Homelessness prevention and tackling homelessness are key responsibilities for local authorities. Under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2018 councils are required to provide help to people facing homelessness and find ways to prevent it in the first place.
According to the UK.GOV's latest statistics, households in temporary accommodation by the end of December 2023 have increased by 12.1% in the last year and 3.4% since the last quarter, meaning a staggering 112,660 households are depending on temporary accommodation. It also recorded that a total of 145,800 children were living in temporary accommodation by the end of December 2023.
But why does the dependency on temporary housing keep rising? What is the government doing to help tackle homelessness? And how best can your local authority prevent homelessness in your community.
At Access Adam Housing, we know and understand the housing challenges local authorities are facing across the UK and why that’s causing the rise in homelessness. We make it our aim to not only help provide fully compliant temporary accommodation, but we also go one step further by supporting your homelessness prevention strategies to ensure individuals and families get back on their feet to make temporary housing more permanent.
By the end of this article, you will fully understand what the national definition of homelessness is, why tackling it is vital for your community, more about the pattern of homelessness rates in the UK, as well as the best ways to prevent homelessness across your community both now and in the future.
Navigating tight budgets is a constant challenge for schools, MATs and local authorities. We understand the pressure to achieve excellence with limited resources. That's why, at Access Education we're dedicated to empowering educators with the tools they need to thrive. In line with this commitment, we are thrilled to announce a series of exciting upgrades to our popular Education Budgeting Software. Charlotte Love, Product Manager for Access Education, shares:
“We’ve listened closely to your feedback and invested heavily in making your budgeting process smoother, smarter, and more efficient. This is part of our ongoing commitment to continuously listen, evolve, and incorporate feedback, ensuring we design solutions that address our customers’ biggest challenges.”
Read on to discover how these enhancements can make a tangible difference in your financial planning and management.
- Topic:
- Education
We recently attended Learning Tech 2024, a yearly conference which brings together L&D professionals to share ideas around organisational learning and the technology used to support learning at work.
During the event, there were several discussions which focused on artificial intelligence for learning and development and the impact it is having on those working in the L&D space. While we talked about utilising the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our Learning Trends for 2024 blog, the conference highlighted a deeper impact.
Below, we explore four AI trends L&D professionals should be aware of and how they can be implemented, as well as discuss some predictions and limitations of adopting AI in L&D going forward.
The Care Act’s local authority responsibilities have changed since the Health and Care bill passed in 2022. Local authorities will soon be under the supervision and scrutiny of the CQC, including the use of CQC inspection of local authorities. With that, many of the responsibilities which local authorities have under the Care Act have been discussed consistently including both market shaping and market oversight.
You may be wondering what these responsibilities mean for your local community and how by ensuring you are delivering these duties, you can you have a better provision of care.
At the Access Group we are aware of the challenges local authorities are facing currently which can impede you delivering the duties under the Care Act. We understand the issues with discharge delays, contract management, and managing longer term care plans to name a few.
Housing compliance is slowly becoming one of the biggest issues in the housing sector. The demand for social and temporary housing keeps rapidly increasing but the availability of compliant homes is decreasing.
Currently, housing is one of the top wider social determinants of health that individuals across the UK must face every day. It is believed that many housing crises are happening currently, but one of the biggest we are facing is the availability of fully compliant social and temporary housing.
In the last year alone over 100,000 households were living in temporary accommodation including over 120,000 children. Currently, 68% of families have been living in temporary accommodation for over a year. The housing charity Shelter has argued that due to the housing issues and risks we are currently facing, temporary housing is slowly becoming the new social housing. The 2023 Homelessness Monitor has reported that 85% of councils across England are facing an increase in people experiencing homelessness.
What is causing this increase in demand for social and temporary housing and why is compliant housing so difficult to find and use?
At Access Adam Housing, we know how important it is for local authorities and councils to seek fully compliant housing to place individuals and families in and help them get back on their feet.
This article will explain what housing compliance is, and why it is important, as well as highlight the housing risks when homes are not fully compliant or when compliance housing isn’t taken seriously.
This article will also address what the government has put in place to overcome the challenges of housing compliance and how our housing management software offers a unique solution to make these housing issues more manageable and ensure you only ever work with 100% compliant housing providers from now on.
Upselling in restaurants is a proven strategy that can help enhance the customer experience and boost profits, but only if done right. Pushy waiters can turn the guests off and their negative reactions can leave your staff uncomfortable and unmotivated. To make sure your customers have the best experience in your restaurant, you need to teach your staff the art of upselling.
One thing we hear a lot from our customers here at Access, is that customers are increasingly ordering fewer items, and the average order values are lower. This is where upselling can play a vital role by recommending the more premium options, encouraging them to indulge in a treat or highlighting a high-value offer.
In this article, we're going to look into practical tips and strategies on how to upsell without turning your customers off and how technology can make the process smoother for both your team and your customers.
- Topic:
- Hospitality
A successful work-life balance is so important in whatever role you are in, being a care worker is known for being very rewarding, but also emotionally and physically demanding.
Many carers go ‘above and beyond’ what might be expected of them. While this is admirable it is important to maintain a balance. Not having that respite could result in social care losing some of its best people.
Restaurants are just businesses like any other, and they need to make money in order to survive. Regardless of your cuisine, concept or customer base, if your restaurant profit margins are too thin, you need to take steps to improve them.
It's a common thread we see a lot here at Access, with businesses of all sizes looking to improve their profit margins, especially after so many years of strife. Our specialists have years of experience helping operators reduce costs, while our leading hospitality software helps improve gross profit through streamlined operations.
In this article, we'll look at the factors affecting your bottom line as well as strategies to improve your restaurant business's profit margins.
- Topic:
- Hospitality
Below, we provide updates on how the general election will impact legislation in Parliament, and we will continue to bring you the latest developments as they unfold.
Disclaimer: The information presented below has been compiled from various publications and brought together in this post for your convenience. It is not intended as legal advice but rather as a collection of relevant updates and insights.
- Topic:
- Legal
Staff retention in social care is extremely important when it comes to ensuring consistent high-quality care and maintaining the well-being of both caregivers and service users. Caring for vulnerable people is an enormously demanding job that can lead to staff burnout and high turnover rates if care staff aren’t receiving a sufficient amount of support in their role. Losing members of the team can have a detrimental effect on the overall performance of a care service and the comfort of their service users.
By investing in the wellbeing of your workforce, your care service will be best placed to deliver continuous exceptional care which will boost the overall success and rating of the business. We at The Access Group have been working with care services for over 30 years, helping them adapt to a digital way of life, and have seen how different care services are able to better retain staff than others. This article explores the effective strategies to retain care staff, why it’s important to do so and how digitisation can help.
