Introduction

The HUB advice centre in Bristol has achieved a national and international reputation for multiagency working in the field of services for single homeless people. By uniting staff from voluntary and statutory, and local and national organisations, The HUB has broken new ground in bringing together a wide range of agencies to work holistically to meet the complex needs of single homeless people. It has won awards and has received a constant stream of visitors seeking an explanation for how Bristol has managed to achieve such a combination of expertise under one roof. The Hub is only one of a number of linked multiagency activities directed at homeless people in the city.

This chapter explores the ‘new terrain’ of Bristol's policy response to single homeless people. It has been widely acknowledged that there is a need for an integrated policy approach and coordinated service planning between both statutory and voluntary not-for-profit agencies. This has become known in recent policy debates as the need for ‘joined-up thinking’ (Social Exclusion Unit, 1998; Cabinet Office, 1999).

Multiagency working has been widely discussed in the literature over the past few years (Goss and Kent, 1995; Arblaster et al, 1996; Hambleton et al, 1996; Oldman, 1997), yet examples of successful multiagency working remain limited, particularly where housing and employment services are involved alongside health and social services and there is full participation by the voluntary as well as the statutory sector. Private sector involvement also played a limited but key role in the Bristol experience, and this too appears to be unusual. There is widespread interest in whether services developed in one locality are replicable elsewhere.

After considering the potential and difficulties involved in multiagency working, the chapter considers the growth and effectiveness of Bristol's multiagency services in meeting the needs of single homeless people, drawing on a research study carried out during 1997. The research focused on how local multiagency projects had come about and on issues which had arisen during their development and management, as well as considering how effective the services were in meeting the needs of single homeless people.

The study focused at service delivery level on six projects:

• • The HUB, a multiagency housing advice centre;

• • a primary healthcare team working with single homeless people;

• • a voluntary day centre;

• • a voluntary outreach team;

• • a winter shelter;

• • specialist staff working with homeless people within a multiagency mental health service.