Chris Best

Lewisham Supported Housing

Driving for Change bus

I was delighted to give a very warm welcome Lewisham’s Supported Housing and floating support providers and partner organisation staff. My career has been social housing and I was the Special Needs Officer for the Housing Corporation (now Homes England) and I enjoyed visiting and supporting the funding for new projects.

The Supported Housing event was an opportunity to meet and learn from each other and a thank you to everyone for the support given to our residents. Lewisham is proud to have such strong supported housing pathways and floating support services. The work carried out by the staff in our supported housing by such committed provider organisations is vital. The services provided are of critical importance to some of our residents who most need support and I would like to thank and recognise the hard work you carry out which can often be very challenging. Particularly I know in recent years it’s been more challenging than ever, with reducing budgets across the public sector meaning services are stretched and dealing with ever more complex needs.

The event was an opportunity to bring together our service providers, stakeholders and partners. To celebrate the sector, the workforce who are doing so much on the ground and to recognise that this work doesn’t happen in isolation but in partnerships locally. Hopefully there will be plenty of people meeting, and discussions about what works, about innovation, building new partnerships and building on existing ones.
I was delighted to talk to Driving for Change and learn about the programme that uses repurposed London buses to provide an all-in-one direct intervention service offering free GP consultations, haircuts, dental care, digital and financial literacy training, employment support, shower facilities, therapy assessments and essential everyday items. The aim is to give people experiencing homelessness pathways to potentially life-saving key services. A Driving for Change bus is now visiting Lewisham on a regular basis.