Ending homelessness and rough sleeping: action plan

Looking forwards

This plan sets the direction for real and lasting change towards ending homelessness. It will be led and overseen by the Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group, which is co-chaired by political leadership from both the Scottish Government and COSLA, because at its core is the need to work in partnership to deliver its ambition. The Strategy Group is clear that in addition to homelessness and housing services we need partners across services including health, education, social work, community support and justice and the third sector to recognise and act when people they work with are at risk of homelessness to ensure that homelessness is only ever rare, brief and non-recurrent.

National and local partnerships are key to leading sustained and effective change. That means we need to work across and outside traditional boundaries and continue to develop collaborative approaches. We are clear that this collaboration is as important across the portfolios of the Scottish Government – including housing, children and families, health and justice – as it is in the context of local leadership and planning. We will lay a progress report in the parliament annually to demonstrate the actions taken across government and partners, and to demonstrate the progress towards ending homelessness we are making as a result.

It is fundamental to our approach that this Action Plan is positioned within the shared outcomes agreed by Scottish Government and COSLA, described in the new National Performance Framework. This makes clear that our core value is to ensure that we are a society which treats everyone with kindness, dignity and compassion. These outcomes help us to focus our joint efforts on achieving goals that improve the wellbeing and quality of life of the people of Scotland. Tackling and ending homelessness is a clear example of where we have both opportunity and imperative to live that core value and get it right for the people we serve.

Prevention is at the heart of this. We have announced a £50 million Ending Homelessness Together Fund, over five years from 2018-19, to support local authorities and others to ensure homelessness services are more responsive, of a high standard and focused on prevention. Preventing homelessness in the first place, is just as important as how we collectively respond if and when it does happen. We need a decisive shift in both elements to achieve our aim of ending homelessness and rough sleeping. This means doing more to ensure people know where to get help, and can access support that meets their needs and puts them back on track. It means doing more to ensure that housing needs are considered when other circumstances change, and making the most of opportunities to intervene across the range of services and support on offer. It’s about building up responsive services which treat everyone with dignity and respect, whatever their needs.

Achieving a fundamental shift to rapid rehousing, including making Housing First support available to those who need it will be a crucial part of preventing and ending homelessness. The funding we have already committed, of up to £6.5 million over three years, to support the Housing First pathfinder programme in five cities, in partnership with Social Bite, the Corra foundation, and local delivery partners will be an important catalyst for the change needed. The Housing First elements of the rapid rehousing transition plans which every local authority is working towards will set the path to ensuring a range of options are available for housing and support for everyone, including those with multiple, complex needs, in the next five years. The £15 million already announced to support those plans will help drive the transition to this new way of working.

Along with our local authority partners we will ensure the cross-government leadership required is in place to reach our ambitions to ensure a safe, warm, settled home for all, helping our citizens, families and communities to thrive.

Aileen Campbell MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Communities
and Local Government