What’s new in our summer training programme?

Since the last training update, we have learned with nearly 50 of you by delivering trauma-informed approaches training and holding a fantastic session with Clan Childlaw about the UNCRC, homelessness and care leavers’ rights.

We were also invited to host a workshop at the Share annual conference, exploring what housing associations need to know about the Housing Bill and the new prevention duty. And during Mental Health Awareness week, from 12-18 May, we hosted a session at the Creating Hope Conference convened by Suicide Prevention Scotland. 

Here is a quick reminder of our upcoming training programme this summer, perfect for inducting new team members or returners, and building new connections across the sector.

New workshop

  • You asked, we listened. We are returning to the city centre of Glasgow for an in-person coproduction workshop on 12 August, when we will share our learnings from 20 years of coproduced services in Glasgow – to reserve a ticket, prices £100 for members and £150 for non-members please email hello@homelessnetwork.scot

Summer programme

  • There are a few last spaces on the Rough Guide to homelessness legislation and policy on 20 May delivered live and via an online learning platform
  • Homelessness prevention: what can you do in your community 10 June
  • Unequal risk: a human rights and equality lens is on 10 July. Curious about the impact? Find out more about what Lizzie from Cyrenians learned at a previous course.
  • Trauma-informed approaches on 22 July

Wider events and resources

  • Ending Youth Homelessness – hosted by the Frontline Network Scotland on 22 May
  • Barriers & Belonging: the real challenges for young asylum seekers – from the Scottish Centre for Conflict Resolution on 10 June
  • The Frontline Network Conference is being held online on the 24 June
  • Platfform are hosting a series of free, short online courses including Understanding and preventing burnout at work on 27 June
  • Homeless Link have bitesize video modules about mental health and homelessness

To suggest a training topic you would like to see on our programme, or to send us details of webinars, learning events or workshops for including in the next training bulletin, please email laura@homelessnetwork.scot

We hold power and responsibility to deliver equality for people

We’re not all at equal risk of homelessness. Every person carries their own unique experiences and faces different barriers to housing. Some groups of people are systematically disadvantaged, and despite legal duties, the evidence tells us that inequalities persist in Scotland.

The Unequal Risk, an online course provided by our training and consultancy social enterprise All In, is focused on this issue. The training encourages reflection on how we can better listen to and represent diverse communities, covers the underpinning legislation, and offers practical tools to create better services. Read what community resilience worker Lizzie Ashworth experienced during a recent session.


I recently joined a Homeless Network Scotland training session, ‘The Unequal Risk: an equality and human rights lens in housing and homelessness’.

The training offered an inspiring and constructive opportunity to reflect on the unequivocal entitlement of all individuals to have their rights fully upheld and respected in their engagement with housing and homelessness services across Scotland, and the continued gaps in service-user experience.

The trainers facilitated great discussion on how best to redress inequalities around service access, including a consideration of the encouraging move across housing and homelessness provision to embed person-centred and trauma-informed best practice into frontline service delivery. The training also touched on the huge value lived experience from diverse communities brings to informing service design and appropriateness.

For the past 20 years, I’ve worked in community outreach and development, most often directly with marginalised and disenfranchised communities around themes of inclusion, rights and diversity.

I have seen first-hand how individuals’ rights have been breached both implicitly and explicitly in service design and delivery, from Gypsy/Travellers failing to access women’s health advice due to services being ill-equipped to provide culturally appropriate services, to adults experiencing homelessness failing to access mental health support due to an absence of assertive outreach provision.

People in meeting round a table talking

The training supported a broad consideration of how an absence of rights awareness in how community services are developed and delivered both create and sustain significant and enduring barriers for individuals accessing critical advice and support.

It is encouraging to see best practice in inclusion, person-centred and trauma-informed support becoming increasingly commonplace across housing and homelessness services. Creating safety and ensuring that choice, compassion and respect permeate service delivery go a significant distance in meaningfully upholding the rights of service-users.

However, an acknowledgment of current challenges seems unavoidable, and the widespread funding cuts across Scotland’s health, social care and housing sectors paired with the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on service-users and sector professionals are significant.

