THE city council claims all 10 recommendations to improve rough sleeper services made after an independent review following the death of a homeless man have been implemented.
However, a homelessness campaigner believes this is “long overdue” and is still papering over some of the cracks.
The results of the review into Cardon Banfield’s death in 2016 were released last year revealing several “missed opportunities” on the part of the authorities that may have kept him on the streets unnecessarily.
The recommendations include an audit of skills and knowledge for staff in all partner agencies, implementing an alert system to better keep track of rough sleepers and publicising how the public can raise concerns about rough sleepers.
A progress report, which says all have been put into practice, will be considered by the council’s communities committee on Wednesday (October 30).
Councillor James Stanley, chair of the communities committee, said: “Across Worcestershire, support for rough sleepers is provided in partnership by a range of agencies, and every single one of them was moved by the tragic death of Mr Banfield.”
Most of the recommendations have been achieved within the specified timeframe laid out in the report.
But campaigner Hugo Sugg believes these implementations are “overdue by one-and-a-half years”, and claims there are still many more questions to be asked.
“Over the last three years, the council has got funding of over £1million, including from government, [yet] we have an outreach service that isn’t sufficient for a county and has no accommodation outcomes,” said Mr Sugg.
The Somewhere Safe to Stay 24-hour night shelter, due to open at the Salvation Army, is two months out of date, he continued, while the county has seen at least four more deaths since Mr Banfield.
“I sadly expect another death in Worcestershire this winter and the question is who, both officers and councillors, is responsible and why are they not being held accountable?” said Mr Sugg.
“Losing lives is not a game, this is serious,” he added.
A council spokesman said the £1.1m government funding secured over the last two years for the county has “supported a range of initiatives to help” rough sleepers.
They added between July 2017 and July 2019, specialist workers engaged and supported 100 people who were at risk of rough sleeping and prevented all but one doing so.
While, of a further 137 people who were already sleeping rough, 124 were helped into accommodation, and extra resources to engage with entrenched rough sleepers were provided to the Maggs Outreach And Transition Service (MOATS).
READ MORE: Opening of Worcester's new Somewhere Safe to Stay 24-hour homeless shelter pushed back
Other services include No Second Night Out, the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) night shelters, which are opened whenever temperatures fall to zero or below.
The report to next week’s communities committee also details progress on recommendations into the death of another rough sleeper, identified as Y, which the council has now confirmed took place in September 2017.
These are said to include a range of actions involving outside agencies, such as the emergency services, the NHS and the county council, with a spokesman saying actions are “on-going”.
The reviews into the deaths of Mr Banfield and Y are being considered by the Worcestershire Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) as part of a broader thematic review of rough sleeper deaths in the county over the last three years.
Back in June, Mr Sugg, founder of Hugo’s Earthquake Campaign, was angered by the city council’s refusal to release the findings of an internal review into Y’s death, claiming it would breach data protection.
This is despite the results of a similar review into Mr Banfield’s death being released 12 months before.
Anyone who spots a rough sleeper can report them to Streetlink on 0300 500 0914.
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