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Business Plan 2009-2012

1. Effective pathways out of homelessness

2. Skilled interventions to motivate and achieve change

3. Positive contributions to neighbourhoods, communities and society

4. User empowerment and involvement

5. Financial stability and robust governance

6. Communicating our experience and understanding the barriers leading
to homelessness.

1) Effective pathways out of homelessness

Thames Reach is entirely committed to securing ways out of homelessness
for those who find themselves on the street or in insecure, inadequate
accommodation. We also provide a range of prevention services to help
people avoid homelessness in the first place.

Breaking cycles that lead to repeat homelessness is crucial and helping
people to maintain themselves and become self-sufficient is therefore an
essential part of our approach. We focus strongly on helping service users to
build confidence and resilience. Social exclusion blights the lives of many of
Thames Reachs service users, so helping people develop and maintain
strong social networks with families and friends is also of paramount
importance.

The different initiatives described under this key delivery objective form a
pathway away from homelessness. There are many routes away from
homelessness and social exclusion and, given that the journey can be long
and painful, numerous obstacles and diversions that can lead to people
moving backwards. The pathway out is therefore rarely linear. Our job is to
maximise the different options people can choose, using Thames Reach and
others. As our ethos and values state, we are committed to never giving up on
people, no matter how complex, chaotic and challenging they may be.

This section covers four areas:

a. Prevention, including hostels diversion
b. Street work
c. Hostels as places of change
d. Sustainability: Tenancy support; education, training and employment.

a. Prevention

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Thames Reach has always undertaken work to help people avoid
homelessness, and especially street homelessness. Where it is possible, our
interventions will be minimal; that is, of the light touch variety as we actively
seek to avoid creating dependency.

Building on current activities, we will strengthen our service delivery in the
area of prevention. For many of the people we meet on the streets, especially
the most vulnerable, a place in a hostel is a good option. Here they can
stabilise and begin to develop the confidence and skills to move forward with
their lives. However, for others a hostel is not the right option. Indeed, the
hostel environment can be counter-productive for some people, especially if
they are new to homelessness. During the period of the business plan we will
seek to increase our capacity to divert people away from hostels in the
following ways:

i. Advice work to prevent homelessness

Over the last three years we have developed effective advice services
working in specific settings, often as part of a collaborative approach with
partners. The advice is directed primarily at those individuals who struggle to
break cycles of behaviour which place them at risk of homelessness and
those who are in danger of their housing situation deteriorating, increasing the
danger of them becoming street homeless. Different parts of the organisation
have developed this expertise, notably:

The HAWK team - Working with the probation service in outer east
London the team has succeeded in building up a reputation for
assisting ex-offenders by providing imaginative housing options and
support in related areas such as debt counselling and provision of
employment advice.
Camberwell Shop-front - A crucial part of the service offered as an
element of the Southwark Reach floating support service is shop-front
advice for residents of Southwark in areas such as housing benefit,
employment rights, debt counselling etc
Greenhouse Walk-in - The Greenhouse Walk-in, managed in
partnership with the City and Hackney Primary Care Trust (PCT), offers
housing advice to people in Hackney who need help to find somewhere
to live or assistance in maintaining their accommodation. Practical
interventions are also made by Greenhouse Walk-in staff to help
central and eastern European nationals improve their employability and
avoid sleeping rough.

Thames Reach is not aiming to become a major provider of advice services;
this is not a core business area. However, we will continue to seek
opportunities to offer advice that can divert people away from homelessness,
benefit people whose tenancies are at risk and increase self-sufficiency and
resilience. We will improve our ability to focus on those individuals who
frequently return to us with recurring problems so that they can be linked with
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specialist support and the underlying problems that create their cycle of
dependence addressed.

ii. Hostel diversion work

Through our role on the London Delivery Board
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and linked fora, we are
exploring in depth the pathways away from rough sleeping which, statistics
show, tend to be narrowly linear. The route off the street is invariably via a
hostel. The hostels pathway in London is, for many, an unsuccessful journey
that results in repeat homelessness. The most recent statistics (2008-09)
show that 30% of the people moving into a hostel are either evicted or
abandon. Of the 50% who do undertake a planned move out of a hostel, one-
third of these individuals are referred on to another hostel, creating a churn of
long-term homeless around the system. Although Thames Reachs hostels
have a very good record in terms of successful move on, there is a greater
need to divert people away from the hostel system and to find more
successful routes out of homelessness.
During the business plan period we will undertake initiatives to divert people
away from using hostels so that the routes out of homelessness are more
varied and the overall impact more effective. It is especially important to target
those people do not require the relatively high level of support provided in
hostels. Unless we can reduce dependence on a small number of central
London hostels to help people off of the street, we will not end street
homelessness by 2012.

