To approve the award of contract for a service to deliver enhanced housing management for refugee families during their second and third years of resettlement.

The first cohort (2016/17) of resettled refugees will be coming to the end of their second year of resettlement between November 2018 and June 2019.  The second cohort (2018) of families who have arrived between June and September 2018 will come to the end of their initial year of orientation and support between June and September 2019.  Families are provided with initial support during year one of resettlement through a contract with Refugee Action.  Families from the first cohort are provided with enhanced housing management support during year two of resettlement.

The model to provide 12 months of orientation and support to each cohort is adopted by specialist providers as the approach that achieves the best outcomes for people going through the resettlement process. National guidance, the experience of other councils, case work to date and the exit interviews conducted for the families due to reach the end of the 12 months of support have identified the following ongoing areas of need;

·         English language development (purchased via the council’s community learning team)

·         Support to access employment (provided for by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Building Better Opportunities project)

·         Volunteering and training opportunities ( offered by community services such as Herefordshire Voluntary Organisations Support Service)

·         Support with managing tenancy and associated factors such as benefit entitlement (commissioned Enhanced Housing Management for refugees service).

The enhanced housing management service considered in this report is designed to provide support to the families to enable them to sustain their tenancies during the second and third year of their resettlement journey. An open tender process has been followed, in accordance with the council’s contract procedure rules, to seek a provider to deliver enhanced housing management support for the third year of resettlement for the 2016/17 cohort and second and third year for the 2018 cohort.