Sure Start teams could get access to homelessness database

At present, the Greater London Authority’s Notify system can only be accessed by NHS primary care trusts, housing, education and social services departments. However, it could be opened to Sure Start teams if the requirements of the Data Protection Act are satisfied.

Many of London’s 61,010 households in temporary accommodation miss out on Sure Start places for their children because they are not aware of the scheme and Sure Start teams are not always told which families live in their catchment area.

Research carried out last year for charity the King’s Cross Homelessness Project found that none of the clients interviewed who lived in temporary accommodation used Sure Start because they did not know about the scheme.

Mark Foster, chief executive of the King’s Cross Homelessness Project, said: “There are issues around Notify and making sure people’s information isn’t spread willy-nilly. But Sure Start is a preventative service and for it not to be within Notify is daft.

The organisations within Notify are more hard-pressed statutory agencies that cannot do the preventative work that Sure Start could do.”

A GLA spokeswoman said: “Notify was launched last May and we are still ironing out the development issues and making sure everyone is on board.

Sure Start is a preventative service and for it not to be within the Notify database is daft

Mark Foster, King’s Cross Homelessness Project

We will look to the future to expand it if possible.”

She added that the bodies that use Notify could share the information with Sure Start teams.

Notify alerts local authorities and primary care trusts when homeless households are placed in their area. It does not cover families placed by the National Asylum Support Service.

Some families in temporary accommodation fall outside Sure Start’s tightly defined catchment areas. Homelessness charities aim to set up Sure Start-type services for clients who fall outside its boundaries.