Homelessness prevention: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

CRWIA Stage 2 – Assessment of Impact and Compatibility

What evidence have you used to inform your assessment? What does it tell you about the impact on children’s rights?

Quantitative data from Scottish statistical collections, including Poverty and Inequality data^[1] which shows the number of children living in poverty (relative and absolute poverty) in Scotland, and Homelessness Statistics^[2] which report specifically on the characteristics of the homeless population, has been used to complete this assessment.

Poverty statistics show an estimated 23% of children in Scotland live in relative poverty before housing costs and 24% of children live in relative poverty after housing costs. Absolute child poverty after housing costs affected 21% and before housing costs, absolute child poverty was at 19% (affecting 190,000 children each year)^[3].

Poverty and homelessness are linked and bi-directional^[4]. Children in priority groups, namely those living in larger families, in families with young children (under age one), in lone parent families, minority ethnic families, families with a disabled member of the household and families with a mother aged under 25 are at disproportionate risk of poverty^[5].

Additionally, children are often part of homeless households. 32,242 households were assessed as homeless in 2022-23, which included 16,263 children. There are more children than ever in temporary accommodation (9,860 as of 30 September 2023) and families are spending longer in temporary accommodation (on average, between 254 and 347 days for households with children)^[6].

Young people are over-represented in homelessness applications and more likely to be hidden homeless. 22% of homelessness applications are from main applicants aged 16-24, with 19% from 18-24 year olds and 3% from 16-17 year olds^[7]. Young adults, aged between 16-24 years, are consistently more likely to be living in relative poverty compared to older adults^[8]. Despite this over-representation, we are aware that young people, especially those leaving care, may not recognise themselves as homeless, may be more likely to be hidden from services, and therefore from official records because they are “sofa surfing” or living in other informal or precarious housing, therefore their actual numbers may be higher than measured^[9].

The reasons that younger people are homeless may differ from older people, with younger people more likely to become homeless from the family home, more likely to have been asked to leave^[10] and are more in need of basic housing management support than older people.

The percentages of homeless young people who secure settled accommodation is lower than for other age categories (75% of 16-17 year olds compared with 82-84% for all other age categories). This may partly be attributed to a larger proportion of young people returning to previous accommodation or moving in with family or friends^[11].

LGBT Youth Scotland’s research^[12], undertaken in 2022, estimates that LGBT young people account for 24% of the young homeless population.

6% of young LGBT people surveyed in 2022 reported having experienced homelessness.

The Albert Kennedy Trust’s 2015 evidence review^[13] found that 30% of LGBT young people had some experience of homelessness including; sofa-surfing, rough sleeping, temporary and supported accommodation. It also found that 69% reported having experienced violence, abuse or rejection from the family home, and 77% feel that their LGBT identity was a causal factor in their homelessness. Parental rejection (69%), abuse within the family (69%), and aggression and violence in the family (62%) were found to be the three most common reasons for LGBT youth homelessness.

Albert Kennedy Trust’s (2021) research^[14] into the LGBTQ+ youth homelessness report (UK wide) highlights that the number of LGBTQ+ homeless young people is likely to be an under-representation, with only one-third of LGBTQ+ young people seeking support from their local authority, and only 45% seeking support from community organisations, when they were homeless, choosing instead of seek support from friends. This statistic is more stark when the LGBTQ+ youth also belongs to an ethnic minority group – only 17% sought support from community organisations.

These findings highlight the need and potential for the homelessness prevention duties to mitigate the risk of homelessness for children and young people.

Identify any gaps in the evidence base, and set out how you will address these

A possible gap in the evidence base is that of children and young people that may be hidden homeless and thus are excluded from homelessness statistics and also from interventions to mitigate homelessness. The Scottish Government recently published an evidence review^[15] and research has been commissioned into housing insecurity and hidden homelessness. Scottish Government analysts are collaborating with the Office for National Statistics, who are investigating novel methods of capturing information on a UK-wide basis about hidden homeless groups, which will complement the Scottish Government commissioned research. When combined, this will give us a much stronger evidence base.

Evidence from stakeholders/policy colleagues

The Scottish Government and COSLA held a joint public consultation from 17 December 2021 to 8 April 2022 which invited views on the introduction of new duties on relevant bodies and social landlords to prevent homelessness and the proposal to change existing legislation to ensure homelessness is prevented earlier. The consultation included a range of questions asked specifically to respondents with lived experience of homelessness. It received 113 responses. The independent analysis is available^[16]. Responses were received from organisations such as The Promise, Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, A Way Home Scotland, Action for Children, Rock Trust, CLAN Childlaw, as well as Scottish Association of Social Work and Aberdeenshire Council Children’s Services. It is worth noting that the responses to the consultation, as provided by individuals and organisations, may not broadly reflect wider sentiment.

Overall, most respondents were broadly supportive of the planned introduction of the new duties. However, some concerns were raised which relate to individuals with protected characteristics, and children and young people. These included:

• The duties if introduced as recommended in the Prevention Review Group (“PRG”) would result in a regression of rights for children and young people.
• Young people who leave the family home need additional support to sustain a tenancy.
• Domestic abuse/violence is a key contributor to women’s and children’s homelessness.
• Intersectionality: LGBT minority ethnic young people may feel forced to stay in a family home rather than making their own homelessness application.

