Duty to Refer

If you are from an organisation that wants to refer a household that is homeless or threatened with homelessness please complete a referral form and email our Housing Needs Team with basic information about the household at dutytorefer@midsussex.gov.uk.

Duty to Refer form

Please include the following information about them:

• name
• household makeup
• address
• contact details
• basic information about why they are in housing need

They must consent to this referral so please provide confirmation of this in your email.

Please make sure to refer households to the relevant local authority so they can receive the most effective support. If they don’t live in Mid Sussex then you can find their local council online to report it to them.

The Duty to Refer becomes a legal obligation from 1^st October 2018, as part of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. It places a duty on organisations such as prisons, hospitals and social services teams to notify the local housing authority in advance of a client becoming homeless from their service.

Its aim is to provide the local housing authority with the opportunity for early intervention & engagement with the client. This maximises the amount of time that housing authorities have to help secure accommodation to prevent the client becoming homeless on their release/departure date.   

A full list of the organisations that will have this new Duty to Refer from October 2018 is as follows:

• prisons
• young offender institutions
• secure training centres
• secure colleges
• youth offending teams
• probation services (NPS & CRC)
• Job Centres in England
• social service authorities (both Adult Social Care and Children’s Social Care)
• emergency (A&E) departments
• urgent treatment centres
• hospitals in their function of providing inpatient care (including mental health)
• Secretary of State for Defence in relation to members of the regular armed forces

More information about the Duty to Refer can be found on the government website.