More effort and targeted approaches are often needed to ensure health and social care for people experiencing homelessness is available, accessible, and provided to the same standards and quality enjoyed by everyone, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
Based on that key principle, NICE produced a guideline for people working in health and social care as well as senior leaders and service commissioners – and has now created a series of short and engaging films to help staff. To raise awareness of the NICE guideline we’re sharing the films. Find them below:
A coalition of organisations have congratulated Scotland’s new First Minister and urged his attention on repairing the social housing budget and on protecting duties to prevent homelessness.
Thirty-five organisations have written an open letter to First Minister John Swinney MSP in this 25th year of the Scottish Parliament. The Everyone Home collective has highlighted that over the last 25 years Scottish administrations have made giant leaps towards ending homelessness and have created world-class legislation. That when progress stalled, the Scottish Government recalibrated to get us back on track. And when the pandemic threatened to cause a homelessness catastrophe, the Scottish Government took decisive action.
But now we find ourselves going backwards again – and so this must be a moment to reset.
A housing emergency has been declared in West Dunbartonshire amid unprecedented pressures on the ability to meet the needs of those in social housing or seeking a council property.
The local authority said Housing and communities Convener Councillor Gurpreet Singh Johal made the declaration and urged the Scottish Government to review the decision to cut the Affordable Housing Supply Programme allocation to West Dunbartonshire by 27% (£2.873m) for 2024/25.
The Housing and Communities committee heard significant progress has been made in the past year to cut the number of empty homes, while 133 new council homes were built and 262 households were prevented from experiencing homelessness.
But Councillor Johal said the council had no choice but to declare an emergency because of stark figures including over 5,500 households on the housing waiting lists, 274 people living in temporary accommodation and over 1,000 homeless assessments being carried out.
The motion received cross-party support and will now involve the Council engaging with both internal and external partners to map out a way forward.
Councillor Johal said: “This decision has not been taken lightly but I sincerely hope that this can help lead us on the path of greater stability for everyone in our communities, especially those who are facing homelessness and unstable accommodation.”
West Dunbartonshire Council is the fifth local authority in Scotland to declare a housing emergency following similar moves within the past year by Argyll and Bute, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Fife.
The collapse of the Bute House agreement, Humza Yousaf’s abrupt resignation as First Minister and the following period of renewal and change in government are drawing attention and energy away from the urgent task of addressing the housing crisis and ending homelessness. Homeless Network Scotland’s Jamie Milne sets out what needs to happen once the dust settles.
All change then.After little more than a year in the top job Humza Yousaf resigned as First Minister and we’re in another period of uncertainty – a new FM, return to minority government, new faces around the Cabinet table making decisions that affect our lives.
That’s politics. But these things eat up time and energy while the housing crisis deepens.
What has not changed is rising homelessness, the 10,000 children living in temporary accommodation, the mental toll on people waiting for social or affordable homes, the desperate lives of people trapped in difficult or dangerous situations because there’s nowhere else to go.
Politics will dominate the news in weeks to come. But beyond the headlines we have a potentially game-changing Housing Bill in the early stages of the process towards becoming law.
Progress towards this point must not be unravelled by politics. Once the dust settles, all parties must sharpen their focus on protecting the proposals in the Bill – not least the Ask and Act measures to prevent homelessness earlier, which will stand or fall on how they are resourced.
Reversing the £200million cut to affordable homes in the Budget must also be at the top of the new First Minister’s in-tray.
What better way to signal a new direction than to make it easier for people to find a decent home so they can build the foundations of a life? What better way to ease housing pressures on local authorities doing their best for people in urban and rural areas?
The cost-of-living crisis, global events and the pandemic have played their part in stoking housing pressures, but we are not powerless to solve this, as 25 years of devolution shows.
The new First Minister can re-energise our collective effort to end homelessness by explicitly making this his top priority.
By finding common ground and working together, all parties at Holyrood can make the Scottish Government’s ambitious plans to end homelessness and destitution a reality – and ensure this period of uncertainty does not make things worse.
Argyll and Bute Council has detailed key outcomes from a Housing Summit held after it declared a housing emergency last year. The summit brought together 90 partners from public, private, third and community sectors who pledged their support to take action to address the housing shortage. Read more here.
Edinburgh and Glasgow also declared housing emergencies at the end of last year. In Glasgow, The Ferret news outlet and Greater Govanhill Community Magazine recently hosted an Open House session for experts, local people and people working in the housing and homelessness sectors to explore issues and solutions. Read a summary of the event.
Meanwhile, Fife has become the latest local authority to follow suit and declare its own housing emergency amid “unprecedented pressure” on housing and homelessness systems in the area.
The council recently agreed a three-year plan to tackle homelessness which highlighted the need for an estimated £67.3 million to help the escalating number of families without permanent housing. Full details here.
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