The Street Homeless Information Network, or SHIN, was a pilot multi-agency database recording information about people sleeping rough in Wales.
This Welsh Government funded system represents Wales’s most detailed and comprehensive source of information about rough sleeping.
Currently in Wales, the only national figures of people sleeping rough is yielded from a national one two-week and one single night count – usually held around October.
Even though this gives a broad indication of numbers of people who are street homeless, there are limitations in collecting data in this way.
Limitations of the current count:
SHIN attempted to capture individual level data on anyone seen rough sleeping, or sleeping in emergency accommodation, in Wales.
It was populated daily by frontline staff, it will be able to report live on any information that has been populated in the system.
SHIN will allow users – who are professional agencies – to share information about people’s support needs, as well as any work that has been undertaken with them.
SHIN helps ensure that people will receive the most appropriate support, in a timely manner, and that efforts are not duplicated.
This will improve joined-up working practices between agencies and reduce the need for people to have to constantly repeat themselves when being supported by different organisations.
Additionally, reports from the system can used at an operational level by commissioning bodies to monitor the effectiveness of their services.
At a more strategic level the reports can be used by policy makers to gather intelligence about trends within the rough sleeping population and to identify emerging needs.
StreetLink is a website, mobile app and phone line that enables members of the public to alert local authorities and street outreach services in England and Wales about people they have seen sleeping rough.
The service offers the public the means to do something to help and is the first step to ensuring the person they are concerned about is connected to the support available to them.
If you can do something today, download the free StreetLink app on App Store or Google Play.
