The conference in Wembley started with welcoming and introduction by Ieuan ap Rees from West Lodon Housing Partnership.
Michael Scorer(CLG) was talking about Government policy and what has changed with change of Government.
Richard Blakeway(CLG) talked about London Housing Strategy and the work of the London Delivery Board, including the Health & Social Care sub group.
Martin Cheeseman from Brent & West London Housing Partnership analised the situation of rough sleeping in West London. He summarised Chain data, PrOPMT analysis, differences between boroughs in terms of services provided, health audit in Brent, sub-regional work West London Reconnect & draft action plan.
Jeremy Swain of Thames Reach talked about the role of local partnerships and civic society sector to end rough sleeping. Jeremy Swain thanked Barka UK for their fruitful work with supporting the integration processes of Eastern European migrants to UK.
Barka UK staff: Andrzej Dawidowski, Marcin Maruszak and Radoslaw Skrzypczak participated in a workshop regarding enforcement. The discussion was to what extent enforcement was needed and how it could be delivered. Barka contributed with good examples of engaging with rough sleepers through trust and relationship building.
Barka UK was invited for the Forum on “Poverty and social exclusion” organised by the Committee of the Regions on 8 June 2010 in Brussels. Among the participants there were representatives of local and regional authorities, organisations and EU institutions who arrived to exchange good practice and discuss how to combat poverty and social exclusion at local level. The debates focused on making local social services more accessible to all, preparing people for integration into the labour market and inclusive citizenship in urban and rural areas.
