Housing First in Wales Thursday 11 July Park Inn Cardiff City Centre

Draft programme

09:00 Registration

09:30 Welcome address  Katie Dalton, Director – Cymorth Cymru 09:45 Housing First: A perspective  Emma Williams, Deputy Director of Housing Policy – Welsh Government 10:00 Tales of implementation: Putting policy into practice  Yvonne Connolly, Wales and the South West Homelessness Services Manager – The Salvation Army  Steve Porter, Operations Manager Housing – Swansea Council  Imogen Blood, Social Research Consultant – Imogen Blood & Associates This plenary session will highlight three different approaches to implementing Housing First in Wales. We will hear from a scheme that has been up and running for over a year, a project that required a rethink along the way, and a cross-authority approach which prioritised research before putting it into practice. Delegates will be given an overview of how implementation has progressed across Wales, and a chance to learn from other’s experiences as more schemes are taken forward.

11:00 Break

11:15 Keynote speech: Housing First in Europe  Juha Kahila, Project Coordinator – Y-Foundation As Housing First develops across Wales it is important that we learn from experiences in mainland Europe, gain insight into their success and learn from the challenges they have faced. For our keynote speech, we are delighted to be joined by Juha Kahila from the Y-Foundation, who will share his views and experience of delivering Housing First in Finland and implementation of this model across Europe.

11:45 Workshops

Putting principles into practice Recruiting the right people  Emma Paynter & Catherine Docherty –  Kate Farrell, Mayoral Advisor on Homelessness – The Salvation Army Liverpool City Region  Lindsay Cordery-Bruce & Jo Parry – The Wallich One of the key elements of Housing First working The Housing First Wales Network has developed successfully is recruiting the right people. Without a a series of principles around Housing First, clear values base, and a flexible and broad range building on the international evidence, but also of skills, the demands of the Housing First model consulting with a range of providers and could lead to less successful services. This session stakeholders to embed it in the Welsh context. will hear from the Liverpool City Region, who This session will look at how these principles worked with Crisis to evaluate their approach, and could and would work in practice, giving support will learn from them about the approach they took to those who want to take this agenda forward. to recruitment.

12:30 Lunch

#HousingFirstWales Housing First in Wales Thursday 11 July Park Inn Cardiff City Centre

13:15 Housing First: A personal story  Speaker to be confirmed Listening to the views and experiences of people who have been homeless is critical to developing and delivering person-centred services. During this session, we will hear from someone who has been supported through a Housing First service, and the difference it has made to their life. It will focus our minds on their experiences and the importance of getting this approach right.

13:30 Health at the heart of Housing First  Helen Dodoo – Aneurin Bevan University Health Board  Josie Wells – Cardiff and Vale University Health Board (by video link) Without a clear commitment from health services it is much more difficult, if not impossible, to deliver a successful Housing First scheme. Whether it is rapid referral to mental health or substance misuse services, or a flexible approach to appointments, health involvement is key to remove many of the barriers facing people who are using Housing First services. This session will consider how this has worked in practice, and consider how we can encourage and support health services to be at the heart of this model.

14:15 Break

14:30 Workshops

The role of social landlords Housing First: Part of the housing led jigsaw  Harry McKeown – Pobl Group  Karen Grunhut – Crisis  Julian Pike – United Welsh  Oliver Townsend – Cymorth Cymru Social landlord involvement is essential for This session will demonstrate the importance of the Housing First to be delivered at an appropriate Housing First model being part of a wider mix of scales in Wales. We are keen to encourage services, including a major shift to ‘Housing Led’ social landlords to play their part, by providing services. Housing First is not necessarily the most properties and ensuring that the systems in effective intervention for all people, and works best place around housing management are flexible, when it is highly targeted at those that would therapeutic and person-centred. In this benefit most. However, housing led approaches workshop, delegates will hear from the Chair of work better for almost all groups, and so services the Housing Management sub-group, alongside that do not deliver Housing First should be aiming practical experience of providing to become more housing led. This session will accommodation for Housing First schemes in provide an overview of what housing led services Wales. typically look like, drawing on the research and practice evidence generated by Crisis in their ‘Everybody In’ report.

#HousingFirstWales Housing First in Wales Thursday 11 July Park Inn Cardiff City Centre

15:15 Are we going fast enough? Chair: Karen Grunhut, Director of Crisis Skylight South Wales / Chair – Crisis / Housing First Wales Network  Claire Frew, Policy & Impact Manager – Glasgow Homelessness Network  Dr Peter Mackie, Reader – Cardiff University  AM, Secretary for Housing and Social Justice – Rough sleeping continues to be a huge problem in many parts of the country and there is a clear political will to tackle this with evidence based models such as Housing First. The momentum behind this approach is building in Wales, and a range of organisations are keen to play their part in the roll out of more schemes. However, we know that rushing delivery before critical elements are in place could put the success of this model at risk. During this session, we will hear how organisations approached this challenge in Scotland and we will debate whether or not we are moving fast enough with implementation in Wales. This will be an opportunity to ask challenging questions about what more can be done – but also consider the pitfalls of moving too quickly.

16:15 What next? Taking it all forward  Oliver Townsend, Cymorth Cymru 16:30 Close

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