Winter Shelter referral form

Please do not complete the referral form until you have contacted us to check whether there is space in the Winter Shelter.

Completing the form does not guarantee a place, please wait for confirmation from Inn Churches.

Inn Churches has a responsibility to ensure that agencies are competent to fulfil the requirements of the referral procedure. This includes an agreement to use appropriate guidelines.

Referral agencies have a responsibility to Inn Churches to ensure that any person delegated to deal with referrals for homeless individuals who may be eligible to access the project are competent.

Agencies acting on behalf of the project should deal with individuals face to face. Whilst the welfare of the individual is paramount, agencies also have a responsibility to consider the safety of volunteers and venues. Where the agency does not know the individual well or has doubts, this should be flagged up so that the project coordinator can make additional checks.

It is the referral agency’s responsibility to inform each homeless individual being referred that if they arrive at a venue under the influence of alcohol, drugs, solvents or legal highs, or are carrying weapons, they are at risk of forfeiting their place.

Inn Churches reserve the right to conduct bag searches in accordance with our policy. Refusal may result in a bed space being denied.

Inn Churches have a duty to ensure that records are kept of every referral and that checks carried out are in accordance with the EU GDPR (2018). Data will be stored for a maximum of six years and will not be shared with third parties beyond appropriate organisations and professionals as part of their information gathering and assessment / risk assessment processes.

Referrals must come through one of our designated referral agencies and you will need your referral agency code.

Winter Shelter 2024-25

The shelter opens on 6th January 2025. Referrals open at 10am on 6th January 2025.

We have 12 beds per night for 10 weeks over the winter, in a different church around Bradford each week. For churches further away from the city centre, taxis are provided from a pickup point in the city centre.

The shelter opens at 7pm each night with a last admission time of 8pm and lights out at 11pm. There is no readmission if guests choose to leave after 8pm. Guests must leave by 8.30am and take all belongings with them.

The shelter ends on 16th March 2025.

Referral criteria

To qualify for our Winter Shelter, potential guests must be:

  • homeless people sleeping rough
  • single (although we may be able to take couples on request)
  • aged 18+ (but please make a referral to Nightstop first if aged 18-25)
  • accessing services within the Bradford Metropolitan District.

Due to the nature of the accommodation provided and the skill levels of volunteers, it is important to safeguard the safety of host churches and teams.

Only individuals assessed as LOW TO MEDIUM risk will be admitted.

We are unable to accept individuals who:

  • are known to have committed serious violent or sexual crime, or with schedule one offences.
  • require specialist support, for example those with serious physical or mental health issues, or those who at the time of referral are heavily under the influence of alcohol, drugs, solvents or ‘legal highs’.
  • have been barred from the shelter.

Guests can be referred for up to 7 nights initially, but staying beyond the first night is behaviour-dependent, and staying beyond 3 nights depends on being willing to engage with services.

Guests must sign a code of conduct specifying no alcohol or drugs, no swearing, no weapons and no smoking inside the shelter. Violent or threatening behaviour will not be tolerated and guests will not be allowed in under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Dogs may be admitted depending on the capacity of the shelter at the time.

Making a referral

Please contact the project coordinator first to check whether we have space in the shelter, and to do a provisional assessment of the guest.

If we have space and the referral is considered appropriate, we will ask you to make a formal referral using the form below. You will be emailed a copy of the completed referral as a PDF.

Please ensure that all sections of the form are completed. In particular, referrals will not be accepted without a referral agency number.

If the project coordinator confirms that we can accept the guest, please print the PDF copy of the referral, put it in an envelope and give it to the guest to present as their ‘ticket’ into the shelter that night.

Referral form

    This form should be completed by an individual working at a recognised referring organisation (the "referring agent") on behalf of the intended recipient (the "applicant").

    Fields marked * are required.

    This can be found on your referral pack - if you don't have it please contact us.

    A1. Applicant details

    Please give details of the person you would like to refer to the shelter.

    If you are using an older browser, or Safari, and the date field above does not contain a dd/mm/yyyy prompt, please enter the date in the format yyyy-mm-dd (eg. 1985-10-25). Otherwise please enter the date as prompted.




    We ask for contact details so that we can contact guests in the case of them being late to the pickup point, for example.


    We ask about gender because we separate our overnight accommodation by gender and this helps us to plan our provision.


    We ask about ethnicity for monitoring purposes, and it does not affect whether or not we accept a referral.


    Situation and benefits



    Please see date note above.

    Support worker

    B. Emergency contact details or next of kin (if any)

    C1. Guest responses

    Please ask the guest the following questions and record their responses.

    1. How long have you been sleeping rough? *

    2. Where did you sleep rough? *

    Question 2 omitted as not previously slept rought.

    3. Why did you sleep rough? *

    4. To what extent have the following factors played a part in your present situation? *

    (Please select an option for each line)


    Not at allLowMediumHigh

    Not at allLowMediumHigh

    Not at allLowMediumHigh

    Not at allLowMediumHigh

    Not at allLowMediumHigh

    Not at allLowMediumHigh

    Not at allLowMediumHigh

    Not at allLowMediumHigh

    5. Do you have a pet with you? *

    YesNo

    6. Have you ever had any cautions or convictions? *

    Previous offences will not necessarily stop you being offered shelter. Are you currently on DRR, DIP, probation or awaiting sentencing for any of the following?

    Offence 1 details

    Please see date note above.





    Offence 2 details

    Please see date note above.





    Offence 3 details

    Please see date note above.




    7. Are you on any prescribed medication? *

    8. Do you have any diet restrictions or concerns? *

    9. Have you ever been barred from another accommodation scheme? *

    C2. Guest consent to information gathering

    Please get the guest to complete this section.

    I confirm that the information I have given in this referral form is true and complete to the best of my knowledge.

    I understand that giving false or misleading information could result in being barred from the Inn Churches winter shelter.

    I understand that my stay at the Inn Churches winter shelter is conditional upon appropriate behaviour and that if I do not follow Inn Churches’ rules then I may be asked to leave.

    I give permission for Inn Churches to store this information according to the EU GDPR of 2018 for a maximum of six years. I give consent for Inn Churches to share my information with appropriate organisations and professionals as part of their information gathering and assessment / risk assessment process, unless I have declared below.



    Please see date note above.

    D. Risk assessment

    To ensure the safety of guests, staff and volunteers, please complete the following risk assessment. For each row, indicate whether this is completed using information from the client, your own knowledge or a third party.











    E1. Referrer

    E2. Referrer's declaration

    This should be completed by you as the referring agent.

    I can confirm that the applicant named above is in genuine and urgent need of accommodation and does not have an alternative bed space.

    I confirm that the applicant:

    • has been assessed as low or medium risk

    • has not committed serious violent or sexual crime or schedule one offences

    • does not require specialist support, for example with serious physical or mental health issues or alcohol, drug, solvent or 'legal high' misuse.

    • has not been previously barred from the Inn Churches Winter Shelter.

    I confirm that I have contacted Inn Churches to check that they have a bed space available.



    Please see date note above.