This approach will build on some excellent work already underway in Thames
Reach, including:

Working with housing options teams - Thames Reach staff at the
Greenhouse Walk-in have undertaken work in conjunction with the
Housing Options team at Hackney Council, whereby they take
responsibility for assisting people who do not have a statutory right to
housing. They frequently refer them into a shared house in the private
rented sector (PRS). This option is often preferred to a referral into a
shelter or hostel. We will actively seek to replicate this model working
with other local authorities, in particular emphasising its importance as
a means of preventing new arrivals coming onto the street.
Lewisham Hostels Diversions Project As an illustration of the interest
in this approach, the London Housing Foundation (LHF) has allocated
funding towards developing such an approach, working with the
London Borough of Lewisham and Thames Reachs Lewisham
services.



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The London Delivery Board has been established to oversee the reduction of rough sleeping in
London to zero and is led by the London Mayors Director of Housing.
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This diversionary work is crucial if we are to end rough sleeping by 2012 as
street count information shows that new arrivals make up over 50% of the
street population.

b. Street work

The business plan covers a unique period as we run up to the
commencement of the 2012 Olympics, the target date for ending rough
sleeping in London. Over the next three years the development of our street
work services will be given special attention.

i. Establishing an effective 21
st
century street work model

Thames Reach has recently embarked on an initiative working with
consultants funded by the Department for Communities and Local
Government (CLG) that uses Thames Reachs balanced score-card audit
system as a quality assurance framework to establish the standards expected
from all teams undertaking street work. We aim to be at the forefront of new
developments in street-work and will focus on moving away from the need for
a precise verification of a person being a rough sleeper in order to receive
assistance and towards a more general assessment of need based on
vulnerability as the key prioritising factor.

At the commencement of the business plan period we have specific
contractual responsibilities for street work delivery in Tower Hamlets,
Hammersmith and Fulham, Croydon and Lambeth, and manage the London
Street Rescue service covering 20 other London boroughs. We are very well
placed to pioneer the changes needed to reduce the number of people
sleeping rough. We will actively collaborate in improving the level of
intelligence gathered and the way the information is disseminated and used
and develop a strong enforcement approach to harmful street activities such
as begging, drug misuse and street drinking, working closely with the police
and other street-based services.

ii. Reconnections

The reconnections pilot has put Thames Reach at the forefront of the work to
reconnect people from Central and Eastern Europe who are struggling on the
streets of London, with family and friends back home. This work will enable
Thames Reach to develop expertise in the practice of reconnecting people
more generally; for example, reconnecting a person to their home area in the
UK before they become entrenched on the street.

iii. Other routes off the street

Other options can be offered as an alternative to a hostel. For example, our
joint work with the London Ambulance Service has enabled us, where there is
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an associated health issue, to help more people off the streets and into
hospital.

Other examples of alternative forms of accommodation that we will seek to
develop during the Business Plan period include:

An assessment centre. A small unit achieving a regular throughput of
individuals whose needs can be rapidly assessed and responded to
within a short five to ten day time frame.
Access to a pool of short-life flats, available from housing associations
to let to people in housing need. Licences rather than tenancies are
offered and a below-market rent charged to reflect the quality of the
units which are not of a standard to let as tenancies. A pilot is currently
underway with a supportive housing association.

c. Hostels as places of change

Thames Reach has not identified the management of more large hostels as
an area of development and we are aware that some key local authorities
have indicated a wish to move away from hostels as the default
accommodation option for homeless and vulnerable people. Our four hostels
all have very good reputations. However we are determined to ensure that our
hostels can be yet more effective as accommodation pathways away from
homelessness; places where we can address health needs and skills gaps
with greater success.

During the period of the business plan a programme will be established to re-
prioritise and improve our hostel outcomes. It will:

Address the unplanned moves figure from hostels in collaboration with
Homeless Link who have been funded to explore this issue and
improve performance across the sector.
Examine whether we can further improve the linkage to second stage
housing projects within Thames Reach.
Explore how we can help people with severe substance misuse
problems reduce their dependence on drink and drugs and improve
their health.
Develop ways in which our hostel residents can benefit from the
creative assistance of Thames Reachs Vision Impossible arts tutors
and increase involvement with other purposeful activities.
More clearly define expectations about how hostel residents use their
time, with an emphasis on skills development and making changes in
lifestyle.

