Rochdale is right at the heart of a new national campaign to make Britain homeless-friendly.
The Dale Medical Practice and the borough’s out-of-hours healthcare service BARDOC, are among the first nine concerns in the country to put that ethos into practice.
Run by social enterprise Beacon GP CARE and created by Nye Bevan House GP Dr Zahid Chauhan (who writes a regular column for Rochdale Online), the pioneering scheme asks organisations to examine their policies to make sure rough sleepers, sofa-surfers and others without a fixed abode get proper access to services and are reminded that they are valued members of society.
Rochdale puts helping the homeless into practice