Ask and Act: the guidance

Description

Free and online
Tuesday, 15 September 2026 | 10.30-12pm

We’ve come a long way since recommendations for preventing homelessness more effectively were proposed by professional and lived experience experts six years ago.

One of those recommendations – Ask and Act – is now written into law and Scottish Government is consulting on overarching guidance that gets into the principles and objectives of this new duty and the nuts and bolts of delivery on the ground.

Part 1: General guidance aims to answer key questions for all named ‘relevant bodies’ tasked in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 with asking and acting, such as:

When and how will the asking be done?

What should trigger an ‘ask’?

How will different services cooperate?

What constitutes an ‘act’?

Join an HNS members’ webinar where we will explore this first part of the guidance in detail (tailored guidance for each relevant body will follow later).

Our aim is to ensure everyone with a stake in getting this right has clarity on the principles, detail, meaning and intentions – and has a chance to shape the end product.

Hear from experts in Scottish Government plus contributors from organisations who helped to shape Ask and Act from inception all the way through to legislation.

Ideal for: anyone working in frontline, managerial, strategic or training roles across the relevant bodies (full list below), those in advocacy or policy roles, and we welcome people who have been through homelessness to continue shaping Ask and Act.

Background

Ask and Act was put forward by the Prevention Review Group led by Crisis and the Prevention Commission of frontline and lived experience experts in 2021.

It’s a simple idea: frontline workers across a wide range of services could enquire about a person’s housing situation during routine contact – and take action to help prevent homelessness if a risk is identified. The idea is to spread responsibility for prevention, stop crises for more people, and ease pressure on homelessness services.

Ask and Act was duly passed as part of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 and from late 2028 ‘relevant bodies’ named in the legislation will be tasked with this duty. They are:

Health Boards

Special Health Boards

Integration Joint Boards

Local authorities (e.g. social work, education)

Police

Registered Social Landlords

Scottish Ministers in so far as they have functions relating to prisons and young offenders institutions and the persons detained in them

Scottish Ministers in so far as they have functions relating to social security