West Sussex granted more than £340k to help rough sleepers get access to health services

The grant of £345,529 from the Department of Health and Social Care was awarded to West Sussex County Council following a successful application to Public Health England (PHE) by a partnership of providers, the county council and district and boroughs.

The money is part of the £1.9million which has been allocated by PHE to be used on projects that will improve access to health services for people with mental ill health and substance misuse problems who are currently, or at risk of returning to, sleeping rough.

In West Sussex there will be a particular focus to support people away from local hospital’s A&E departments and instead accessing more appropriate and suitable healthcare services.

A county council spokesman said people who experience rough sleeping have much poorer health than the general population. In 2018 there were an estimated 726 deaths of homeless people in England and Wales, an increase of 22 per cent since 2017, driven largely by a significant increase in the number of deaths related to drug poisoning, the spokesman added.

The initiative will be co-ordinated by Stonepillow, one of the county’s homelessness services, on behalf of a number of homelessness support organisations. The project will start next February and run for 12 months.

Amanda Jupp, West Sussex County Council cabinet member for adults and health, said: “This grant will help transform the lives of some of our county’s most vulnerable residents.

“Improving access to professional services is vital for those who can easily miss out on the support and treatment they need to help them off the streets and build a positive future.

“At a time when funding from central government is being cut, successful applications for grants like this offer vital money for our frontline services.”

By April, 2020, the county council will have cut its housing related support budget by £4million to £2.3million.

Hilary Bartle, chief executive of Stonepillow, added: “We are committed to addressing the health inequalities faced by rough sleepers. The successful outcome of the PHE rough sleeping bid that we submitted in partnership with other agencies across West Sussex, will enable us to strengthen our response to this critical area of work.

“The complexity of health care provision can present challenges for our clients which excludes them from receiving the help they require in a timely and appropriate manner. This results in them resorting to emergency services in order to address their basic health needs with often inadequate follow-up plans. This demonstrates excellent partnership working across statutory and voluntary sectors, providing an improved response to the health and homelessness needs of some of the most vulnerable members of the community.”

Learning from the project will help to inform national policy and local commissioning of health and support services.