It was raised in the public consultation that, in placing the primary duty for young people aged 16-17 who are homeless or at risk of homelessness with child social work, there may be the unintended consequence of creating a barrier to young people accessing their right to make a homelessness application and any subsequent statutory housing rights they may have if found to be homeless.

Concerns expressed by stakeholders was that the duties, if enacted in this way, could have the effect of denying access to housing rights through a section 28 Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 application, which would represent a regression of rights protections for this age group and would hinder the progressive realisation of the human right to adequate housing.

We work closely with colleagues across government who are Keeping the Promise we made to Scotland’s children and young people who are care experienced. The Promise Implementation Plan^[17] set out in May 2022 a number of key commitments that we are taking forward to Keep the Promise and help provide children and families with the strong foundations they need to thrive. This includes our commitment to work with partners to develop a universal and inclusive definition of care experience to include anyone who has been, or is currently, looked after at any stage in their life, no matter how short.

Furthermore, recognising that youth homelessness is more than just a housing issue, we, together with internal and external stakeholders, continue to develop, implement and review the ‘Improving Care Leavers Housing Pathway’^[18] and the youth homelessness prevention pathway. The Pathways call for change across youth, welfare, health, justice, housing, homelessness and the children and families’ sectors and departments at both a national and local level.

The Prevention of Homelessness Duties will provide a legislative framework for a shared public responsibility, joint working and for early intervention to prevent homelessness, ensuring consistency in delivery across Scotland, while recognising the need to respond to local circumstances.

Evidence from children and young people

We have not engaged directly with children and young people. However, our engagement with stakeholders who work and advocate for children and young people has provided insight into the experiences and vulnerabilities of this population who might be impacted by homelessness.

Care experienced children and young people and those leaving care are typically more likely to face particular challenges, which include mental health issues, poor education outcomes and lower educational attainment, and a lower likelihood of achieving a positive destination when they leave care^[19]. They are at much higher risk of homelessness and/or experiencing housing instability than their non-care experienced peers. Follow the Money, one of the final reports published by the Independent Care Review in February 2020^[20], highlights that care experienced people are likely to have more than double the chance of experiencing homelessness compared to their non-care experienced peers, mainly before the age of 30.

Other risk factors that intersect with young age and increase the likelihood of homelessness are experiences of adverse childhood experiences, running away, truanting or being excluded from school, or identifying as lesbian, gay or transgender^[21].

Analysis of the evidence

How have the findings influenced the development of the relevant proposal?

As a result of the consultation responses, the specific lead role for child social work for 16 and 17 year olds who are homeless or threatened with homelessness, as recommended by the PRG, will not be included in the new duties.

The evidence provided previously shows that young people under age 25 are over-represented in homelessness applications and assessments, and we know that these presentations are an under-representation as statistics do not include hidden homelessness, such as people who are sofa surfing or staying with friends, who may not consider themselves homeless, at risk of homelessness, nor present as homeless applications. For this reason, the introduction of the ask and act duties may particularly benefit the under 25 cohort, as relevant bodies outwith housing/homelessness who may come into contact with vulnerable young people through, for example, education, social work, addiction support, health and mental health services, will be required to ask about possible homelessness/risk of homelessness and act on the information they receive, so as to assist and support the young person.

Additionally, as the duties will potentially result in a statutory intervention by local authorities taking place earlier, up to six months instead of two months when there is a risk of homelessness, it is anticipated that as a ‘reasonable step’ young people will be offered alternative support, such as family mediation if appropriate, at an earlier juncture, and that this may prevent homelessness from occurring in the future.

Evidence^[22] shows us that there are some types of households with children who are at a higher risk of being in poverty. These include households more like to be headed by women (such as single parent households, and those with a child under one (for which the mother tends to do the vast majority of the caring), or households where the mother is aged under 25^[23], therefore the duties could be helpful in expanding opportunities to assist women/families.

The evidence has shown that domestic abuse/violence is a key contributor to women’s and children’s homelessness. For that reason, the homelessness prevention duties and the commencement of provisions in the Domestic Abuse (Protection) Scotland Act 2021 (“2021 Act”) may positively affect women and children who are victim-survivors of domestic abuse and who are at risk of homelessness/are homeless as a result. The duties will require social landlords to have a domestic abuse policy in place, which outlines how they will meet the housing needs of women experiencing domestic abuse, including supporting them to stay in their own home, if that is what they want. The 2021 Act gives social landlords greater control to transfer housing tenancies to a domestic abuse survivor, should this be desired, thus reducing the risk of homelessness for women in this situation.

The introduction of a requirement within the prevention duties for people working within relevant bodies, such as NHS health visitors and/or community link workers, to ask about a person’s housing circumstances and to take action to prevent homelessness if there is a risk of homelessness (or to refer to a local authority for assistance if someone is homeless), as well as the provision on local authorities to take action sooner (‘widening’ of the time window from 2 to 6 months) may positively impact pregnant women/women with very young children, by identifying them at the earliest opportunity and intervening if necessary, so as to prevent them from becoming homeless in the future.