St Mungo’s urges party conference members not to cut resources for homeless people

23 September 2009

St Mungo's, alongside Crisis, the charity for single homeless people, will be pressing for more, rather than less, investment in services for homeless and vulnerable people at Labour and Conservative party conferences this autumn.

The organisations will host two joint fringe events at both the Labour and Conservative party conferences in Brighton and Manchester respectively.

These will highlight the huge obstacles faced by homeless and vulnerable people in finding work in the current economic climate, and the need for better mental health services.

Speakers will include Phil Hope MP, Minister for Care Services, Grant Shapps MP, Shadow Housing Minister, Richard Blakeway, Director of Housing, Office of the Mayor of London, Mike McCall, Executive Director of Operations at St Mungo's and Martyn Warr, a peer research on the St Mungo's Happiness Matters project.

Full details of the events follow. The events are open to the public to attend, no reservations needed.

ENDS

For more information, or to reserve a press seat at an event, contact Judith Higgin, St Mungo's, on 020 8762 5645 or judith.higgin@mungos.org

Labour Party Conference, Brighton

Monday 28 September, 12.45-2pm, umi suite, umi Hotel Brighton, 64 Kings Road, BN1 1NA

Worklessness and social exclusion: A lost generation?
Speakers: Helen Goodman MP, Work and Pensions Minister; Prof. Paul Gregg, University of Bristol; Phil De Montmorency, Director of Work Programmes, St Mungo's; Duncan Shrubsole, Director of Policy and External Affairs, Crisis
Chair: Debbie Coulther, NEC

This debate will focus on how Government can ensure that no-one gets left behind in this recession. How can the most excluded in our society, including those who are or are at risk of becoming homeless be encouraged back to work as part of their recovery route?

Tuesday 29 September, 5.30-7pm, umi suite, umi Hotel Brighton, 64 Kings Road, BN1 1NA

Down and out? Mental health and exclusion
Speakers: Phil Hope MP, Minister for Care Services; Peter Cockersell, Director of Programmes, St Mungo's; Duncan Shrubsole, Director of Policy and External Affairs, Crisis
Chair: Alison Benjamin, Editor, Society Guardian

How can the personalisation agenda and personal budgets work for those with the most complex and overlapping needs, eg mental health problems combined with substance use? How can other policy areas - the offender system, housing, work, for example, better address the needs of people with mental health problems as part of their recovery route?

Conservative Party Conference, Manchester

Monday 5 October, 1-2pm, Charles Halle Room, The Bridgewater Hall, Lower Mosley St, Manchester, M2 3WS

Will the Conservatives be the party to end homelessness?
Speakers: Grant Shapps MP, Shadow Housing Minister; Richard Blakeway, Director of Housing, Office of the Mayor of London; Mike McCall, Executive Director of Operations, St Mungo's; and Leslie Morphy, Chief Executive, Crisis
Chair: TBC

The Conservative governments of the 1990s were responsible for starting radical programmes to tackle homelessness like the Rough Sleeper Initiative and Homeless Mentally Ill Initiative. The Mayor of London has committed to the policy of ending rough sleeping in the capital by 2012 and explicitly sought to address the revolving door of homelessness. Would a future Conservative Government similarly commit itself at a national level and how do they propose to address this continuing facet of social exclusion for good?

Tuesday 6 October, 1-2pm, Charles Halle Room, The Bridgewater Hall, Lower Mosley St, Manchester, M2 3WS

Worklessness and exclusion: A lost generation?

Speakers: David Freud, Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform and Advisor to the Mayor of London; Dr Stephen Brien, Chair of the Economic Dependency Working group, Centre for Social Justice; Phil De Montmorency, Director of Work, St Mungo's; and Leslie Morphy, Chief Executive, Crisis
Chair: TBC

This debate will focus on how a future Conservative government would ensure that no-one gets left behind in this recession. How can the most excluded in our society, including those who are or are at risk of becoming, homeless, be encouraged back to work as part of their recovery route?

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