Have your say on the impact of the City Council cuts
Manchester City Council are having to make £59 million of cuts to services in 2015/16. This includes cuts to the Homeless Prevention Grant, through which they currently provide some funding to the Booth Centre. They have launched a public consultation about the proposed cuts and people have until 26th January to make their views known. You can take part in the consultation by following this link Click here to have your say We are concerned that in the homelessness section they have identified a need for a Young Person’s Homeless Prevention Service but they have not included a Homeless Prevention Service for people over 25 – instead they have just included help for entrenched rough sleepers and for new rough sleepers. We are very concerned that this could leave people who are at risk of homelessness or threatened with homelessness or who are staying in B+Bs or sofa surfing with no help to keep their accommodation or move to better/permanent accommodation. In the last 6 months the Booth Centre’s Homeless Prevention Advice Service dealt with 2,557 advice enquiries from 556 individuals who were homeless or at risk of homelessness. Our 4 advice rooms are in constant use from 9am every morning. A quarter of these enquiries related to benefit problems and over 10% related to helping people manage their bills and debts which can lead to homelessness if they aren’t resolved. The outcomes for this service in the last 6 months include; getting 104 people into better accommodation; helping 79 people to return to family or friends outside Manchester; getting replacement identification for 124 people, which people need to claim benefits and move into accommodation; helping 24 people to register with a GP and 33 to access other health services such as drugs, alcohol or mental health support. This work is currently funded through the Homeless Prevention Grant and through a grant from AGMA which is also due to end in March. Without this funding it will be very difficult for the Booth Centre to operate as an advice hub for homeless people or those at risk of homelessness where they can access advice around housing, benefits, health and legal issues. There is no question on the form about the need for a homeless prevention service for people over 25, so if you think this is a service that is needed, please can you include a comment to this effect in the box provided. And please add your voice to the many people who are saying that if at all possible the council should not be making cuts to homelessness services and that this is a false saving as it will just lead to more costs to the public purse in terms of additional health and criminal justice costs in the long run. Thank you for your support.
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The Booth Centre has lots of activities planned for people to get involved with over the festive period including Christmas lunches, films, quizzes and performances from our theatre and opera groups. Contact the team on 0161 835 2499 for a copy of the Christmas timetable. We will be closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. There will be no ESOL café over the Christmas period, the last session is Friday 12th December. ESOL café will begin again on Friday 16th January. Announcement about EEA benefit claimants in the Autumn Statement It was announced in the Autumn statement last week that the ‘genuine prospect of work’ assessment is to be introduced to migrants who have been claiming JSA prior to 1 January 2014. This test is already being applied after 6 months to those JSA claimants from EEA countries whose claims started between January and November this year, and after 3 months to those claiming from November. An EEA national with a jobseekers allowance claim made prior to January, who currently has passported Housing Benefit, and who fails the genuine prospect of work test, would lose both their JSA and Housing Benefit. We are not yet sure how this test will be applied, but it could have far reaching implications for jobseeking EEA migrants with current Housing Benefit claims. Reconnections The Booth Centre Reconnections Service is available to any EEA national who would like to return to family or work in the UK or Europe. We are able to arrange transport and travel documents where necessary. The service has returned 81 people between April and December. If you have anybody who wishes to return to their home country or needs support to access a firm work opportunity in the UK or another EEA country, then please contact us for more information. Booth Centre activities Breakfast is available to everybody from 9am-10am. Face to face advice is available to EEA nationals from 9am-12pm and agencies can contact us for information and advice Monday to Friday between 8am-4pm. We are looking to recruit a Kitchen Supervisor to run our training kitchen. This worker will be responsible for supervising the preparation of a free breakfast and lunch, training/supporting/supervising a team of volunteers, ordering, maintaining food safety standards, promoting health and well-being including working with our gardening project which grows produce for the kitchen and maintaining records. Applicants need to be enthusiastic, reliable, energetic, positive, flexible, creative and non-judgemental with experience of working in the catering industry and supervising trainees or volunteers. The Booth Centre has an open door policy and is extremely busy resulting in this role being both demanding and varied, so the ability to multi-task and excellent customer service skills are essential. Hours: 25 hours per week – 8am to 1pm Monday to Friday Salary: Living wage £7.65 p.h. + 10% pension Holidays: 25 days pro rata + bank holidays or days off in lieu of bank holidays Closing date for applications: 18th December 2014 at 2pm Interview date: 6th January 2015 The successful applicant will be subject to an enhanced DBS check An application pack can be downloaded here. |
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