There will be important physical improvements to our buildings. We will
upgrade the physical quality of both Stamford Street and Graham House
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hostels using central government funding provided through the Places of
Change programme.

The work to help our hostel residents make better progress in all aspects of
their life links directly with business plan delivery objective 2, skilled
interventions to motivate and achieve change. Whilst making greater
demands of hostel residents and raising aspirations, we will continue to strive
to maintain and support the most complex and chaotic users of our hostels.
Eviction from our hostels will remain a last resort.

d. Sustainability: Tenancy support and education, training and
employment

i. Tenancy support

Tenancy support is a Thames Reach core business area. We have
succeeded in substantially growing this area of work between 2006 and 2009.
During the 2009-12 business plan period many of our current contracts will be
coming up for re-commissioning and a major objective will be to secure their
continuation. We will actively work with local authorities to help them achieve
their local priorities reflected through the National Indicators agreed with
central government, many of which are employment, housing and health-
related.

There will be opportunities to win additional floating support contracts. With
the ending of the Supporting People funding framework and its replacement
with Area Based Grants there may be possibilities of competing for contracts
which encompass a wider range of activities including employment and
health-related elements.

We will seek to develop our service approach, based on high expectations
around change and recovery. Where our housing projects do not lend
themselves easily to achieving the kind of interventions that are needed - for
example, the level of support that can be offered at the location may not be
adequate to achieve the changes desired we will seek to remodel or re-
provision properties. In some schemes the amount of sharing does not make
it easy for tenants to progress as intended and we will continue to replace
shared units with self-contained where this is necessary and practical.

During the business plan period we will continue to develop our expertise in
the area of tenancy support, extending our range of expertise and ensuring
that our services maximise the opportunity for individual service users to be in
control of their own support plan and, wherever possible, to make their own
decisions about how money provided to meet their support needs is spent.
This objective aligns with the governments agenda around the
personalisation of services.

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Thames Reach has positioned itself as a generic tenancy support provider
and we have a deserved reputation for working with complex, chaotic and
vulnerable tenants. Over the next three years we will move away from the
position of being perceived predominantly as a generic provider to one where
we are also seen to have the necessary specialist knowledge and skills to
address the specific needs of people with substance misuse problems and
offending histories. The distinctive delivery approach which will accompany
this development is covered below under key delivery objective 2, skilled
interventions to motivate and achieve change.

ii. Substance misuse

We have already embarked on an ambitious and considered move towards
developing our skills, and improving our reputation in delivering outcomes for
people with substance misuse problems. In essence, we are seeking to move
from managing the problematic consequences of substance misuse to skilled
interventions to motivate and achieve change. The key elements in this
change programme are:

Changes in culture
Improvements in skills
Effective management.

We have developed some important new treatment services and this change
is one that the organisation has embraced and must be progressed further.
Further detail on how this programme of change will be delivered can be
found in Thames Reachs Substance Misuse Strategy.

As part of this change we will also select preferred partners who offer
complementary approaches and resources. Together we will seek to
demonstrate best practice in collaborative working and increase
commissioning opportunities.

iii. Work with ex-offenders

The second development area is at a more embryonic stage and the strategy
will be developed during the first year of the business plan.

Thames Reach works with substantial numbers of people who have
experienced prison and are churning around the criminal justice system. For
example, around 40% of rough sleepers have experience of prison. As note
above, some of our services such as the HAWK team undertake work with the
probation service. Another example is our Southwark Reach floating support
service where staff support MAPPA offenders referred by probation.
However, despite our background in working with ex-offenders, including
some with extreme histories, we have had only limited success in winning
offender-related contracts. We will seek to improve our work with offenders
and to develop our understanding of how the criminal justice system operates.
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In doing so we will be better able to demonstrate that we have the necessary
knowledge and links to deliver a highly effective service to this group and will
measure how this is reflected in commissioning outcomes.

iv. Health

Additionally, we will seek to develop our relationship with PCTs which, from
2009, have been given a much greater commissioning role. We envisage
more opportunities to bid for contracts that are jointly commissioned by local
authorities and PCTs. This will require Thames Reach to have a better
understanding of the overall health needs of our service users and the service
responses that can address them.