Together, these circumstances create an increasingly demanding and challenging context in which professionals find themselves under mounting pressure to sustain delivery of high quality humane and dignified support.

Ethical commissioning and ethical funding cycles seem to me fundamental to ensuring organisations and their staff retain capacity to deliver rights-informed and upholding services.

However, increasing job market competitiveness, impermanent job contracts and the worrying wider context of world events increasingly create conditions for declining mental health and burnout amongst statutory and third sector staff.

It’s easy, in the busyness of day-to-day service delivery, to overly focus on the task at hand, particularly where the task is assisting vulnerable individuals to access urgent and critical support. It can be easy to lose sight of good process, of checking what supported individuals value, need and want themselves – and how we can empower them towards improved circumstances, as opposed to services “doing to them.”

I found Homeless Network Scotland’s training a refreshing antidote to the bleak reality of current day-to-day news, and a potent reminder of the power and responsibility we all hold to make this world a more humane and dignified place, for ourselves and others, and striving to embed a rights-based approach into all our relationships and the services we deliver.  

Lizzie Ashworth, Community Resilience Worker, Cyrenians Reset Project

Join us for the next unequal risk session on 10 July to explore how you can make your practice, service and organisation more inclusive.

March and April training bulletin

Since the last training bulletin, we delivered a refreshed equality and human rights course which learners described as “superb” and launched our very first blended rough guide course as flexible eLearning and a live workshop.

We also finished a series of four lectures to trainee doctors and medical students, sharing the stories of people experiencing homelessness and the transformational impact that medical teams can have when they are more human. 

Here is a summary of what is coming up in March and April, perfect for lifelong learners, actioning your annual appraisal or for designing a team training plan.  

What’s new?  

  • Join Clan Childlaw for a short training session about the new law that public authorities need to be compliant with to ensure children’s rights are fully realised. Reserve a ticket for 30 April.  
  • Our brand-new digital learning space is ready for you to explore and perfect for staff, volunteer and board inductions. Get in touch to talk about delivering one of our courses or something bespoke across your organisation.  

 
Upcoming Homeless Network Scotland training dates 

We bring good vibes, a blend of direct and academic evidence, and you bring the questions. Our online training sessions are a great opportunity to network, share examples of good practice and learn from experts.  

  • Homelessness stigma; a conversation 18 March 
  • The unequal risk; an equality and human rights lens on 3 April 
  • Trauma informed approaches; beyond buzzwords to better outcomes 24 April 

Training and events about navigating the immigration system 

Navigating the immigration and housing system is increasingly complex, especially with new immigration rule updates that mean people who arrived seeking safety in the UK via a dangerous journey will normally be refused citizenship. There are lots of helpful events to better understand people’s rights and eligibility to public funds, including housing and homelessness assistance.  

  • Free series of trainings about resisting the hostile environment in public services with Social Workers Without Borders, Migrants Organise and PAFRAS. Running March – July and starting with The Power of Words: Reframing the Migration Narrative on 18 March  
  • Free seminar to celebrate World Social Work Day with the Scottish Association of Social Work about supporting young people seeking asylum in the UK, on 20 March 

Wider training and webinars for the homelessness workforce 

  • Frontline Network run a series of free training for the workforce including suicide awareness and professional resilience 

To suggest a training topic you would like to see on our programme, or to send us details of webinars, learning events or workshops for including in the next training bulletin, please email laura@homelessnetwork.scot 

What’s new for 2025 in the Learning Lounge? 

Happy New Year and a Happy Lunar New Year to everyone celebrating on the 29th of January! With the new year comes new learning opportunities focused on areas including staff wellbeing, and the skills that elevate good practice to great in the homelessness workforce. And on top of that we have new digital content for you to learn at your own pace. 

Have you made a resolution to hone your skills in strengths-based working or set an intention to learn more about the human right to housing?  Are you responsible for the induction of new team members or trustees in 2025?  

Explore our latest training updates to help guide you and your colleagues on a positive learning journey this year and beyond. 

What’s new? 

