In January this year, we posted a blog about what we do as a charity when temperatures are below zero, so we thought we would do the same when those hotter temperatures appear!
Throughout the week, our Outreach team have been out scouring the county from 6.30am to locate any rough sleepers to minimise any possible risk and keep them safe, especially whilst SWEP protocol has been put in place.
What is ‘Hot SWEP’?
Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) is an emergency humanitarian response to severe weather conditions, with the primary aim of preserving life. Each borough throughout the country is expected to make its own local SWEP response for those sleeping rough in the area.
Hot SWEP is called when temperatures hit over 30 degrees reported by the MET Office.
How does it impact the homeless community?
Sadly, people sleeping rough have a higher risk of poor health outcomes or even death during hot weather for three key reasons:
- Rough sleepers are likely to have greater exposure to heat – as they may be exposed to direct sun and higher temperatures in many built-up environments.
- They are likely to be more vulnerable to the effect of heat due to underlying health conditions or other factors, such as drug or alcohol use, that affect their ability to adapt their behaviours to the increased temperatures.
- They may be less able to take preventative steps or respond to extreme heat for other reasons related to their circumstances, especially social exclusion and lack of financial or other resources.
What do we do?
Maggs are a part of the operations, organised by one of our partnering agencies, CCP. Our outreach teams will go out to known locations of our rough sleepers and offer them anything from bottles of water, sun cream, sun hats, and food vouchers, to name a few, and direct them or offer information about shelters in place.
We also signpost them to our Day Centres and Clothing Project, where they can access food, clothing and all of the essentials they require to be safe and cool.
At the end of the day, the teams then feed back to Local Authorities and CCP who has been helped.
Some general advice
We should all take steps to help combat the hotter temperatures and keep ourselves safe. A few tips and general guidance from the Met Office include:
- Dressing appropriately with lighter layers
- Find somewhere cool
- Drink plenty of fluids and avoid excess alcohol
- Slow down when it’s hot
- Cool your skin with water
Are you concerned about a rough sleeper?
If you have spotted a rough sleeper anywhere in Worcestershire, please report these to StreetLink.
StreetLink can be used by anyone in England and Wales to send an alert about someone who is sleeping or preparing to sleep rough. Alerts are sent to outreach teams, who go out mostly at night to connect people sleeping rough to local support services.
StreetLink complements existing outreach work, like Maggs by alerting teams to people they haven’t seen before so we must be made aware of anyone who is a possible rough sleeper.
For more information, please get in touch with us at info@maggsdaycentre.co.uk.
