Every year Public Health England produce a national Cold Weather Plan which includes recommendations for local authorities and their partners to take action to avoid and raise awareness of the adverse health effects of cold weather on the local population.
Public Health England identify homeless people / street sleepers as one of the four population groups most at risk of excess winter deaths and so recommend that all local authority areas produce a local SWEP (Severe Weather Emergency Protocol) to try to ensure that no one is street homeless in periods of extreme cold weather.
The SWEP is instigated when the temperature is forecast to drop to zero degrees (or below) for three consecutive nights. It operates outside of usual eligibility and entitlement frameworks that govern access to housing.
Every year Nottingham responds by producing an Extended Cold Weather Provision Plan. This plan incorporates the principles of a SWEP but also goes further to outline a variety of local measures that the Nottingham City Interagency Homelessness Prevention Strategy Implementation Group (SIG) ensure are in place in order to prevent rough sleeping and reduce the risks to the health and wellbeing of people who have been rough sleeping.
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