Oxford City Council has become the first council in Oxfordshire, and one of only eleven Local Authorities in England, to receive the National Practitioner Support Service ‘Gold standard’ award in recognition of its efforts to prevent and tackle homelessness in the city.

The programme, based on a national assessment framework, involves ten challenges, all aimed at promoting good practice and ensuring services are fit for purpose.

Recognising the recent award, Councillor Mike Rowley, Board Member for Housing, said:

“Congratulations to all involved! This is a real testament to the quality approaches that the City Council takes across all teams to tackle and prevent homelessness, and a great recognition of the dedication of staff. Delivering high quality services that make a real difference to people in need is what matters. It is fantastic that we can do this and receive recognition by external parties.”       

Developed as a result of the “Making every contact count” report published in 2012 by the Ministerial Working Group (MWG) on Homelessness, the Gold Standard Challenge is a local authority sector-led peer review scheme, designed to help local authorities deliver more efficient and cost effective homelessness prevention services. The scheme, aimed at supporting local authorities to improve their frontline housing services and increase opportunities for early intervention and prevention of homelessness, has been developed by the National Practitioner Support Service (NPSS) in consultation with voluntary sector and local authority partners.