Thames Reach has a number of highly successful specialist mental health
services with strong track records for working with vulnerable and chaotic
people in poor mental health. We will continue to improve our reputation for
delivering effective specialist mental health services where our partnership
approach is especially apparent; for example, with the Start team in Lambeth,
Southwark and Lewisham and the J oint Homelessness Team in Westminster.

Our approach will be to align our services and take up opportunities arising
from the reform of the National Health Service set out in the Dharzi review.
The review emphasises the importance of increasing patient rights,
developing services that encourage wellbeing and effective prevention and
encourages greater personal control by recipients of services. These are all
areas that figure significantly in the 2009-12 business plan. We will seek to
contribute to J oint Strategic Needs Assessments through which PCTs, local
authorities and partners are required to make a formal assessment of the
needs of their local populations and establish plans for meeting them.

v. Employment, training and education

The last business plan had a strong focus on helping people into education,
training and employment. The target of 20% of service users engaging in
formal education, training and employment was exceeded but now we need to
move to a new level and ensure that by the end of 2012 at least 25% of our
service users are in full time or part time employment. With the economy in
recession at the start of the business plan period, this will be a notably
challenge.

The main new employment-related project which will become operational
during the period is the employment academy. The employment academy,
funded under the Places of Change programme, will be developed with our
key partners, the London Boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark. It will offer a
range of employment services from a single location. Situated within the
building will be training rooms, meeting areas, space for businesses including
a social enterprise caf, existing Thames Reach employment projects and
various services provided by other voluntary sector organisations and the
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local authorities. Service users will be expected to use the facilities in a
structured and purposeful way with a clear plan and objectives. It is envisaged
that the employment academy will make a significant contribution towards
helping the two local authorities achieve their National Indicator targets linked
to worklessness.

The main focus during the period will be to help service users into mainstream
jobs and to support them to sustain their employment and progress to jobs
that are more secure and better paid. This will be done by:

Continuing to develop programmes such as TRaVEL and Moving in
Moving On (MIMO), our painting and decorating programme. These
help skill-up people and enable them to acclimatise to the requirements
of work and to understand the expectations of the employer.
Developing better links with key employers either via a range of
voluntary, business and public sector bodies or directly, where it is
practical and advantageous to do so.
Developing our capacity, often in partnership with employment
specialists, to offer in-work support and career progression.

Both of these areas will be supported by Thames Reachs Breakthrough
Project which is focused on the need to help people get into mainstream
employment. The Breakthrough Project also seeks to highlight and address
the obstacles that prevent people making the transition from worklessness
into employment, for example the high rates of dyslexia and the very poor
literacy and numeracy skills that seriously handicap a significant number of
Thames Reach service users.

Thames Reach teams and services will be encouraged to sell their expertise
and develop self-generated income streams wherever possible. We will
continue to support StreetShine, the shoe care business in which Thames
Reach has a majority shareholder stake as it seeks to restructure its business
and to champion the social enterprise model which combines social objectives
with a strong entrepreneurial, business-focused approach. The opportunity to
become self-employed or to join a social enterprise organisation will be
options that service users will be actively supported to consider and prepare
for.

Over the next three years, SHiFT, our painting, decorating and refurbishment
team will focus on offering a high quality internal service to Thames Reach.
This work will provide SHiFT with a major income stream. SHiFT will not
undertake external work (with a few exceptions) until it has established its
credentials as a Direct Labour Organisation (DLO) within Thames Reach.

2) Skilled interventions to moti vate and achieve change

a. Improvements in casework management

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Thames Reach has already embarked on a major initiative to improve the
quality of our work with service users. Through the casework management
programme we will improve the quality of our casework, with greater
emphasise on achieving, measuring and evidencing change in our work with
service users. The new approach is strongly aspirational, expecting more from
service users and requiring a more purposeful approach from staff in their
engagement with service users. We will also continue to develop motivational
techniques for working with service users based on Cognitive Behaviour
Therapy (CBT) and similar models.

This very significant change in our approach is being overseen by the Service
Improvement Group (SIG) led at a senior level by Thames Reachs two
Service Directors.

b. Greater flexibility in the use of offices

Along with developments in our approach to engaging with service users we
will continue to encourage ways in which staff can be more mobile and less
office-bound. As a result of the technological IT developments being
introduced during 2009, staff will have greater freedom to work at different
sites away from their main office. Greater efficiency in use of time will improve
the overall service to service users. It will also assist the organisation to be
more cost-effective in its use of its offices.

