Duty to Refer

Duty to refer advice for professionals and agencies

The duty to refer is for professionals who work for the public agencies listed below. 

This duty requires these agencies to refer customers who are homeless or considered to be at risk of homelessness to the local authority housing teams for assistance.

The agencies subject to the new duty are:

• prisons
• youth offender institutions
• secure training centre's
• secure colleges
• youth offending teams
• probation services (including community rehabilitation companies)
• Jobcentre Plus
• social service authorities
• emergency departments
• urgent treatment centre's
• hospitals in their function of providing inpatient care
• Secretary of State for defence in relation to members of the regular armed forces.

Public authority's role and responsibilities

Some public authorities will be required to provide accommodation for certain individuals as part of their own legal duties, e.g. children social services authorities with a duty to accommodate a 16 or 17 year old under the Children Act 1989.

To make a referral, agencies should:

Step 1

Fill out our online referral form - you can request a form by contacting our housing advice team and the link will be sent to you.

Step 2

Once the referral has been received by Hastings Borough Council, the council will acknowledge receipt of the referral.

Step 3

The referring agency should also email housingadvice@hastings.gov.uk with any supporting information within 24 hours of receipt of acknowledgement.

Supplementary information required will depend on the agency referring, but should include where applicable:

• Risk assessments
• Adult Social Care Assessment
• Single Combined Assessment of Risk
• Domestic Abuse Stalking & Harassment Form (DASH)
• Child Arrangement orders
• Guardianship orders
• Residency Orders
• Family Assessments
• Support plans
• Child protection plans
• Discharge plans
• Mental Health Act (orders)
• Care / Support Plan.

Step 4

We will contact your client directly to arrange a housing options appointment. We will make two attempts to speak to your client but if we are unable to do so we will have to close the case and we will notify you that we have taken this action. A new referral should be made if our support is still required.