Durham Homestay (County Wide) - Housing related support

The Homestay service is under the umbrella of Home Group - Care and Support which has a proven track record in supporting vulnerable people, utilising their knowledge and expertise to help people to find effective solutions that will enable them to live healthy independent lives.

We provide support depending upon the individual need of the customer around the following outcomes:

• housing
• finance
• health
• education, training and employment
• meaningful use of time

The service is provided using three interventions which depend on the needs of the customer at initial contact. Customers are able to access one or more of these at the same time to meet their needs:

Drop-ins

These are a single point of access for all customers looking for support from the service. Drop-ins are based throughout the Durham and Chester-le-Street area and more information on these drop-ins will be sent to stakeholders and advertised locally. 

Drop in support can be accessed face to face at venues or via telephone. To contact a drop in cordinator please ring 0191 7311470 or email contacthomestay@homegroup.org.uk

The aim is to assess customer needs, support customers to deal with these needs at the first point of contact, and to concentrate solely on the needs which the customer wishes to address.

The service aims to resolve the issue with the customer during this time. Some customers may need to attend more than once, and customers are welcome to attend as many times as needed to resolve one or a number of needs. 

Some customers may need additional support in one or more areas and may then be signposted to another organisation or referred into the Group Work or Floating Support aspects of the service.

Group Work

To access the Group Work, customers can attend a drop-in and be assessed and referred for the Group Work sessions, which focus on delivering learning programmes around housing and finance.

Sessions will be delivered to a wide range of customer groups in a range of venues and settings to ensure customer needs are met. The service also looks to prevent issues and develop skills around housing and finance for customers to use to support their future resilience. Lower age limit is 14 years.

External Group Work packages will also be delivered to learners and tenants within schools, colleges, training providers, RSL Providers and private landlords. Depending on customer needs, the Group Work programme will continue to grow and develop bespoke packages to meet these needs.

Floating Support

In order to access the Floating Support customers must attend a Drop-in session. The service recognises that some customers may need individually tailored support to meet their needs.  The Drop-in staff will decide on the correct level of service for the customer. The Support Coordinator will assess the need for the service and where applicable refer the customer to Floating Support. 

The customer will be offered a tailor-made package of support which could involve all of the support interventions in order to meet their needs. Support will last a maximum of six months.

Customers who cannot attend a Drop-in due to physical or mental health restrictions can ring the Gateway to complete a self-referral which takes approximately ten minutes.  Thereafter, the Drop-in staff will ring the customer to discuss a home visit.

Please contact the Gateway on tel: 0191 332 4935 for more information or to make a referral.