During the business plan period we will undertake a full review of how our
offices are currently being used and make recommendations about more
effective use of the space. Pilots will be undertaken to assess the benefits of
greater desk-sharing and the creation of more shared break-out space for
staff and service users.

c. Staff training and a career pathway within Thames Reach

The changes envisaged require committed, competent staff who feel
supported by the organisation, find the work both challenging and enjoyable,
and are well trained and appropriately empowered to make decisions in their
day to day work. We will continue to make a big investment in staff training
and ensure that there are clear pathways through the organisation for staff
wishing to further their careers at Thames Reach and who are able to develop
the requisite skills and attitude to take up new roles.

The pathways programme, established to encourage staff to move into
management positions, will be retained and developed. Our commitment to
addressing the issue that a relatively small number of staff from a black and
minority ethnic (BME) background are in management positions within
Thames Reach will continue.

We will also seek to ensure that, at all levels within the staff group, people
with disabilities find Thames Reach to be a disability-friendly organisation and
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that the number of staff who define themselves as having a disability
increases during the business plan period. We will do this through improving
the accessibility and functionality of workplaces and systems for people with
disabilities and commission training and support to improve disability
awareness levels.

d. Improvements in staff wellbeing

It is extremely pleasing to see from the Sunday Times Best Companies to
Work for results that Thames Reach is regarded by staff as a very good
employer, where levels of work place stress are low. However, over the next
three years we will give special attention to improving the well-being of staff,
help them to achieve a good work-life balance and find ways in which stress
levels can be reduced and tackle the ongoing higher than sector-average
sickness levels at Thames Reach. We will continue to help staff find a good
work-life balance

e. Service users as skilled members of staff

By the end of the last business plan period, 71 staff members, 18% of the staff
group, were former or current users of services for homeless people. This was
an outstanding achievement and exceeded the target of 15%. The initiative
that led to the achievement of this target, Giving Real Opportunities for Work
(GROW) has succeeded in creating a positive and permanent culture change
at Thames Reach and during the business plan period we will continue to
build on this achievement, bring even more service users into the work-force
and increase the capability of people with a history of homelessness to create
positive change through being inspiring role models. The roll-out of National
GROW is addressed under key delivery objective 6, below.

f. Succession planning

The board, through the governance committee, has requested that greater
attention be given to the issue of succession planning at Thames Reach so
that the organisation can be confident that it is successfully addressing the
need to ensure that the best staff are recruited and retained and that our
effectiveness is not reduced as a result of the unexpected loss of key
personnel. The 2009-2012 business plan therefore includes a succession
planning review, and the results of this will be considered by the full board.

3) Positive contributions to neighbourhoods, communities
and society

During the business plan period we will explicitly seek to move to a position
where our services are regarded as a local asset. We will offer resources to
local communities and, following a programme of actions, be able to illustrate
the benefits of our services and the contribution we make to addressing social
ills and building harmonious community relations.
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The relationships our services have with people in the neighbourhoods where
they are situated have generally been good. However, there is a great deal
more that we can do to invest in local communities. We will address this as a
specific programme over the next three years including:

At a strategic level where we will seek to be more involved in Local
Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) and with the business community
At a local level, where teams will be expected through annual work
plans to show how they are contributing to the local community and
finding ways of enabling the public to understand our work and the
needs of homeless and socially excluded people.

We expect that over the next three years there will be increasing opportunities
for Thames Reach to extend the use of our services as local resources. For
example, the employment academy that we are developing in south London
will focus on meeting the needs of the local population; both people in the
community who are workless and need to improve their employability and the
local population more broadly which can use some of the facilities available at
the employment academy.

The objective is to reach a point where each Thames Reach service is being
actively supported by members of the local community, some of who are
prepared to invest time in Thames Reach. In return, we must be able to show
the value to communities gained from having Thames Reach projects situated
within them. Our communications strategy, primarily addressed under key
delivery objective 6, communicating our experience and understanding the
barriers leading to homelessness, will place greater emphasis on the need to
raise our profile positively on a local level.

We will also develop our environmental policy to ensure that Thames Reach
fulfils its wider corporate social responsibilities to improve sustainability and
quality of life.