Upcoming training dates 

  • There are a few spaces left for our updated course The Unequal Risk: an Equality and Human Rights Lens in Housing and Homelessness, held online on 16 January – in our opinion this course is a must for any new board member, frontline worker or volunteer. Book now to avoid disappointment. 
  • For the first time, A Rough Guide to Homelessness Policy and Legislation in Scotland includes self-paced digital content to work through in your own time, as well as a live session on 13 February – perfect for brand new staff or returners to the sector, reserve a space for a new colleague. 
  • Join people keen to learn more about joining the dots between sectors to prevent homelessness at our Closer to Home: a place-based approach to preventing homelessness training on 4 March. Sign up or share with someone in your local area. 

Wider training opportunities 

  • The Frontline Network Scotland’s drug trends training on 14 January is full but you can add your name to the waiting list. 
  • Shelter’s upcoming homelessness training series covers homeless applications, enquiries and decisions and reviews. Run between 23 January and 6 February 2025 for £20 a session or £50 for all three. 

  eLearning and toolkits available to the sector 

  • A new OECD combatting homelessness toolkit offers guidance for policy makers, including information about prevention, models like Housing First and financing. 
  • Simon Community Scotland offers gambling harm eLearning for frontline teams. 
  • The Housing Options toolkit from the Scottish Housing Network is available for local authorities and is currently in trials for housing associations. 

Reflecting on a busy 2024 

Thank you to everyone who came to events with us in 2024! Here are some of our highlights:  

  • We learned with over 200 learners, volunteers and students. 
  • We delivered 15 different online trainings, inhouse workshops and lectures. 
  • 98% of you would recommend the training to a friend or colleague. 
  • 87% named someone they would share their learning with after the session. 
  • 86% made a new connection as a result of attending. 

One of our most heartwarming projects was delivering wellbeing workshops to over 100 housing workers, and their responses to the session were lovely to read: 

“Amazing training, thank you for a day out. You guys really are a breath of fresh air.”  

“Presenters were excellent, very knowledgeable and welcoming.”  

“Really enjoyed today’s training met new colleagues and felt I am not alone.” 

To suggest a training topic you would like to see on our programme, or to send us details of webinars, learning events or workshops for the next training bulletin, please email laura@homelessnetwork.scot 

Why workforce wellbeing matters and what you can do 

At the busiest time of year for the homelessness workforce, it is more important than ever to centre collective care in our work, says Homeless Network Scotland Learning Lead Laura Ffrench-Constant.


We all know why worker wellbeing is important.  Happy and resilient workers lead to better outcomes for the people they work with who are experiencing homelessness. It also means less sickness, absence and staff retention. It means people feel valued and respected. 

However, as the latest Frontline Network worker survey highlights, there is more work to do to improve the wellbeing of the homelessness workforce.  

It found that 64% of workers felt that their role has a negative impact on their wellbeing. Just over half said they often or always feel at risk of burnout. Wellbeing was the most likely reason cited for people who do not want to continue in their role.

Not everything can be solved with workplace yoga or signposting access to free counselling.  

During a fringe session about wellbeing at the annual homelessness conference in Perth in October, we shared good practice examples from organisations across the network.

These included peer supervision, group reflective practice led by trained professionals, line managers incorporating wellbeing check-ins, dedicating time for team building and protected time for training.

Managing the workload of emergency cases and dedicating budget to wellbeing activities – and salaries – is also important. 

There are lots of useful resources across the web that workers, line managers and leaders can use.  

  • BeWell’s wellbeing toolkit designed for organisations working in the migration space includes workshop templates, policy templates and a directory of support 

Over the summer we facilitated play-based workshops for over 100 housing workers about wellbeing. We gathered together people from different organisations to share ideas, experiences and laughter; and the main takeaway people shared was that they felt less alone and comforted that we experience some similar challenges. 

Join us on 6 February for a creative and relaxed in-person workshop in Glasgow, generating solutions and ideas for workplace wellbeing. Priced at £50 per space for HNS members and £70 for non-members. You’ll find more information and testimonials on the booking page.

If your organisation doesn’t have budget for training, please get in touch at hello@homelessnetwork.scot or take a look at the Frontline Network training fund which is now available for wellbeing training.