Records of the Resettlement Agency

Division within AST

1975-1997

Records of the Resettlement Agency relating to its responsibilities for improving the standard of resettlement units and managing the transition of responsibility for such units from government to other bodies.

Papers of the Chief Executives and senior officers are in AST 32. Annual reports and related publications are in AST 34, and codes of instruction are in AST 35.

Photographs will be found in AST 33. Admission registers, selected residents' case files and administrative records of the Sheffield Resettlement Unit are in AST 40, AST 41 and AST 42 respectively. Records of the Camberwell Resettlement Unit are in AST 45. Supplementary Benefit registered files are in AST 46. Matters Common to London Resttlement Units registered files are in AST 47.

Public Record(s)

English

10 series

Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated

Department of Health and Social Security

Topics

Wills and probate

The Poor Law enshrined in statute a perceived need for public provision of accommodation for single homeless people. The responsibility to provide accommodation units or to fund similar facilities provided by local authorities or voluntary bodies eventually passed to the National Assistance Board, and subsequently to its successors. Under the Social Security Act 1976, schedule 5, the responsibility remained with the Department of Health and Social Security, but in 1985 the government decided that it was no longer appropriate for a government department to run services of this kind directly.

The Resettlement Agency was therefore established in May 1989 with the two aims of improving the accommodation and care provided in the resettlement units, and of managing the transition from governmental provision to replacement facilities run by other bodies.

When the Resettlement Agency came into being it was responsible for managing 22 resettlement units, dealing with financial support for 95 hostels run by local authorities or voluntary organisations, and funding a further 33 voluntary projects. The disengagement strategy to cease direct management units continued until April 1999, by which time the work of the Resettlement Agency had been restricted to that of a grant-paying body.