Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group: final report and recommendations

Appendix 4: Recommendations for other working groups

The Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group's remit was to consider ways to reduce numbers of households in TA and how long people spend there.

In reality, this remit necessarily touches on almost all aspects of homelessness policy and service delivery:

• prevention of homelessness stems the flow of households becoming homeless and thereby numbers of households requiring TA
• the period people spend in TA can be affected by staffing levels and quality and the communication and support people receive when they're experiencing homelessness
• the availability of the housing options available for people including social housing, the private rented sector, home ownership or specialised options like Housing First all affect how easy and quick it is for people to move on from TA and homelessness into a settled home.

Most of the recommendations and focus of the discussion by the group looked at how to address the current high numbers of households in TA by moving people on from TA more quickly. This is not to say that reducing the numbers of households going into TA is not crucial - and there were several discussions centred around the importance of prevention of homelessness as outlined below.

The group's priorities and recommendations set out earlier in the report are well aligned to its remit, however the group was clear that it did not want the valuable insight and recommendations to be lost and wanted to share this with other working groups as appropriate. The following recommendations will be shared with other task and finish groups and relevant working groups currently considering these issues:

• The Prevention Task and Finish Group and Scottish Government team working on the forthcoming prevention legislation should explore the following points:
  • As per recommendation 12, successful collaboration between HSCPs and local authorities, housing associations and the third sector has been identified by the Task and Finish Group as vital in preventing and tackling homelessness. Support via HSCPs was identified by HARSAG as a key factor necessary to the success of Rapid Rehousing. In order to sustain homeless households in appropriate TA, and to help them move onto permanent accommodation quickly, the integration of health and social care with local housing management is essential.
  • Good practice from North Ayrshire Council's approach was shared with the group on very targeted early intervention and prevention work with partners.
  • More can and should be done to address the numbers of prisoners requiring TA. The Change Team recommended in 2022^[27] that we can avoid people going into TA in the first place for example, when people are released from prison. More care needs to be taken, earlier in the process, to consider people's needs and choices so they are matched with a property which best suits them, avoiding the need for TA.
• The Scottish Government team progressing the housing bill could consider the opportunities to extend the National Acquisition Programme including as part of a pre-action protocol for private landlords looking to sell, as a mechanism to prevent homelessness.
• The Measurement Task and Finish group could consider the following data recommendation to better understand what households with protected characteristics require in each local authority area and whether policies are meeting the needs of these groups:
  • Standardised data should be gathered and published nationally on all protected characteristics and, specifically on disabilities and support needs and better evidence on children's experience.

This data would allow for better distribution of funding based on identified need.

It should be noted that this requirement for data links to the requirement for an equalities impact assessment to be carried out in relation to any new policies to understand their impacts on groups with protected characteristics, and for a Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment^[28].

• The Scottish Government should consider setting a deadline for the rapid phasing out of B&Bs.