Soft Market Test - Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Feasibility Study

THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR COMPETITION Leicester City Council has a statutory responsibility to provide safe accommodation for domestic abuse victims (adult and child). The responsibility is laid down in the Domestic abuse Act 2021. There are related duties in the Housing Act 1996 and the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023. The provision of support is for all victims of domestic abuse including their children, regardless of their relevant protected characteristics, within 'relevant' accommodation (as defined by the Domestic Abuse Support (Relevant Accommodation and Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Sanctuary Schemes) (Amendment) Regulations 2021). The new duties (contained in Part 4 of the 2021 Act) on relevant local authorities aim to ensure victims of domestic abuse have access to the right accommodation-based support when they need it. The current model within Leicester City Council is to procure domestic abuse safe accommodation and related support services whereby the providers of the specialist support secure the accommodation from which their support will be delivered. They might own or lease this accommodation. This takes time, skill, knowledge, and resource to secure and can be a barrier to those organisations who might be interested in delivering specialist domestic abuse support. Within this model, the ability to expand units of safe accommodation is limited to what the support providers can source, and when, leading to higher placements in general needs temporary accommodation, with less support and higher cost. Leicester City Council, as lead for the Leicester Domestic Abuse Locality Partnership Board, would like to contract a consultancy supplier to establish if it would be in the best long-term interests of the Council to adopt an alternative method of delivering the domestic abuse safe accommodation provision, or continue as is. Prospective alternative models include: 1. Direct lease of suitable properties by the Council, which would be used by commissioned specialist support for the purposes of safe accommodation. 2. Adaption of existing Council properties to be used as safe accommodation by commissioned specialist support providers. 3. Acquisition (purchase) of suitable properties by the Council, to be used as safe accommodation, with specialist support commissioned to deliver from those premises. 4. A mixture of the above options or alternative model(s).