START Project

START Plus is a project developed in partnership with the Supporting People Unit and the Care and Support Unit. It builds on the START project, which has been successfully running since November 2006, and is the central referral point for people who need support to manage their tenancy in the community. The following services are accessible from START Plus Team as the central point of access:
Floating Support - assistance to sustain a tenancy
Supported Accommodation which are mainly in form of hostels designed as short term accommodation for up to a 2 year period.

Move On Accommodation - coordination and support to move out of the supported accommodation. As there are limited Social Housing opportunities, the team would support the service users in exploring other housing options including private sector.

START Plus is a new Housing and Community Care service that will be the single point of referral into and out of supported housing, floating support services and move on from hostels in Brent from October 2008. The team will co-ordinate access to services following an assessment, and match the applicant to suitable accommodation or support services. People ready to move on from supported housing within the Borough can also be referred to

START Plus for appropriate move - on options.

Referrals to START can come from current floating support providers, statutory and voluntary sector organisations, carers/relatives or from individuals wishing to self refer.
All of the Supporting People funded schemes will receive future referrals for their floating support service or accommodation based support via the START Plus team from October 2008 onwards. Referral agencies, relatives and families and self referring service users should contact the team directly to make a referral. The team will be based at Mahatma Gandhi House, within the Care and Support Unit.

The Start Plus IT database, developed and hosted by Locata, will be live on the 2nd August 2010. The database is interactive between Start Plus, the service providers and referral agencies. Applicants and referral agencies would be able to submit applications onlinefor floating support, supported housing and move on services from the above go live date. These on line applications would be made available for viewing and processing by Start Plus immediately after submission. With the introduction of the database, we would cut out the time delay in postage and administration so that support can reach the customers more quickly. In addition, the database will update vacancies within the different projects which would be accessible to providers, referral agencies and Start Plus at a glance, helping us to keep voids to a minimum. A number of training opportunities have been offered to service providers and other stakeholders. Start Plus is currently working with referral agencies for a demonstration of the on line application. Please contact the Start Plus team on

0208 937 2190 if you would like a presentation in your team/organisation.