Our Horton Intervention & Support Service (HIPS) in Kirklees works alongside people who are experiencing homelessness, are at risk of homelessness, or are at risk of losing their home due to experiencing difficult times.
HIPS is a community based support service which helps people to transition out of difficult circumstances and take control of their lives. An important element of this is helping people to achieve their ambitions around housing, health and wellbeing, and employment. HIPS also provides 21 units of supported accommodation.
HIPS is part of Kirklees Better Outcomes Partnership (KBOP). KBOP is commissioned by Kirklees Council’s Housing Related Support Team to deliver outcomes-focussed services. KBOP is a partnership of specialist providers delivering person led, flexible, strengths based, trauma-informed support to people going through difficult times.
Unlike traditional floating support services, HIPS does not have a set capacity, and instead takes on a minimum of 25 new people every month, this is regardless of how many people may have left the service. This has seen the service grow from supporting 90 people at any one time to around 470-500. This is possible because support is much more flexible, and people accessing the service have choice and control over how their support looks. People are able to co-produce their support in terms of frequency, type and location.
The service has a team of support coaches who work with people to find out what their ambitions are and what they want to change in their lives. Support is provided to empower and enable these changes. This can include helping people obtain and sustain their home, improving their mental and physical health, finding and sustaining employment. Once people have achieved their ambitions some are ready for full independence and some benefit from the ‘checking-in’ element of the service. This is provided by our team of engagement coaches who ‘check-in’ with people at an agreed frequency to ensure they are sustaining their home and/or employment. The open ended nature of the support helps to reduce the number of people coming back round through services by minimising the impact of any subsequent crises. Working alongside the support and engagement coaches are our employability coaches. They will assist people with realising their ambitions around education, training, volunteering and employment.
Since the partnership began in September 2019, HIPS has delivered over 4,500 outcomes. This includes preventing or relieving homelessness for 270 people and achieving over 1,550 outcomes in relation to people sustaining their homes. The service had also assisted over 300 people to enter some form of education, and supported 70 people to enter employment.
For more information, visit Kirklees Horton Intervention and Prevention Service (HIPS)