Model 3: No dedicated NRPF workers

Social workers in generic social work teams will case manage families or adults with care and support needs with NRPF alongside their other cases. They will be responsible for meeting all of their care and support needs, including finding accommodation, paying subsistence, and finding long-term routes out of destitution.

6.1 Overview

Often, certain social workers or managers will be designated as a point of contact for assessing and supporting people with no recourse to public funds. Usually, a member of administrative support staff will be responsible for logging cases on NRPF Connect and administering subsistence payments.

Councils with dispersed services will commonly hold a regular case panel to provide oversight and guidance for social workers who hold cases with no recourse to public funds and to oversee services for that group as a whole.

This structure is common amongst councils with small numbers of supported households with no recourse to public funds. The distributed approach can more easily absorb periods of abnormally high demand for services or assessments as the increased demand is spread across all social work teams.

Social workers applying the same principles and skills to all cases will more naturally enable a consistency of generic social care. Councils will have to create policies and structures such as regular case panels and communities of practice to ensure a consistency of service provision for subsistence, accommodation, and other services unique to households with no recourse to public funds.

6.2 How key elements are delivered

Oversight

Oversight of individual cases is provided by team managers and some councils will hold regular NRPF casework panels to provide oversight and guidance to social workers whilst keeping track of costs and overall standards of care.
Where departments have a named lead for service for households with no recourse to public funds they will be responsible for developing the necessary policies and procedures.

Training and knowledge sharing

All social workers will need to have enough understanding of the NRPF condition and its implications to be able to assess and support a household who have no recourse to public funds.
Managers will also need to be confident that they can provide oversight on those cases.
Some councils will designate ‘NRPF Champions’ in each social work team who will receive extra training on assessments, providing support, and using NRPF Connect and be able to advise their colleagues.
A regular programme of training and knowledge sharing regarding supporting households with no recourse to public funds will be needed to maintain a consistent level of knowledge, skills, and service delivery across the council.

Referral Routes

Front door teams will identify families and adults with no recourse to public funds who are at risk of destitution and require a needs assessment.
Cases are allocated to assessors according to team and worker capacity, as with any other required assessment.
In the absence of dedicated workers or teams, it must be clear who is responsible for ensuring that referral pathways are properly designed and maintained, building relationships with VCS organisations, and keeping website information and external documents on referral pathways up-to-date.

Assessment of need

Assessments will be conducted in line with statutory guidance by social workers alongside their other assessments.
The social worker will ensure the assessment is conducted in line with statutory guidance and the may have to consider immigration-related aspects, financial circumstances, and support options abroad.
Social workers will carry out human rights assessments where necessary, referring to NRPF Network guidance and supported internally where they do not have experience of such assessments.

Provision of destitution relief

Social workers will manage housing and subsistence support as part of their care plan.
Often this requires a strong relationship with the housing department to help procure accommodation and administrative teams will create a generic system for providing subsistence payments.
Mangers must ensure that clearly defined policies and procedures can be followed to help address the unique aspects of care when working with households who have no recourse to public funds.
Clear standards help to ensure that support is provided consistently .

Provision of care and support beyond destitution relief

Assigned social workers will hold cases of households with no recourse to public funds and must ensure that needs continue to be met while accommodation and subsistence support is provided.
Cases may be transferred between teams, in which case responsibility for meeting needs and reviewing the case must be assigned to a social work in the receiving service.
Social care managers should consider how transition between social care teams will be managed, particularly regarding the provision of accommodation, subsistence, and a continued focus on finding a long-term route out of destitution.

Pathways off support

The assigned social worker will also be responsible for assisting supported households to identify and achieve long-term routes out of destitution.
The social worker must liaise with the key users of NRPF Connect to ensure cases are recorded, that immigration status is known, that referrals to immigration advice are made.
Social workers will liaise with other available services, such as employment or benefits support, and decide when additional support should be provided to help achieve a sustainable outcome, such as making a decision to fund immigration advice.
Responsibility for using NRPF Connect and keeping the system up-to-date needs to be clearly defined in the dispersed practice model.

Hospital discharge

Relationships with local NHS providers will be handled by managers as they are for other areas of social care and agreements around the provision of Section 117 aftercare and hospital discharge for people with no recourse to public funds will form part of wider relationships.
If the department has a manger responsible for overseeing services for households with no recourse to public funds, they will typically be responsible for negotiating protocols with partner organisations.

Transition to mainstream support

The assigned social worker will be responsible for supporting their client into mainstream services.
Where a staff member is responsible for overseeing services for households with no recourse to public funds they may write protocols for move-on support, provide guidance to social workers, and maintain relationships with mainstream housing, benefits, and employment assistance services.

Edge of care and discretionary support

Where people do not meet the thresholds for formal support, signposting information for households with no recourse to public funds should be available to all assessors and front door staff.
Complex eligibility decisions for edge of care support will need to be escalated through existing supervision and management structures, with relevant guidance and information informing decision-making.

6.3 Potential challenges

Surveyed councils who do not have dedicated NRPF workers reported the following challenges:

There is a high risk of varying practice between different social work teams if processes and standards for delivering services to households with no recourse to public funds are not clearly defined.
Doing the necessary training to ensure that all social workers and their managers can provide proper support and oversight can require a lot of staff time from staff who may seldom support people with no recourse to public funds but must be trained to do so.
As social workers are dealing with many types of need, it can be difficult to build and maintain knowledge of signposting and referral routes for people with no recourse to public funds. who do not qualify for social care support but can still benefit from other specialist support or voluntary sector assistance.
Child in need cases where only accommodation and subsistence is required can challenge service wide standards, such as visit frequency, when held alongside cases which require more support.
Measures must be taken to ensure continuity of care if households move between social work teams.
Social workers must be allowed sufficient capacity to address time consuming elements of meeting needs including arranging financial support, accommodation, and transition to mainstream support.