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Public duty to refer homelessness

The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 places a legal duty on public services to refer those who are homeless or threatened with homelessness to housing services, with the applicants consent. This is often referred to as the Duty to Refer (DTR) process.

Who does the public duty to refer relate to? 

Public services are defined as:

  • Health services – including accident and emergency, in-patient and all mental health services
  • Social care services
  • Children’s services
  • Prisons (public and contracted out)
  • Youth offender institutions and youth offending teams
  • Secure training centres (public and contracted out) and colleges
  • Probation services (community rehabilitation companies and national probation service)
  • Jobcentre Plus

How do I refer someone who is threatened with or is homeless in Salford? 

Greater Manchester authorities have designed and agreed to use one short referral form to ensure consistency across the region.

  • First, check with the applicant if they already have a case officer within Salford Housing Options Point. Please do not use the Duty to Refer form where people already have a case officer. If you wish to discuss a case, you should contact the Officer by email. Please bear in mind that the service is extremely busy and staff may not be able to respond immediately. If your query is urgent or you need to find out who the named case officer is, please email housing.advicecentre@salford.gov.uk 
  • If there is no open case, please get the individual's consent to refer them and then complete the below referral form. It is crucial to refer people as early as possible so that we intervene at the earliest opportunity to prevent and/ or resolve homelessness.

Self-referral form

Please note that people who are threatened with homelessness can self-refer using this form.

Upon receipt of the referral Salford Housing Options Point will allocate a Homelessness Prevention Officer to the case who will contact the applicant within three working days to discuss their situation, provide advice and arrange an assessment where necessary.

If the individual is homeless immediately at the point of referral they should be directed to attend the Housing Options Service at Salford Civic Centre, Swinton, M27 5DA. A triage assessment will be carried out and where the applicant is homeless that day, a same day assessment will be offered. Please do not direct people to the office unless you are satisfied that they are immediately homeless to avoid them being asked to come back another day. In such circumstances, use the Duty to Refer form. 

This form should be used to refer people to Salford City Council. Other local authorities will have different methods for submitting these referrals – please check the advice provided by each local authority on how to submit referrals to other districts. 

The individual can request to be referred to any local authority of their choice. However, if they are homeless and do not have a local connection they may be referred back to the authority where they do have a local connection. 

The duty to refer privacy notice is available to read on our data protection legislation page. 

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