The 6^th Annual General Meeting of the Bosco Society was held at the new Bosco Lodge on Friday July 29^th, with the Chairman of the board, Alan Matthews, throwing down a challenge to politicians – “Make me redundant!”

The open-day at Bosco Lodge saw visitors taking a tour of the new premises and chatting to residents and staff. The AGM followed the official opening ceremony that was conducted by Peter Dowd, MP.

Bosco manager, Sheila Howard, presented the annual report, highlighting how many changes had occurred over the past twelve months and thanking both staff and residents for their help during this time of upheaval. Sheila then invited Johnny, a current resident at the Lodge, to talk about his experience at the new premises so far.

Johnny was originally at the SEAD project before moving to Bosco Lodge. He said that the old building was not a nice place to live. In contrast, he said, the Lodge is lovely, clean and spacious. He said he was proud to have family and friends visit. Johnny was on a zero hours contract and had fallen into arrears with his rent. After being evicted from his flat he became homeless and that’s how he eventually went to the SEAD project. He said that he is much happier at the new Lodge and thanked the staff for their support. Johnny concluded by saying how grateful he was to Bosco for the support he is receiving in so many ways.

Tom Harrison, support worker at the Lodge, then gave a worker’s perspective on how he is finding his new role at the Lodge. He said it was a great place to work and that the atmosphere was totally different from the SEAD; residents stopped to have a chat and a laugh, whereas before this didn’t always happen. Tom said the environment was lovely and a welcome change from what he had left behind at the old SEAD. He also said that he had received more training in his short time with Bosco, than his many years with his former employer. He paid tribute to his colleagues for their support and a special note of thanks for James Heller for his guidance and support since taking over as Senior worker.

Alan then dissolved the committee and opened nominations for election to the new board.

• Alan Matthews was nominated by Lyn Matthews for the Chair of Trustees, seconded by Sr.Fidelma Frawley. Alan Matthews elected as Chair.
• Alan then announced that a new position of Vice-Chair would be needed. Alan nominated Mhairi Doyle as Vice-Chair. Seconded by Paul White. Mhairi Doyle elected as Vice-Chair.
• Anna Connolly was nominated as Secretary by Alan Matthews. Seconded by Mhairi Doyle. Anna Connolly elected as Secretary.
• Jose De La Cruz nominated as Treasurer by Paul White. Seconded by Linda Van Nooijen. Jose De La Cruz elected as Treasurer.

In his closing remarks to the AGM, Alan talked passionately about how saddened he was to see the rise in homelessness in recent years. He said: “According to official figures, homelessness has increased by 54% since 2010.”

“But these aren’t just statistics, they’re people,” he added. “You can see it, it’s visible on the streets. This is 21^st century Britain and you can’t walk down Church Street in the centre of this great city of Liverpool – my hometown – without passing a homeless person every few steps. I’m appalled by this and think it’s totally unacceptable.”

“That is why I want to throw down the gauntlet to our politicians. My challenge is this – make me redundant. Make Bosco redundant. Do everything in your power to help eradicate homelessness in Britain today.”

The Department for Work and Pensions will introduce the Youth Obligation, with tougher conditions and the removal of “automatic entitlement” to housing support for 18-21 year olds, in April 2017. Both, however, will only apply to young people making new Universal Credit claims.

Writing in Homeless Link blog, Paul Anderson says: “The Youth Obligation will only cover the types of claimants who would currently be claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, so it will not include people who are sick or disabled. The feedback from Government has been that the intention of the new tougher conditionality is to provide greater levels of support to those who need it to help them find work.”

He added: “It is worth remembering that most 18-21 year olds claim Jobseeker’s Allowance for less than six months. This means the obligation to undertake some form of training, apprenticeship or work placement will only apply to a minority of claimants.”

“However, because people experiencing homelessness are among the groups who most struggle to find paid work, they will be affected disproportionately. The Department for Work and Pensions are keen to learn from any employment support programmes that successfully engage with young people and groups that are most distant from the labour market.”

It has recently been announced that the Youth Obligation is only being introduced next April 2017 into geographical areas with the Full Universal Credit service rather than across the whole of Great Britain. Basically, this means that until an area has full UC, it will not have Youth Obligation.

Also expected soon are details of the new “Work and Health Programme” which will reform work-search support for some Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and long-term Job Seeker Allowance (JSA) claimants. This new programme is due to come in from September 2017.

As it’s summer time (though you wouldn’t think it with the unpredictable weather!) and school holidays are in full-effect, Venus is taking their innovative Parent-to-Parent (P2P) Volunteer Support Programme into the great outdoors.

Venus workers Clare and Louise recruit and train volunteers to support families throughout Widnes and Runcorn across a broad range of issues. They have devised a timetable of summery activities to help parents and children find fun, cheap (or even better, free!) things to do together.

Lou said: “In replacement to the Coffee Morning this summer we are holding one day weekly sessions out in the community for the families we support.”

“One week the activity will be held in Widnes the following week in Runcorn,” she added. “All the families and volunteers have been issued a time table in the post, with dates, times and public transport details.”

“This week we went to Victoria park in Widnes. There were games played such as tennis, egg and spoon. Football, rounder’s and jenga. Everybody got involved in at least one game and the children also played on the park. After packing up the families went to feed the ducks and swans.”

“Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves and said they would be coming to the next family session on 4th August, which will be held at Runcorn Hill Park.”

If you live in Halton and would like to get involved, call Venus on 0151 474 4744.

