Decision details

Since 2018 the Council has benefitted from funding via the Governments annual Rough Sleeper Initiative (RSI) which has enabled it, with partners, to produce various interventions to reduce Rough Sleeping. For the last three

years bids for the RSI money have been co-produced with the Council’s advisors from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHC&LG) now the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

(DLUCH). The process was delayed this year due to the pandemic and the DLUCH originally guaranteed continued funding just for the first quarter of 2021/2022. A previous officer decision awarded contracts for quarter 1 to the

value of £108,490.82.

The bid to DLUHC for the remaining 9 months of RSI 4 has now been successful. In total the RSI grant for 21/22 is £638,714. An Officer Decision was agreed to extend the associated contracts.

The final contract is now ready to be delivered. Ipswich Winter Night Shelter will again offer to extend their winter season by 6 additional weeks to include 2 weeks in November 2021 and for March 2022, at a cost of £26,108. As

they are the only provider able to deliver this service in their purposely adapted property located at 1 Civic Drive Ipswich, it was decided to exempt from Contract Standing Orders.

Ipswich Winter Night Shelter will again offer to extend their winter

season by 6 additional weeks to include 2 weeks in November 2021 and for March 2022, at a cost of £26,108 and to exempt the decision from Contract Standing Orders.

Reason:

The Councils Rough Sleeper Initiative partnership has been very successful in reducing homelessness in the Borough. In November 2017 there were 27 rough Sleepers identified in the annual November count whilst in November 2020 this had reduced to 9. Furthermore, the street outreach team usually identify between 0 and 5 Rough Sleepers on their daily ‘sweeps’ of the town.

As they are the only provider able to deliver this service in their purposely adapted property located at 1 Civic Drive, Ipswich, it was decided to exempt from Contract Standing Orders.