Category: News

Glasgow meets all international homeless targets

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At our annual conference in 2018 Baroness Casey of Blackstock (at that time Dame Louise Casey) announced that Glasgow would take a leading role in a new global programme to end street homelessness by 2030. The ‘A Place to Call Home’ initiative is led by the Institute of Global Homelessness (IGH) based in Chicago, which Baroness Casey chairs.

Eventually drawing in 150 global cities, the starting point was pioneering work undertaken by a small group of 12 Vanguard Cities working to achieve specific targets by 2020. Glasgow was part of that group with a target to reduce by 75 per cent the number of people sleeping rough every week in the city centre and cut by 50 per cent those sleeping rough across Glasgow each year.

Along with Sydney in Australia, Glasgow has fully met its targets. The COVID-19 pandemic had varying effects on the Vanguard Cities and in several areas the pandemic presented an opportunity to point significant resources towards effectively ending and preventing homelessness in the short-term through the use of hotel rooms, eviction moratoria and enhanced financial support. In Scotland, both Glasgow and Edinburgh used the opportunity to end the use of communal shelters altogether.

Among the success factors identified by the IGH is Housing First and the wraparound support that accompanies it. Other significant positives include rapid access to settled housing and, where that is not available immediately, a decent emergency accommodation offer. Assertive street outreach services were also important along with access to mental health support.

More information at the Institute for Global Homelessness here.

Webinar launches Scotland’s new national Housing First ‘Check Up’

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An online event for local authorities and partners on Thursday 25 November will set out plans for a new ‘Check Up’ process that will support the rollout of Housing First in Scotland. Activity will be co-ordinated by a nationwide policy and practice network supported by a strategic partnership between Homeless Network Scotland and the Scottish Government.

Housing First provides ordinary, settled housing as a first response for people whose homelessness is made harder by experiences such as trauma, addiction and mental ill health.Scotland is the first part of the UK to move ahead with a national rollout, with local authorities at the spearhead of this transformation.

Branching Out, The National Framework for organisations and sectors starting up or scaling up Housing First in Scotland, has been updated ahead of the webinar to reflect the latest research and data.

Maggie Brünjes, Chief Executive of Homeless Network Scotland, said:

“The Scottish Government has committed to scale up Housing First and all councils in Scotland have local plans on how Housing First will be implemented in their area.

“However, there’s doing something and there’s doing the right thing, at the right time and in the right place. We know that local authorities are naturally reflective and already committed to the Housing First approach. The new annual check-up process builds on this strong foundation with additional support and advice, safeguarding the elements that make Housing First work.”

Updates to the 100-page National Framework, endorsed by the Scottish Government, SFHA, CIH and Wheatley Group among others, link into the Prevention Review Group report, Shared Spaces research into shared and supported accommodation and the Housing First Interim Evaluation Report delivered by I-SPHERE at Heriot-Watt University. The Framework is a ‘how to and why’ guide to planning, commissioning and delivering the approach locally and nationally covering community justice, housing and social care issues as well as local and national government.

Growing evidence from across Scotland and the rest of the UK supports the delivery of Housing First for specific groups in addition to the wider group of people with the sharpest experiences of homelessness. For example, the Rock Trust and Almond Housing Association have tested Housing First for young people leaving care in West Lothian and their evaluation shows that:

  • All but one young person has continued to sustain their tenancy.
  • All young people described ways in which their relationship with their Housing First worker had led to positive changes in their life.
  • Some young people reported improvements in mental health and satisfaction with life, healthy eating and exercise, and some reported fewer problems as a result of substance misuse.

The Housing First Check Up webinar for Local Authorities and Partners takes place on Thursday 25 November 2021 from 10am to 12.00pm on the MS Teams platform. The event will be hosted by Sir Andrew Cubie and Marion Gibbs, Team Leader – Homelessness, with the Scottish Government. Book a place here.

Ruth Whatling joins Homeless Network Scotland

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Homeless Network Scotland welcomes Ruth Whatling to our Leadership Team this week in the role of Head of Policy & Equality, a newly created post that speaks to a growing awareness and importance placed on equality considerations in ending homelessness in Scotland.

Ruth joins Homelessness Network Scotland on a two-year secondment from the Scottish Government’s Homelessness Team and with two decades of public sector experience including equality, policy and public administration roles in the Civil Service.

Originally from near Reading in Berkshire, with close family connections to Edinburgh, Ruth trained as a nurse in Hull before working in nursing in London then later relocating to Scotland.

