Homelessness Prevention Task and Finish Group: final report and recommendations

Priority 5: Cross-sector, long-term resourcing

Time and time again, research has shown the value of preventative spend. Over a decade ago, the Christie Commission set out an inspiring agenda that would put people at the heart of public services. This legislation marks a major opportunity to stay true to those principles of prioritising prevention, reducing inequalities and promoting equality.

Whilst there is recognition that these duties may lead to a rise in homelessness caseloads in the short-term, it is important to be clear that changing duties does not change the level of need. Instead it allows people to access services earlier, and changes how we respond to people at risk of homelessness. A similar impact on homeless presentations took place across the 10 years of implementing the 2012 commitment.

Action 20: Recognise that this is about investing to save

• Similar to Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan funding, Scottish Government should provide an option for councils and wider partners to apply for further funding to tackle specific challenges and promote innovative ideas and solutions. IT upgrades, additional training and upskilling, and in-house changes to policies, templates, etc will also require funding.
• A new monitoring framework will be required to complement existing statistics. Statistics should capture: which (if any) services the applicant had been referred by; types of support people receive at the prevention stage; causes of being threatened with homelessness (including gender and sexuality); outcomes of assessments for those threatened with homelessness; circumstances in which the ‘reasonable steps’ is discharged; housing outcomes.
• Any funding framework needs to be subject to review through the implementation period, before any subsequent reformulation of funding arrangements is made. Any reformulation should be agreed with COSLA, certain groups fail to receive the support they need because we do not collect adequate data about their experiences of homelessness.
• Scottish Government should carry out a full financial assessment to ensure that all public bodies affected by the new duties have the budget to fulfil their duties, beyond local authorities. Growing and training the workforce will be the main costs, alongside development of guidance and awareness raising for service users. Funding to support the new duties needs to be in addition to existing funding, and with adequate time for the duties to become established (longer than the three years New Burdens funding that was provided for the Homelessness Reduction Act).
• Finally, costings should take into consideration the role of organisations that do not have a new statutory duty, such as advice agencies, independent advocacy, law centres and community-based organisations.