Supplementary written evidence submitted by Clearsprings Ready Homes (COR0172)

1) Q428: Can you provide the Committee with a breakdown of the number of people who are currently self-isolating in your accommodation, including initial accommodation, hotels, dispersed accommodation and HMOs? Of those, how many have been tested for Covid-19?

2) Q462: Stuart C. McDonald: If everyone could give us the up-to-date figures on who is in a shared room, that would be great.

Can you provide the Committee with the number of people in your accommodation who are currently a) in shared rooms  and b) specify whether these rooms are two-bedrooms or larger?

Wales

a) 149 people in shared rooms, predominantly those that arrived in Initial Accommodation prior to the instruction to no longer use shared rooms.

of which

b)  18 rooms are larger than 2 bedrooms

London and South of England

a)      1,503 People sharing rooms across both Initial and Dispersed Accomodation (including hotels); of that 187 people are sharing in Initial Accommodation, with the remainder in Dispersed Accommodation, predominantly in London.

of which

b)  78 are larger than 2 bedrooms

3) Q464: Chair: Could you all just confirm that? We have been given some evidence, reports from people saying that new arrivals are being put into shared accommodation and shared rooms, either in hotels or in other forms of initial accommodation, so that would be very helpful for you to check.

Can you confirm if you are placing any new arrivals into shared accommodation and shared rooms (including, for asylum accommodation providers in hotels or other forms of initial accommodation)? If so please explain (a) the grounds for your decision to maintain this practice, and b) how many new arrivals have been placed in such accommodation, and in what type of accommodation?

I can confirm that it is our policy to not allow any new arrivals to be placed into shared rooms and all IA subcontractors, CRH staff and Hotel staff have been informed of the requirement to provide single room accommodation only. There are no dispersals taking place to shared rooms or shared properties.

- If you have now stopped moving people into shared rooms, what was the last date on which people were moved into such accommodation?

Dispersed Accommodation 23/03/20

Initial Accomodation - 15/04/20

- Do you expect to maintain/resume the use of shared rooms once social distancing requirements are lifted?

We are currently developing the exit management plans in conjunction with the Home Office and room sharing will form part of that process, we are not sufficiently far forward in those planning discussions to be able to provide a firm answer. We have been actively working in Wales to eliminate the sharing of unrelated adults in sleeping quarters, over the last twelve months and have been successful in reducing the outstanding cases to 12. There are dispersal areas in the South were we have local agreements in place to reduce or limit the number of sharers, however in London the contract was bid on the basis of unrelated adults sharing rooms.

4) Can you provide the Committee with details of a) advice, guidance and/or recommendations that you have received from Public Health England  at national and local level in relation to the safeguarding of individuals in asylum accommodation and b) any guidance received from the Home Office on the same issue?

CRH meets with PHE and PHW on a weekly basis or as required to discuss specific IA related cases/issues, requirements for cases to isolate, transfers to the Brent Cross isolation facility . We have followed the advice published online via PHE and PHW as well as specific advice around testing, shielding and relocation of Asylum Seekers with specific medical conditions. As an example, in Wales PH have produced a translated advice booklet that we are now in the process of distributing to all Asylum Seekers in Wales and we will distribute the English one once complete.

We have ‘Gold Command’ calls with the Home Office and other Providers three times per week where we discuss the latest PHE/W advice and how that affects the delivery of the Service and impact on the client group, intake predictions and plans for Hotel usage/management, client comms and safeguarding updates. Advice has ranged for when to cease room sharing, movement around the estate, direct links to the Home Office Safeguarding Hub, Hotel suitability, consultation and approval processes and confirmation of how the Service can continue to be delivered, whilst safeguarding the clients/staff and following the government advice on non-essential travel and movement. The process has been a collaborative one with the relevant lead for each organisation taking responsibility for the necessary actions, with the Home Office coordinating the process and providing the policy guidance in conjunction with PHE/W and further engagement with education, Local Authorities, Health and Voluntary Sector partners all coordinated by the Strategic Migration Partnership Leads in each region.

5) Can you confirm whether anyone (service users or staff) has been able or has tried to access the tests for Covid-19?

- If so, please provide details, including how many service users and staff have done so, and how?

Please see service user data, we have had 2 members of staff that were symptomatic and called 111 and were then directed to a testing station – both tests were negative. The tests for the Service Users were arranged by PHE/W directly in their Initial Accommodation, at the hospital or at the isolation unit in Brent Cross.

May 2020