Decision details

To update the countywide Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) in line with recommendation from the six Gloucestershire districts. The recommendation is to ensure that SWEP remains a humanitarian, proportionate, and effective response that protects life during genuinely severe weather, whilst safeguarding the capacity and resources of front-line services.
SWEP exists to prevent serious harm or death among people sleeping rough during extreme weather. It is a humanitarian offer, not a statutory duty, and is delivered through a countywide partnership of local authorities, accommodation providers, and commissioned support services.

Cheltenham already provides a strong year round safety net for rough sleepers, including assertive outreach, the Somewhere Safe to Stay Hub, discretionary placements, and personalised support. SWEP is designed to complement, not replace these ongoing services.

The recommendation is: -
• Temperature trigger unchanged (one night at –3°C, or three consecutive nights at 0°C or below)
• Removal of yellow weather alerts as a trigger for SWEP

• Addition of amber weather alerts as a trigger for SWEP
• To continue to exercise discretion to trigger SWEP outside of the above parameters, should the weather present a humanitarian risk (for example, because the weather was notably worse than a yellow weather warning forecast).

One of the council’s strategic housing priorities, as set out in our Housing, Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy, is to reduce homelessness and prevent rough sleeping. This initiative will help support this strategic housing priority by targeting resources more appropriately and enabling more effective support to be provide to those most in need.
Several years ago, yellow weather warning were introduced for SWEP. However, experience over these years has shown that yellow warnings are too broad, too frequent, and too unpredictable to be an effective SWEP trigger. They were a visible trigger rather than a humanitarian trigger.

Yellow warnings can be issued for low impact situations such as:

“Some icy patches on untreated roads”
“Minor damage to trees or decorations”
“Possible disruption for those living near rivers”

These are conditions that did not have a direct risk to life for people sleeping rough, and as a result the current approach does not represent value for money and is not effective.
Take-up remains consistently low, as many rough sleepers do not consider the weather conditions as severe enough to engage. This results in a high number of void nights, increasing costs without delivering meaningful improvements in outcomes. At the same time, valuable staff capacity is diverted away from individuals with the most complex and pressing needs.
The frequent short notice alerts undermined effectiveness, making it difficult for providers to mobilise safe, fully staffed accommodation at pace. The model diluted focus and reduced the ability to prioritise those at greatest risk, ultimately weakening the impact of the assistance being provided to rough sleepers.

Last winter, SWEP was activated on 10 occasions covering a 12-day period in response to yellow weather warnings alone, often relating to rain or low-impact ice alerts. This level of activation is disproportionate, operationally unsustainable, and misaligned with the intended purpose of SWEP, which is about the humanitarian response.

Whilst removing the yellow weather warning would mean that SWEP is not called when low-impact snow is forecast, but discretion remains available if there was a humanitarian risk (particularly if the weather turns out to be notably more severe than the forecast), and CBC have the other safeguards in place if required as well as the existing rough sleeper pathway.

We would want to include Amber warnings as they indicate a much higher likelihood of severe impacts and may pose a risk to those rough sleeping including a risk to life.

These conditions are far more likely to place rough sleepers at immediate risk of harm and therefore align with the humanitarian purpose of SWEP.

In summary: -

• Temperature trigger would remain unchanged
• Yellow weather alerts would be removed
• Amber weather alerts would be added
• Discretion would be applied if the weather became notably more severe than a yellow whether warning forecast, resulting in a humanitarian risk.
• The approach ensures SWEP remains targeted, effective, and deliverable, while still offering protection during genuinely dangerous weather.

Not to adopt the suggested changes to the protocol. This is rejected for the reasons set out above.

This initiative is supported by our Cabinet Member for Housing and Customer Services.