4. User empowerment and invol vement

Thames Reach is developing a distinctive approach to user empowerment
based on the triple pillars of Person Centred Planning (PCP), mutual support
and strong social networks.

a. PCP

A person-centred approach has always been central to Thames Reachs
service delivery with an expectation that the individual service user contributes
fully to developing and fulfilling the objectives established through their own
support plan. Over the last two years we have strived to further develop the
lead role service users take in establishing their goals and the steps to
achieving them through Blue Salmon, a website for service users to help them
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develop a life plan, created in collaboration with our partners Lemos & Crane.
Unusually Blue Salmon covers areas such as identity and social networks and
offers a framework that service users feel more relevant and encouraging than
traditional support plan structures.

PCP offers the opportunity of developing more effective casework with better
outcomes by encouraging service users to initiate, shape and negotiate their
own priorities instead of the plan being imposed by the support worker. The
PCP approach is based on techniques and exercises designed to help
individuals establish achievable goals based on positive experiences and
challenges staff to be led by service users aspirations that may step beyond
the usual boundaries imposed by traditional structures. The development of
PCP within Thames Reach will align with the personalisation agenda that will
be an increasingly significant element of the support and care framework in
the UK over the next three years.

Through PCP we will give greater emphasise to helping service users define
and address their health needs. Many service users suffer from extremely
poor physical and mental health. We will undertake a comprehensive
assessment of the health needs of our service users and from this we will
establish an organisational action plan to improve health and wellbeing.

We will also continue our work to help service users increase their money
management skills and level of financial awareness. Many of Thames
Reachs service users live close to the breadline and helping them to make
the best decisions around expenditure is a crucial part of the key-worker
support role and an important area where meaningful choices can be
established and empowerment developed.

b. Mutual support

Thames Reach has been at the forefront of peer support programmes for over
10 years. Peer support is a very distinctive part of service delivery at Thames
Reach and its benefits in terms of developing skills and increasing self-esteem
can be seen in the work of TRaVEL and the Saturday Club. The Saturday
Club is a group which is entirely user-led and provides mutual support to its
members, most of whom are users of homelessness services, alongside
activities and the opportunity to educate others about homelessness.

Thames Reach will continue to encourage mutual support amongst its service
users. Whilst we will always see it as vital for service users to be part of the
community in which they settle and to develop interests and support systems
outside Thames Reach, we do not regard it as a negative thing for service
users to continue to find a bond with other people who have also experienced
homelessness. We believe that these support structures can be positive for
the individual and for Thames Reach, especially where the group is able to
inform the organisation and the wider world about homelessness and how to
escape it.
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Some service users have chosen to develop a more formal role within
Thames Reach as volunteers. Service user volunteers are frequently
influential role models and they have a considerable impact on both staff and
other service users. We will continue to support the use of service user
volunteers across the organisation, complementing the work of staff.

c. Social networks

During the last business plan period important strides were made in helping
service users develop natural and enduring social networks based around
contact with families and friends. Despite this, the 2008 organisational service
user consultation exercise to which over 600 service users responded
reported that only 30% of service users felt that they had been assisted in
developing strong social networks, yet over 65% wanted staff to help them to
do so.

As a consequence of these findings we will continue make the development of
strong social networks a high priority. Progress in this area will be measured
by using the outcomes star which is Thames Reachs main instrument for
tracking and analysing soft outcomes.

d. Extending user involvement

The increased confidence gained by service users has enabled Thames
Reach to make use of their experiences in a variety of ways which have been
beneficial to the organisation. For example, service users have undertaken
mystery shopping exercises, assisted with service user surveys, helped to trial
new products, contributed as members of interview panels and teams bidding
for new contracts and advised on campaigns. Over the next three years we
will further increase the influence of service users and our approach and
objectives will be established through a new User Involvement Policy. We will
actively seek different ways of involving service users and increasing levels of
customer satisfaction, particularly through exploiting new media opportunities
including social networking facilities.

Service users have direct contact with the board through events such as the
service user conference. There is formal contact via the central council which
brings together service user representatives and the board. At these meetings
discussion takes place concerning various current and proposed activities and
organisational developments. There are service user representatives on the
services committee who act as expert advisors. During the period of the
business plan the link between the board and service users will be sustained
and reviewed with the objective of increasing the effectiveness of the
engagement and increasing the input that service users can have into board
debate.

