Our Single Access Point (SAP) Officer is an appointed person who processes all referrals in York for Supported Accommodation and Floating Support. This system makes referring for support a very quick and simple process.
Referrals submitted via SAP are for specialist support for:
- homeless people
- young people
- families and people with mental health support needs
All applicants must have a local connection to York to be considered for support. Those with mental health support needs must be engaging with mental health services.
Supported accommodation
Supported accommodation is offered where a person is homeless and requires accommodation with support in place. Supported accommodation should eventually lead to living independently, this is also called Resettlement.
Tier 1 supported accommodation is hostel accommodation where 24/7 support is available
Tier 2 supported accommodation is the next step to achieving independence and involves living in shared housing accommodation where weekly support is available by appointment.
Floating Support
Floating Support is offered where a person has their own tenancy, is living in their own accommodation and needs support to prevent homelessness and/or financial distress.
The SAP process
An online referral form must be completed by a referrer on behalf of the applicant.
Single Access Point Referral Form
The form cannot be saved and is time limited so prepare your information before completing online.
As part of an application you’ll need to provide copies of supporting documents, such as:
- Safety Management Plan (SAMP)
- Care Plan (CPA)
- Offender Assessment System (OASYS)
- Safety Plan
- Management Plan
We strongly suggest that you prepare such documents before starting this form so that you can locate them easily, and within the time limit. It is not possible to save partially completed forms, nor to retrieve information if the time out period is reached.
Referrals received without the required additional documents will not be processed.
A request for a particular service can be made in the referral but the final decision will be made by the SAP Officer who has a general overview of availability and suitability at any one time.
The SAP Officer can advise and give guidance on any aspect of referring.
SAP referral response times
The SAP Officer will assess the referral and refer on to an appropriate service, usually this is a same day service. The SAP Officer will acknowledge receipt of the referral and will advise where the referral has been placed for assessment.
For supported accommodation the waiting time to access will vary from service to service and will largely be dependent on the amount of people waiting to access accommodation.
The nominated service provider will assess the referral based on their criteria, which differs slightly from service to service. Contact will be made as soon as possible with any applicant, however, this does vary from service to service.
If a referral for supported accommodation is accepted, the applicant will be invited for an interview. If a referral for floating support is accepted, the applicant will be contacted to arrange a meeting.
Emergency housing requests
If an applicant has nowhere to sleep during the waiting period it may be possible for them to access emergency accommodation via No Second Night Out (NSNO). This can be requested via the Rough Sleeper Team on telephone: 07511161169 or by contacting Housing Options on telephone: 01904 554500.
Should there be an emergency and the SAP officer is not available, you can contact the Resettlement Services Manager, Lewis Rodgers, on email: lewis.rodgers@york.gov.uk, or telephone: 01904 553318.