Annexe E

2023-2024 Winter night Provision

1. This year we will deliver the winter night provision for rough sleepers without the need to adapt to all the extra requirements around infection control due to Covid. We are able to offer pre pandemic levels of emergency beds in services again for the second year. This provision will be a combination of emergency beds and supported accommodation, utilising hotel rooms if needed where available.

2. On 1^st November 23, we activated our winter night provision for rough sleepers and single homeless people. This offers direct access to safe and warm accommodation during the winter period from 1^st Nov 2023 to at least 28^th Feb 2024. The work of service providers, whether statutory, voluntary or faith based, is focused on keeping the number of people sleeping rough as close to zero as is possible. The service will continue to house people over winter despite the extra challenges that cold weather brings.

3. It is worth mentioning that for the past 2 summers we have activated the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) provision during the summer heatwaves. On top of our usual offers of accommodation we also provided hydration, showers, shade, and summer clothing during the extreme heat.

4. This winter we will offer a minimum of 29 emergency beds over winter. As rough sleeper numbers are low this offer is currently effectively managed, but should there be a sudden increase in rough sleeping we can utilise hotels and bed and breakfast until we can move people on in to resettlement services. 

Addition winter beds this winter period – 1^st Nov to 28^th Feb	winter bed offer
Peasholme centre – offer of 8 emergency beds, 9 if absolutely needed, utilising a back office interview room	9
Howe Hill – offer of 5 Emergency beds	8
Union Terrace Hostel – Offering 2 emergency beds but do prioritise empty rooms on this basis	6
Robinson Court – 1 emergency bed	1
Flat 2 Howe Hill site – 4 emergency beds 5 in an absolute emergency	5
Total	29

5. We are also able to utilise the following at short notice if needed:

Nap-pad an offer has being made to purchase the NAP Pad from the Salvation Army and if accepted we hope to site this on the ground of Union Terrace	Currently not applicable
Hotel Partners – relationships in place and could be utilised if needed	Dependant on availability and need
Crombie House vacant rooms can be used to increase capacity for winter beds on and emergency basis.	Dependent on availability and need

A triage approach is used to decide where to place people and those deemed to have complex needs are prioritised into the supported accommodation schemes where skilled staff are on duty 24/7 to support them. 

In the event of an exceptional weather event such as the Beast from the East a few years ago, sit up beds can also be provided in all 24 hour accomodation services to ensure health and wellbeing.

During the winter night provision ongoing proactive engagement continues by services to people sleeping rough to encourage them into services.

In the event of a change in circumstances or an extreme weather event, our approach allows us to provide a significant increase in emergency capacity if required at any time of year as well as over the winter period. The extra winter provision can also be available through March and April should we have adverse weather during this period. As previously mentioned, it can also be activated in the event of a heatwave during the summer months. There is also a phased approach to closing the extra winter beds to ensure no one is returned to the streets or made homeless just because the winter is over.