5. Financial stability and robust governance
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In the last three years the organisation has exceeded its growth target of 15%
net growth. Growth from 2006 to 2009 was 20.4% and Thames Reach
extended its work into six new London boroughs
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. Thames Reach has a
growth strategy, agreed by the board, which establishes growth priorities in
terms of areas of work and geographical range. During the business plan
period, progress against the growth strategy will be assessed and the strategy
reviewed to see if it needs to be updated with regards to the challenging
economic circumstances currently pertaining in the UK.
The recession presents a very significant challenge to Thames Reach. During
the business plan period we can expect the demands on our services to be
greater than ever as people face a reduction in income, a contracting job
market and an increased threat of homelessness. It is highly likely that the
next Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) will lead to reduced public
spending and therefore a reduction in the funding available to support socially
excluded groups such as homeless people. The ending of the ring-fence on
the Supporting People budget from April 2009 may also lead to funding
drifting away from groups for whom local authorities do not have a statutory
duty. The bulk of Thames Reach service users fall into this category.

Thames Reach will continue to base its growth strategy on the core business
model approach, established when the previous business plan was
developed. We will invest time and resources in those operational areas
where we have a strong reputation for excellent service delivery, a significant
market share and can be cost effective. We will also continue our current
approach of purchasing properties in order to strengthen Thames Reach
financially, offer more and better services to our service users and to increase
the organisations sustainability. The following specific initiatives will form part
of the business plan:

a. Retaining existing contracts

As noted earlier, many of Thames Reachs existing contracts are due for re-
commissioning during the business plan period and it is essential that the
organisation retains as many of these as possible and positions itself to bring
new services into management. Thames Reach has a stakeholder review
process designed to help us understand the changing needs of
commissioners and funders and we will continue to be committed to making
effective use of the information arising from it. We will also continuously
analyse our contract pricing to ensure that we are competitive and seek to
show the wider cost benefits of providing services to our client groups, as well
as the broader social return on investment.

In order to build up the body of evidence around wider cost benefits and social
return, we will occasionally undertake to track these benefits systematically, if

2
These are: Brent, Croydon, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Hammersmith and Fulham and Greenwich.
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necessary through paying for additional consultancy support. An example of
this is the work being undertaken to measure the wider business impact of the
national GROW programme. We will also collaborate with other organisations
and academic institutions to develop the cost benefit and social return on
investment body of evidence.

b. Developing new areas of business

As noted under key delivery objective 1, we will increase the skills and
knowledge base of the organisation in order to undertake more work and
deliver an increased number of services to people with substance misuse
problems, offenders and those who suffer from significant physical and mental
health problems associated with homelessness.

c. Reducing office costs

In 2008 the Senior Management Team reviewed the organisations contract
pricing and from this exercise it was concluded that savings were required on
office costs. The review that will be undertaken to explore how we can make
more efficient use of our offices and improve service delivery through further
developments in flexibility and responsiveness is covered above under key
delivery objective 2. Over the business plan period we will improve the use of
office space through, for example, desk sharing, increasing the accessibility of
space and facilities for staff at offices which are not their primary location and
sub-letting to other organisations.

d. Property development

Thames Reach has recently bought offices and a resource centre in Stockwell
financed by reserves, supplemented by a grant from a trust funder. A new
property development committee has been formed and a property
development manager appointed for the first time. During the business plan
period we will produce a property development strategy and investigate
further opportunities to strengthen our balance sheet and to reduce costs over
the long-term by purchasing buildings. Once it has been developed, Thames
Reach will own the employment academy and there is also the possibility of
the organisation taking ownership of the Robertson Street hostel in Clapham
where we currently provide support and housing management services. We
are only able to take ownership if we become a Registered Provider. During
the business plan period we will assess the opportunities and risks of
becoming a Registered Provider and seek to achieve this status should there
be a compelling business case to do so.

e. Cash, confidence and cost

Particularly challenging financial conditions have led to the organisation
focusing on reducing costs across the board under a programme called cash,
confidence an cost which will continue throughout the business plan period.
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The programme requires teams to demonstrate savings, scrutinise
expenditure closely and bring additional discipline to overall cost control.

f. Fundraising

Thames Reach receives most of its funding from statutory sources, notably
local authority contracts, and the focus is intentionally on maintaining existing
contracts and winning new ones. However, we also wish to increase the
actual income achieved through non-statutory sources, primarily trusts but
also from public donation.

