How do you choose an emergency accommodation provider?
By Katie Richardson, Operations Director · Reviewed and maintained by Jigsaw Conferences' Emergency Accommodation & Housing Team
This content is independently researched using official UK Government guidance and recognised housing sector sources. It is reviewed regularly by Jigsaw Conferences' operational housing team and reflects current best practice at the time of publication. It is provided for general information only and should not be considered legal advice.
Quick answer
Choose on evidence, not promises: verified response times, a documented household-suitability process, both hotel and serviced apartment inventory across your geography, consolidated auditable billing, current security certifications, and a real out-of-hours model. Score every candidate against the same criteria — this guide includes the checklist, risk matrix and scoring template, and applies equally to us.
The evaluation checklist
Work through these before shortlisting anyone:
- Response: contracted 24/7 line (not voicemail) with evidenced placement times, by urgency band.
- Suitability: a written household assessment method — size, catchments, accessibility, pets, vulnerability — with breakdown-rate data.
- Inventory: hotels AND serviced apartments across every city you operate in; single-type suppliers force unsuitable placements.
- Billing: one consolidated invoice per case coded to your references; weekly cost reports on live decants.
- Security: ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials current, because decant files carry health and vulnerability data.
- Quality: ISO 9001-certified process, with the certificate number verifiable.
- Safeguarding: vetting, operator briefings, named escalation route.
- Continuity: extensions handled on the same file; exit terms that protect live placements.
- Commercials: understand who pays the provider (client fees vs operator commission) and how bias is controlled.
- References: two checkable outcomes with numbers — then actually check them.
Risk matrix: what goes wrong, and what protects you
| Risk | Impact | Contractual mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| No answer out of hours | Statutory 24-hour deadline missed | Contracted 24/7 SLA with response-time KPI and remedy |
| Unsuitable placement breaks down | Household moved twice; complaints; costs double | Documented suitability method + breakdown-rate KPI |
| Invoice chaos (dozens of folios) | Audit failure; officer time; disputed costs | Consolidated invoicing as a specification requirement |
| Supply shortage (winter, surge events) | Households in poor accommodation far from schools | Multi-city, dual-type inventory; surge/winter capacity plan |
| Resident data mishandled | Breach involving health/vulnerability data | ISO 27001 + Cyber Essentials + DPA terms |
| Provider dependency | Locked in at renewal | Data portability, file handover and exit continuity clauses |
Scoring template: weight, score, evidence
| Criterion | Suggested weight | Score on |
|---|---|---|
| Response time & out-of-hours model | 20% | Evidenced timelines, not claims |
| Suitability process & breakdown rate | 20% | Written method + data |
| Inventory breadth (types × geography) | 15% | Actual bookable supply in your areas |
| Billing, reporting & audit trail | 15% | Sample invoice and MI pack |
| Security & quality certifications | 10% | Certificate numbers, current |
| Safeguarding | 10% | Process, briefings, escalation, examples |
| Whole-stay cost | 10% | Scenario pricing (e.g. family, 6 weeks), not nightly rate |
Why not score on price alone?
- Industry best practice
A £15/night cheaper hotel with no kitchen typically costs more than a serviced apartment within a week once meals are added — and far more if the placement breaks down and the household must move again.
- Jigsaw delivery experience
Published example of whole-stay economics: serviced apartments ran roughly 31% below equivalent hotel long-stay costs across a 14-household insurance decant, and about 40% below on a rolling NHS programme.
Test the whole-stay economics yourself
Decant cost calculator — hotel vs serviced apartment
Hotel whole-stay
£6,720
Apartment whole-stay
£5,670
Apartment saving
£1,050 (16%)
Illustrative whole-stay comparison. Excludes laundry, parking, re-placement risk and officer admin time — all of which typically also favour apartments on longer stays. For a benchmarked quote, send us the brief.
Take the working documents
Emergency Accommodation Procurement Toolkit
Question bank, evaluation criteria, KPI scorecard and audit-trail checklist — the working documents behind this handbook.
Buyer questions answered
Should we appoint one provider or a panel?
A single accountable provider simplifies governance, billing and evidence trails; a panel adds resilience but multiplies supplier assurance and fragments MI. A common middle path: one primary provider with a contracted fallback, both held to the same KPI schedule.
How do we test response claims before contract?
Ask for the timeline of a real recent placement (anonymised), then reference-check it. Some buyers run a scenario exercise at tender stage: “It is 9pm Friday, 14 households displaced — walk us through your next 24 hours, naming who does what.” The quality of that answer is hard to fake.
Does this checklist favour Jigsaw?
It favours any provider that can evidence delivery. We publish our certifications and case-study numbers precisely so they can be scored against these criteria — and we would rather lose a tender on evidence than win one on promises.
Evidence · Real delivery
How quickly can 14 displaced households be decanted after an escape of water?
Every family placed across Greater Manchester within 24 hours — with direct billing to the insurer from the first night.
Read the case studyFacing a live decant or building compliance capacity?
Our accommodation team places displaced households 24/7 — hotels for tonight, serviced apartments for the repair period, one auditable invoice. Free to the client.
Related knowledge
Related case studies
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Published 11 August 2026 · Last updated 11 August 2026 · Legislative statements verified 11 August 2026 against GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk (sources cited inline).