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Telephone contact person
Telephone Contact People (TCPs) work from home at times to suit them between 11.30am and 9pm, from Monday to Saturday. They take telephone calls from agencies requesting a bed for a young person. Over the phone, the TCP and agency worker complete a form which we call a referral form. The referral form allows us to perform a risk assessment which ensures young people are placed at a suitable host. Our Telephone Contact People liaise with suitable hosts and organise travel to the hosts for the young people. The Telephone person informs our office of all referrals taken so that office staff can ensure young people are moving on from our system to appropriate longer-term accommodation.
A TCP needs to have a confident telephone manner and be able to deal with paperwork accurately. A TCP needs to follow procedures and needs to be able to work as part of a team.
Anyone meeting our criteria (our youngest TCP was 17 whilst he started training, and we've had people start to train at age 81!) is welcome to apply to become a TCP. As our training can be done on a one to one basis we welcome interest from people who are housebound.
Alison from Halifax has been one of our volunteers for 3 years and says "Being a TCP is a great way of volunteering without leaving your own home. I answer the phone for three hours once a fortnight and do this whilst I am studying or watching TV. There is loads of support available and there is always some one on the end of the phone if there are any problems during the shift.
Each shift is very different I can take lots of calls from referral agencies such as the police or social services and other times I can not have any calls. It can be quite difficult telling people that we have no beds when all the hosts have been used or there are no hosts suitable for a particular person.When a young person has been placed with a host it is rewarding to know that I have helped a young person find a safe bed for the night and they will not have to sleep on the streets."