Prevention of homelessness duties: consultation

Section 4: Questions on the package of proposals, resources and monitoring

The package of proposals

The PRG proposals were intended as a package - especially the reform of the statutory framework - and they have highlighted that to accept some recommendations without others could undermine the intention of the proposals, or have unintended consequences.

Questions

Q88. Do you agree this is this the right package of reforms to meet the policy principles of early intervention and preventing homelessness?

Q89. If you do not agree this is the right package of reforms to meet the policy principles of early intervention and preventing homelessness, what do you recommend in terms of other ways of reforming the system to meet these policy principles?

Q90. How do you feel about the overall package and the balance it strikes between the different objectives, interests and principles outlined? Does it work as a whole package? If not, how can the package be adjusted overall to better meet the principles of early intervention and prevention?

Q91. Please give us your views on the potential impact of the proposed new homelessness prevention duties on different groups of people.

(Different groups of people with protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010 include: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation).

Resources

Questions

Q92. What do you think are the potential implications for your role or for your organisation's role of the implementation of new duties to prevent homelessness in terms of time and resource?

Q93. What do you think you or your organisation would be doing to meet new prevention duties as outlined in this consultation that you were not doing before?

Q94. Do you think these proposals offer an opportunity for potential savings or benefits to services through an increased focus on early intervention and preventing homelessness?

Q95. What additional training needs do you think will be required for your role or your organisation's role in implementing any new prevention of homelessness duties, and what do you think the timescales for this would be?

Monitoring

Prevent1 statistics are currently published by the Scottish Government to record housing options approaches by local authorities, activity undertaken and outcomes of approaches. The latest data available is for 2020/21 with published information available from 2015/16 onwards. All publications for homelessness statistics, including equality breakdowns can be found here.

It is worth noting that it may not be helpful to make direct comparisons between local authorities using currently published statistics as Housing Options is not a statutory function. The use and implementation of Housing Options varies greatly between local authorities as each tailors its service provision to meet needs specific to their area.

The policy intention of introducing new forms of monitoring is to ensure the appropriate statistics are collected to help measure the impact, outcomes and consistency of the implementation of new homelessness prevention duties, without creating an unreasonable additional administrative burden to the duties of local authorities.

Q96. What monitoring information do you think should be collected in order to best assess the implementation, progress and outcomes of new legislative duties to prevent homelessness?