Assessing the impact of the VOICES Care Act Toolkit on needs assessments for people experiencing Multiple Exclusion Homelessness

多重排斥无家可归（MEH）描述了无家可归如何与其他形式的社会隔离重叠，如精神疾病，童年创伤，刑事司法系统的经历，以及药物滥用（菲茨帕特里克等人，2011），并得到了权力和排斥的理论理解的支持。根据2014年《护理法》，地方当局必须对任何似乎需要护理和支助的人进行需求评估（2014年《护理法》，第9（1）条）。作为评估的一部分，社会工作者必须促进服务使用者的福利（第1节）。这被认为是个性化护理的一个里程碑（Cornes et al，2016 a）。开放主流社会护理和需求评估对那些面临MEH的人非常有益，但也会带来困难。考虑到人们的生活性质，让他们参与MEH可能很困难。此外，这项措施亦要求社工现时须对不同的服务使用者组别进行需要评估，因为他们可能有复杂的社会服务需要。VOICES工具包代表了在评估过程中让MEH的人、他们的支持者和专业人士参与进来的创新。在需求评估过程中，它为所有参与方提供了指导。此外，它代表了一个空间，在这个空间中，不同的个人观点相互交叉，并可以通过使评估语言更容易理解来管理在这些关系中发挥作用的权力动态。该工具包的目的是以多种方式协助需求评估：确保有多种需求的人“能够尽可能有效地记录和交流他们的需求;增强VOICES和其他志愿部门工作者对执行2014年《护理法》的信心;支持社会工作者（可能不熟悉这一“服务对象群体”）探讨多种需求如何影响护理和支助需求;并且使这两组以前可能没有一起工作过的工人之间能够建立关系和交换信息。（Cornes et al，2016 b，p.7）。

Multiple exclusion homelessness (MEH) describes how homelessness overlaps with other forms of social isolation, such as mental ill health, childhood trauma, experiences of the criminal justice system, and substance misuse (Fitzpatrick et al, 2011), and is underpinned by theoretical understandings of power and exclusion. Under the 2014 Act local authorities must conduct a needs assessment with anybody who appears to have needs for care and support (Care Act 2014, section 9(1)). As part of this assessment social workers must promote the service user's wellbeing (section 1). This has been interpreted as being a landmark in the personalisation of care (Cornes et al, 2016a).Opening up mainstream social care and needs assessment is highly beneficial to those facing MEH, yet it also creates difficulties. It may be difficult to engage people with MEH given the nature of their lives. Moreover, it also requires social workers to now conduct needs assessments with a different service user group who may present with complex intersected needs. The VOICES toolkit represents an innovation in engaging people with MEH, their supporters, and professionals, in the assessment process. It acts as a guide for all parties involved during the needs assessment process. Moreover, it represents a space in which different individual perspectives intersect, and can manage the power dynamics at play in these relationships by making the language of assessments more accessible. The aims of the toolkit are to assist needs assessments in a number of ways: ensure that people with multiple needs"can record and communicate their needs as effectively as possible; increase confidence among VOICES and other voluntary sector workers in working with the Care Act 2014; support social workers (who may be unfamiliar with this "client group") to explore how multiple needs impact on the need for care and support; and enable relationships and information exchange between these two groups of workers who may not have worked together previously.' (Cornes et al, 2016b, p.7).