Homelessness: code of guidance

Ministerial Foreword

I am pleased that we are able to publish this interim updated version of the statutory Code of Guidance on Homelessness and act on another one of the recommendations of the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group.

The Scottish Government has a clear commitment to ending rough sleeping and homelessness in Scotland, and ensuring that everyone has a safe and secure place to live. Our Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan, which is backed by our £50 million Ending Homelessness Fund, sets out a programme of transformative change to help end homelessness in Scotland. With the assistance of our partners in local authorities and the third sector we are already making strong progress against the five-year plan.

This factual update of the Code of Guidance delivers on one of those actions and is the first step in bringing the Code up to date so that it assists staff in local authorities and other partners to adopt a person-centred approach to tackle, prevent and relieve homelessness. The Code is updated for accuracy to reflect the legislative changes since the last version was published in 2005.

Our next step is to undertake a thorough review and overhaul of the Code, as recommended by the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group. I want to see a new approach to delivering guidance through the Code so that it incorporates a modern user-friendly format to give the best possible support to frontline practitioners in their work to prevent homelessness. I will announce our plans on this before the end of 2019, which will include convening an external group of stakeholders to help take this work forward in 2020.

I am confident that this update to the Code and the forthcoming overhaul will be a valuable resource to meet the requirements of our progressive homelessness legislation in Scotland and will help to deliver our Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan.

Kevin Stewart MSP
Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning
November 2019