Making housing referrals

Advisers will often need to make referrals to other organisations when a young person approaches them for advice on a housing problem. This section explains how advisers can make effective referrals to other organisations.

What organisations can I refer to?

The first thing you should do is find out what organisations you may need to refer young people to. These will normally fall in to three broad categories:

• statutory organisations, for example, councils and social services departments
• accommodation providers, for example supported housing projects and accommodation projects
• specialist housing advice agencies.

(See the separate top tip for advice on referring a young person to a solicitor.)

There are many existing directories that will help you to find organisations that you may want to refer young people to:

• Shelter's advice services directory
• the Yellow Pages or Yell.com - look under 'Counselling and advice', 'Accommodation - residential', 'Hostels', 'Housing associations and trusts', 'Letting agents', and 'Property management'
• Homeless UK or Homeless London (details of emergency accommodation and advice services for homeless people)
• Advice UK
• Community Legal Advice directory
• Tenant Services Authority (the regulator for housing associations and other registered social landlords)
• Direct.gov.uk (links to council's web sites; these can be searched for details of relevant departments)
• the Foyer Federation
• Nightstop UK
• the Voluntary Agencies Directory (published by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations - print only)
• Citizens Advice (the website will give details of local Citizens Advice Bureaux (the local CAB may be able to give details of other local organisations)
• the Children's Legal Centre.

Compiling a directory

To save you having to search for the relevant agency every time, you may want to compile a directory of organisations that you may need to refer to for your reference (and that of others in your organisation).

A basic directory can be simply a list of organisations and their contact details. However, it is worth having more in depth information, as this will save you time in the long run.

Include details of:

• what the relevant organisation does (for example, supported housing provider, specialist housing advice organisation)
• the target group of the organisation (for example, young people with disabilities)
• referral procedures (contact organisations to discuss this, especially if you are likely to refer clients to the organisation frequently)
• area covered by the organisation
• opening hours of the organisation
• disabled access at the organisation.

The directory can then be organised by type of organisation for ease of reference.

Shelter has produced Local know-how, a good practice guide to compiling a housing directory for young people, that gives a comprehensive guide to compiling a directory.

What information should I provide when making a referral?

If you have contacted the relevant organisation when compiling a directory, the organisation should give you details of the information they will need from you when you make a referral.

As a basic guide, you should normally include:

• your details : your name, contact details, and the organisation you work for
• basic details of the client : name, contact details, date of birth, etc
• the client's authority for you to make the referral (eg, a signed form of authority)
• details of the client's problem , and of how you hope the organisation can help.

It is a good idea to provide this information in writing, so the organisation can keep a record of the referral.