Ruth says: “Having seen the work of Homeless Network Scotland from an external perspective, I am excited to see up close the collaborative way of working that the organisation is known and respected for – finding a way through those tough, obstinate problems that get in the way of what works. When interacting as a civil servant there is often a feeling that a power imbalance exists, whether real or perceived. Engaging with our membership and partners at eye-level is something I am really looking forward to.

“One of the attributes Homeless Network Scotland possesses is credibility and trust, a reputation for delivering that incentivises partner organisations and others to engage and participate to find solutions. The leading role of lived experience in informing and guiding Homeless Network Scotland’s work also impressed me. It is clear that expertise by experience sits at the heart of everything we do in a really meaningful way.”

Ruth is going to be actively involved in the work to scale up Housing First in Scotland, the first part of the UK to roll out the approach as a national policy. Starting in the New Year a check-up process will support local authorities to embed the policy in their Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans.

Building on the Prevention Review Group report and new public sector prevention duties another focus will be the increasingly high-profile prevention agenda, which is a key strand of work for Homeless Network Scotland, local authorities and third sector organisations. “Prevention and equality share a characteristic, both must be applied while also doing the day job,” says Ruth. “We can’t switch to real equality overnight. Despite a robust legislative framework, attitudes must change; practice must adapt and improve. Similarly, prioritising prevention rather than responding to a problem after it has happened is a process. Frontline workers must continue to respond while simultaneously shifting focus to preventing homelessness before it starts. Part of our role is to support the great work already underway across the country by sharing learning and facilitating effective and meaningful partnerships.”

A key focus for Ruth is equality. Ruth said: “I am looking forward to supporting local authorities and partners understand what’s needed and what can be achieved when we all pull in one direction. The legislation is there, and part of the challenge is about illustrating what we mean by equality – what it looks like. We all have a role in breaking the ‘big’ issue down into smaller, manageable chunks that really mean something to people in ordinary workplace settings – it is not an abstract idea. True equality is about understanding people’s needs as an individual and having a vision of how to meet those needs in the way we provide services and address disadvantage.”

National Care Service consultation

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Housing and homelessness – joint response to National Care Service consultation

Proposals for a National Care Service in Scotland could signal an opportunity to join up services and responses for some of society’s most excluded groups, according to a joint consultation response submitted to the Scottish Government today (Monday 1 November) by organisations representing the housing and homelessness sectors. 

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA), Everyone Home Collective and members of the lived and frontline experience panel, All In For Change, submitted a joint response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on plans for a new National Care Service, which closes on Tuesday this week. 

The joint response is captured in seven key points reflecting on the Scottish Government’s proposals in the context of housing and homelessness, including helping to prevent drug related deaths, stating: ‘More than half of deaths among people who are homeless are drugs related… the National Care Service presents an opportunity to prevent early mortality by joining up responses.’ 

In the past few weeks the organisations have consulted over 200 members and interested parties, asking whether the proposals could contribute to preventing homelessness and what the potential risks, dilemmas, or unintended consequences might be to existing plans and structures while working to ensure everyone in Scotland has a safe home. 

Feedback from networking and events, combined with detailed analysis of the proposals, has resulted in the seven strands framing the joint response: People led, Home centred, Preventative, Rights based, De-stigmatising, Fairer and Improving. 

The response also states that the future National Care Service should also be at the heart of identifying homelessness risk, putting in place care and support to prevent homelessness and aligned closely with Scotland’s developing approach to prevention, including new legal duties on public bodies. 

Viki Fox, Change Lead with All In For Change, said:  

“The Change Team has cautious optimism about the National Care Service. It has the potential to be really powerful if the design and implementation are properly thought-out and inclusive of those with lived and frontline experience of homelessness.” 

Maggie Brünjes, Chief Executive of Homeless Network Scotland, said: 

“The Scottish Government’s proposal for a National Care Service signals a significant shift in the provision of support and care and an opportunity to consolidate the links between housing, health and social care. People with overlapping experiences that include homelessness can be the most disconnected from mainstream and public services and with the most to gain from an improved, integrated and ‘no wrong door’ approach to care and support. Changing the record for this group needs a shift of this size; our consultation found more opportunities than dilemmas and especially for the group described in the Hard Edges Scotland research.”

Aaron Hill, Director of Policy and Membership at SFHA, said:

“The National Care Service Consultation presents a great opportunity to improve people’s experience of care and support. Many of our members offer housing, care and support services, often directly employing care staff to assist their tenants, Housing associations therefore have a great deal of direct experience to contribute to the development of this new service, and we want to see social housing recognised as a key partner in this new service.”

Read the joint response to the National Care Service consultation.

Individuals and organisations can submit a response by Tuesday 2 November 2021 and further information, alongside guidance and instructions for responding, is available on the Scottish Government Consultation portal here.