Awarding a Duty

Introduction

This Block will cover the processes and assessments you need to make in order to award a Prevention or Relief Duty under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. We will show you how this places a legal duty on local housing authorities to prevent and relieve homelessness. The duties ensure that eligible applicants receive the necessary advice and tailored support to help them avoid or alleviate homelessness.

Early intervention and tailored assistance are key to the aims of the Homelessness Reduction Act. When you have completed this Block, you should have a good understanding of what the Duties are and how they arise, allowing you to help applicants gain access to help more quickly. We will also cover how these duties are ended and the processes involved for this occur.

The Prevention Duty is the duty placed on local housing authorities to prevent homelessness, using proactive measures to prevent homelessness whenever possible.

The Relief Duty is the duty placed on local housing authorities to relieve homelessness. The Block explains how this duty arises and the steps taken to secure suitable accommodation.

We will also look at personalised housing plans (PHPs) and explain how these plans set out the actions the applicant and the local housing authority will take in order to prevent or relieve homelessness. We will also look at how your assessments informs the development of the PHP in terms of the steps required and the necessary support needed in order to maintain accommodation.

The Block should take 18 to 20 hours to complete, with 4 to 5 hours of follow-up readings.

At the end of the Block there is an Assessments to test your understanding of how to award a Duty. The assessment is made up of 40 randomly generated yes/no questions. The pass mark is 70 per cent. This means that 28 of the 40 questions must be answered correctly. Once the assessment has been passed, you will receive a certificate showing your accomplishment in your personal dashboard.

Contents
We will look in depth at the following duties and responsibilities falling on local authority officers:

• Awarding a Duty
• Prevention or Relief Duty?
• Prevention Duty
• Relief Duty
• Local Connection
• Conclusion, Reference & Resources

Learning Outcomes
When you have completed this unit, you should:

• Have enhanced knowledge about the assessments and decision-making processes involved.
• Gained knowledge and understanding of the Prevention & Relief Duties.
• Developed an understanding of how the duties are applied.
• Built confidence and skill in carrying out assessments.
• Developed an understanding, by law, of the letters that need to be issued.
• Gained knowledge and confidence in what happens on the 57^th Day of the Relief Duty being awarded.
• Gained an understanding of what the right to review is, the process and when it applies.
• Have gained the knowledge on when best to make decisions on the Main Duty.

Conclusion

The conclusion to the learning block

References & Further Reading
At the end of the Block, you will find all the links to the references and there is also some suggested further reading that may also interest you.

Downloads
Contains the relevant downloads, by unit, that you will need to access information to support you through the block.