It seems like hardly a day goes by without the news media broadcasting a lurid tale of young people taking so-called ‘legal highs’ at some festival or other. But does this deter use or simply increase anxiety amongst parents? By all accounts it is the latter.

But these Novel Psychoactive Substances (or NPS, to give them their official title) can have life-threatening consequences and appear to be having a far greater impact amongst the homeless and prison populations. So what can support services for these groups do to ensure clients remain safe?

Homeless Link has produced a new briefing on NPS that provides some useful Good Practice tips. It states that the acute symptoms from an overdose of NPS include seizures, vomiting, unconsciousness and psychosis. Where acute symptoms occur, the following will help to minimise harm:

1. Maintain direct visual observation at all times.
2. Treat as medical emergency rather than a public order offence or mental health episode.
3. Call an ambulance rather than escorting in a police vehicle or a psychiatric unit.

Early identification and admission to A&E will give access to treatment, which may include rapid sedation and cooling followed by emergency anaesthetic.

Where NPS results in aggressive behaviour, there should be a local policy clear to all staff and clients on how this will be dealt with, following any medical intervention.

Of particular concern is the rise of synthetic cannabinoids (chemicals that activate cannabis receptors in the brain) because they are so potent that they can over-stimulate the brain leading to a seizure and, in some cases death. This is unheard of, as there has not been one recorded fatality caused by natural cannabis in the 10,000 years or so that humans have been using the plant.

So what is going on and how have we ended up here? Alan Matthews, Chair of Trustees at Bosco House, is a researcher and trainer with over 30 years experience in the drugs field. We asked him to explain the situation.

“I first heard about synthetic cannabis in Jersey, the Channel Islands, in 2002. Youth workers there told me that young people on the island were into this product called Spice, which you could buy legally in Head Shops. I was sceptical at the time because I reckoned that if it got you high it must be illegal. But at that time it was legal and from then on it just took off all over the country.”

The potency is the problem

“The reason why things like Spice are so potent, and so dangerous, is that this stuff really is not meant for human consumption. These chemicals, known in scientific circles as Synthetic Cannabis Receptor Agonists, or SCRAs for short, were invented to study the human cannabis receptor system – yes, we’re wired for cannabis!”

“When some entrepreneurs realised that these turned on our cannabis receptors they sprayed them on to some herbs and marketed it as Spice. The trouble is, these chemicals are designed to be used in the laboratory at tiny doses, millionths of a gram, but a bag of Spice may contain a couple of grams of highly potent material. Users have no way of knowing the correct dose so they often put as much in a joint as they would normally using real cannabis, and that’s how problems occur.”

“And then there’s the “baggy-bottom” problem. Because this stuff is sprayed onto the herbs it has a tendency to fall off and gather as dust in the bottom of the bag. When the user comes to the end of the bag they just pour all this highly potent dust into a joint. That’s an overdose, right there.”

“The government recently brought out a catch-all law, The Psychoactive Substances Act, which bans selling anything that has a psychoactive effect. But,” Alan adds, with a wry smile, “Alcohol and tobacco are exempt from this law, of course.”

Homeless Link recommend that client assessments should include questions about drug use, particularly NPS, and this should be discussed in key-work sessions. Building good rapport will help the client to feel comfortable and share personal information.

Staff should also be able to talk about their service’s drugs policy and be aware of their responsibilities under the Misuse of Drugs Act. To ensure this, staff should have sufficient training in these issues to gain the knowledge and confidence to engage clients in an effective conversation about their drug use.

If you would like to find out more about this topic or discuss learning needs for your group, email alan@alanmatthews.org.uk

The Homeless Link NPS Briefing for Homelessness Services can be downloaded here http://www.homeless.org.uk/sites/default/files/site-attachments/New%20Psychoactive%20Substances%20briefing%20July%202016.pdf

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is expected to announce a ‘medium-term’ solution to the benefit change, to shore up housing association confidence and unfreeze stalled developments.

Housing associations welcomed the concession but warned it was not enough to persuade them to continue to invest in frozen schemes. Nick Horne, chief executive of Knightstone, said: “Bluntly, what we want to see is a clear, sustainable solution that provides clarity to all providers of supported housing.”

From April 2018, housing benefit in social housing tenancies that begin in 2016 will be capped at private sector – Local Housing Allowance (LHA) – rates.

After supported housing providers warned that this will lead to the closure of schemes a one-year exemption was announced in March.

Now, following further fierce lobbying by housing associations, ministers plan to offer full exemption to supported housing units to protect them from the cut, which would run until a long-term solution is devised. Ministers are already working up plans for this solution, but it will take time to design and implement. Last month, the National Housing Federation proposed stronger regulation for supported housing and full funding.

In the meantime, the DWP wants to ensure schemes put on hold by the uncertainty can be unfrozen, as the longer exemption will encourage associations that the intention is not to slash supported housing funding. A DWP spokesperson said: “We will announce further detail in due course.”

The DWP had previously suggested boosted Discretionary Housing Payments may help pay for supported homes, but it is understood this is no longer being considered. It is unclear whether the exemption would be open-ended or for a fixed term. Bruce Moore, chief executive of Housing & Care 21, welcomed the move as “sensible”.

Despite the current political turmoil following the vote to leave the EU, parliament has a small period of time to make the announcement before the summer recess on 21 July.

SSHG member Neil Baynes, of New Start Homes, said: “This is positive news for supported housing providers. Although it does not give us long-term answers it definitely provides a significant reassurance that supported housing will continue to be defined as sitting outside normal restrictions relating to housing benefit/allowances.”