The fund-raising strategy will be reviewed and aligned to the new business
plan. Specifically, the various programmes established through the business
plan will provide a coherent platform on which fund-raising proposals can be
built. The objective is to find sources of unrestricted funding and support that
can sustain services and programmes in the long-term and offer the flexibility
to address new pressure points and allow for experiment and innovation.

Initially fund-raising priorities will be based upon funding existing services and
initiatives which are suffering a financial shortfall, but staff and service users
will be encouraged to formulate ideas for new services and for meeting new
needs or existing needs in new ways.

g. Governance review

Thames Reach has an excellent reputation for strong governance and
transparency. We will continue to give attention to improving our governance
arrangements and during the business plan period ensure that the boards
performance is scrutinised through an evaluation undertaken by an external
consultant.

Thames Reach is currently an exempt charity and Industrial and Provident
Society. The organisation is required to seek a primary regulator and will
explore the option of becoming a charity registered with the Charity
Commission.

We will also undertake to review the legal structures that could be adopted to
enable Thames Reach to take ownership of properties which have Social
Housing Grant (SHG) attached so that in the future Thames Reach can
consider taking into ownership its hostels or other supported housing
schemes.

6. Communicating our experience and understanding the
barriers leading to homelessness

a. Influencing through our frontline experience

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Thames Reach has a vision of a society where street homelessness is
permanently ended. The strong moral imperative that is at the centre of our
work is set out in our ethos and values statements. To enable us to achieve
our mission, that everyone has a decent home, experiences supportive
relationships and can lead fulfilled lives, it is important that we can influence
policy-makers, opinion-formers and the public. During the last three years we
have developed a number of compelling campaigns to draw attention to
issues such as how money from the public given to people begging on the
street is invariably spent on hard drugs, the damage done by super strength
drinks and the needs of service users whose health problems make them
older than their years (the young olds).

We also need to communicate with clarity and persuasiveness to
commissioners and funders so that they fully understand our business and the
approach that enables us to offer an enormous range of effective services to
homeless and socially excluded men and women. Where we have developed
a model that works, we will seek to achieve a wider impact through extending
it on a national or international scale. An example of this is GROW, now
being funded by central government so that its impact in terms of bringing
service users into the workforce can extend across the homelessness sector
nationally.

b. Listening to staff and service users

Internally, staff and service users must to be kept abreast of organisational
developments in an open and honest way and provided with opportunities to
influence the organisations direction of travel. They must be supported to
raise the profile of their services and assisted to communicate what they do
crisply and effectively.

c. Communications strategy

During the business plan period a communications strategy will be created to
ensure that we deliver effectively in three key areas:

Campaigns on issues directly affecting homeless people
Influencing commissioners and funders
Ensuring that staff and service users can understand and influence the
organisations direction of travel.

The new communications strategy will place particular emphasis on the
following:

i. Service users being able to directly achieve influence

We have been especially successful when service users have been given the
opportunity, supported by the communications team at Thames Reach, to tell
their stories and give their opinions directly to the media, politicians and other
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opinion-shapers and policy makers. This approach will be continued and
extended.

ii. Greater emphasis in linking our messages with fund-raising

The strategy will strengthen the tie-in between the campaign message and
Thames Reachs effectiveness in delivering high quality services to some of
societys most vulnerable people. We seek to see a stronger return in terms of
financial support for Thames Reach.

iii. Achieving more impact on a local level

To link with the need for Thames Reach to have a positive impact on local
communities and to maximise opportunities to win new business, a greater
emphasise will be given to responding to local agendas.

iv. Making use of new media

We will exploit the opportunities to get our messages over externally and
internally through new media such as Twitter, Facebook and others formats.
The Thames Reach website will be further improved and new opportunities
provided through which service users can give their opinions about the
services being delivered by Thames Reach.

d. Understanding the barriers

Thames Reach will be actively involved in research to increase our
understanding of what interventions help people move away from
homelessness and social exclusion on a permanent basis. We want to know
more how to overcome the various barriers that prevent this from happening
as well as ways of addressing the triggers that can lead to people returning to
homelessness. At the start of the business plan period we are involved with
five pieces of research that we expect to influence our service delivery over
the period. Findings from these pieces of research will be routinely
disseminated and we will seek to measure the impact of the research on our
approach to service delivery and the outcomes we achieve.