaces. Sometimes Michelle or I will also have someone who we think would benefit more from being in the other assessment centre, so we’ll speak to each other and sort it out.

We’re one big team! 😊