THE council’s current homeless services contractor has thanked people and organisations in Chester for their support.

Foundation Enterprises North West (FENW) hands over the contract for rough sleepers in Cheshire West & Chester to new provider forfutures – part of ForViva Group - from Sunday, April 1.

Services it developed included an end-of-life and palliative care service for the Richmond Court site in Boughton working alongside colleagues from the Specialist Homeless GP at St Werburghs and the London Faculty for Homeless Health.

FENW also supported the council in signing up to the St Mungo’s Health Charter which aims to address health inequalities for homeless people.

It also designed a range of innovative service programmes including food and nutrition sessions, health coaching and a Homeless Health MOT.

Debra Thompson, Group Chief Executive at parent company Forum Housing Association and FENW director, said: “We are extremely proud of our work to tackle rough sleeping and its wider issues across Cheshire West and Chester. We could not have done this without the support of our colleagues in the local authority, police, public health and many others across the voluntary, community and faith sector.

“As Forum Housing approaches its 50th year of service delivery to homeless people across the North West, we look forwards to continuing our work in Cheshire West and Chester through our Rough Sleeping Prevention Programme known as Upstream and our broad range of supported housing provision in the area. We wish forfutures the best of luck with the new service and have been pleased to share our insight and experiences with them over the mobilisation period.”