We are concerned about recent press coverage and wanted to get in touch to clarify our feedback in relation to Queen’s Gardens, when the soup kitchen was operating last summer.

Our Outreach service had been doing some partnership working with the police as part of Operation Loch Derg in July/August 2013, and had been asked to do some late evening outreach into Queen’s Gardens to assess from a drug and alcohol outreach perspective the impact our clients might be having in relation to the level of anti-social behaviour reported there, as well as to identify clients who required help and support to access services.

The range and number of people present at the soup kitchen during our outreach shifts is likely to be indicative of the social issues that people are facing during periods of austerity, and highlights how an open access food provision aimed at targeting the most vulnerable can become attractive to those whose circumstances may not be as unfortunate.

It is also worth considering how the most vulnerable of clients may be at risk in such an environment and how services need to effectively identify these individuals and link them into treatment services. We firmly believe that strong partnership working is required to fully address issues effecting vulnerable clients in the borough and would welcome a closer working relationship with Nightwatch who may be in a position to refer vulnerable clients accessing the soup kitchen to the outreach services in the borough, or indeed to treatment services, as we would welcome referrals from Nightwatch in the future.

We have been working in close partnership with the Local Authority and police to implement a safer street model in Croydon which relies heavily on partnership input across the borough to address these issues.

Westminster Drugs Project
Croydon

 



MORE CROYDON STORIES