The TASS team are part of the Private Rented Access Service (PRAS) at Path. Our goal is to support people leaving prison or on probation to access private rented accommodation as part of the AfEO scheme funded by DLUHC. Once settled in a property, we will support both the client and the landlord for the first twelve months to help ensure a successful tenancy.

My days are incredibly varied. Below are some examples of what I may get up to in a week.

Referrals and assessments – I will receive referrals normally from a Probation Officer or Plymouth City Council, for people close to or newly released from prison who are at risk of homelessness. I will then contact the client to arrange an assessment. I prefer to do this face to face but we can also offer assessments via telephone or HMP video link if they are still in custody. During the assessment I will assess the client’s affordability, any risks with regards to housing, for example are there any exclusion zones in place preventing them from living in certain areas, as well as their housing history and ability to manage a private tenancy. I will then make a decision as to whether we can support them and if we can, provide a figure of rent per month we would support them with, for example  £500pcm for a room in a shared house.

Signposting – I am in regular contact with my clients, so I will continually assess whether they could benefit from regular support and will make referrals where necessary. These could be to Improving Lives for support to apply for benefits, mental health teams, adult social care or specific offender support services.

Liaising with landlords – I am in regular contact with landlords that we work with at Path, as well as potential new landlords. I will contact them normally once a week to catch up about any properties that may have become available. I am also able to offer advice with any property/tenant related issues they may be having.

Applying for funding – Once a client has found a property, I will apply for funding to secure the tenancy such as deposits, rent in advance, contingency funds or benevolent funds. I will also support clients to source furniture and household goods, if needed. Once someone has moved in I will initially support them with applying for help with rent and requesting direct payments to the landlord.

Tenancy training – Myself and a colleague organise and deliver tenancy training for both Path staff and staff from other local agencies. These are offered as both face to face and online.  I am currently in the process of setting up a tenancy training session for people on probation housed in the local Approved Premises.

HMP Exeter Checkout lounge – I regularly attend HMP Exeter’s Checkout lounge. This is both a staff networking opportunity and a chance for prisons at HMP Exeter to chat with a variety of services in Devon and Cornwall that they may need to access on release. I provide general housing advice to the prisoners as well as occasionally taking referrals for our TASS team.

Ongoing training – There is a wide variety of training available at Path and I have attended some very interesting sessions, including “Prisoner awareness” provided by ex-prison officers, “Offender personality disorder awareness” and “Offender housing rights”.

Working with external agencies – As the lead for the service, I spend time visiting external agencies such as Probation, Plymouth City Council and an Approved Premises in the city, providing information about what the TASS team offer and how we can work collaboratively to achieve the best outcomes for our clients. I have also been involved in the South West Criminal Justice Accommodation Services Forum within my role as TASS lead.
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The rest of my day will consist of having a cup of tea and interacting with the rest of the wonderful team at Path.
I work both in the office and remotely which breaks up the week nicely, and the flexibility is perfect for me as a working parent.

​I work providing the Hiss advice service. The service has developed from our face to face Hiss Drop in which was open to all twice a week. Pre-Covid the most we would see in a week was 10-15 people.  In comparison I often take 30+ calls in a week; these are all recorded on a spreadsheet.
 
Providing a frontline service such as this can mean I am often the first person the clients have spoken to about their difficult and distressing situations.
 
This is an example of my day to day work in a week.
 

• Deposit Guarantee referrals: Collating information to the deposit guarantee team. In reality, a lot supporting documents need to be included with a referral; this has taken weeks in some cases.
• A2A:  Completing A2As with clients over the phone. This can be tricky as often the clients are not in the best place (physically) to be able to answer the sensitive questions asked of them, but we do our best to work around it.  I also receive a lot of calls from clients and professionals about where people are on the waiting list, which I pass onto the A2A hub.
• Devon Home Choice: Support ranges from assisting people to re-set their passwords, registering or updating DHC.  Working with the Community Mental Health Team to support a vulnerable patient with a hope to prevent a hospital admission by accessing more appropriate accommodation. Band B awarded.  Assistance given to bid and accept offers of accommodation, which leads to…
• Making applications to the Discretionary Housing Payment for rent in advance for social housing. Applying to DHP for rent arrears and (eg) a shortfall award for a person who needs to downsize.
• Benevolent and charity applications: Applying for other funding including Vicars Relief for rent in advance for those who do not qualify for DHP.  Eg A young lady who has 2 weeks until her due date, she is having twins and has no other way to be accommodated before the birth of her babies.
• Universal Credit: Assisting clients to update their journals with rent details.  Requesting and completing mandatory reconsiderations for the limited capability for work assessments, no result as of yet…
• Environmental Health: Advocacy on behalf of a professional and their client and family regarding dangerous private rented, liaising with Environmental Health to ‘encourage’ the completion and safety of works. We will be applying to DHP to clear the arrears to improve their move on chances.
• Rough Sleeper Team: Calls from people reporting to be rough sleeping or finding a rough sleeper. Detailed location and information sent to the team for them to check the following morning.  Explanation of how the Outreach service works and what they can offer.
• Advice to professionals: Various Alliance services and other agencies contact the Advice line and it feels good to share our knowledge about what we can achieve for our vulnerable people.

 
All work completed at home, tech can be an issue, but it’s working well today!