The Everyone Home collective and All in for Change have asked Scottish Government to target prevention funding toward small scale pilots that can enable close observation of pathways and processes that will need opened up to implement the new ‘Ask and Act’ homelessness prevention duties effectively.
This recommended course of action from the collective highlights that through action inquiry and a place-based approach, relevant bodies and local partners can enable learning on what it will take to implement the new duties and, importantly, to share that learning across
The collective and the Change Team set out a series of recommendations for defining the scope of the pilots and gathering learning in a new paper.Read it here.
It comes after the Scottish Government announced £4million of funding in 2025-26 to pilot and scale up prevention work. The collective welcomed the pilots and resources as an opportunity to ensure that the statutory prevention framework is robust for full implementation of the new duties.
Everyone Home also said this work will also ensure that local practice and national policy is aligned and strengthened around the foundations that need to be laid so the housing and homelessness system turned towards a prevention focus.
Everyone Home is a collective of 36 academic and third sector organisations focused on housing and homelessness in Scotland.
All in for Change is the national platform for people closest to the issue of homelessness in Scotland, through personal experience or working in direct advice and support roles. The Change Team acts as a feedback loop between people working in and experiencing homelessness now, and decision makers in local and national government and across housing, health and social care.
The latest Network Briefing brings news on the work of Fair Way Scotland, Housing First Scotland, and the Everyone Home collective. And you’ll find reports and research from Shelter Scotland, Rock Trust, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, and more.
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.
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
Training with the No Recourse to Public Funds Network about Scotland and social services support for families on the 14 or support for adults on the 21 May
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
The No Wrong Door action learning partnership was launched in September and is testing out how to create cross-sector, integrated services in four places in Scotland, with local results informing a blueprint for joined-up service delivery nationwide.
The programme aims to make it easier for people to get support when they face severe and multiple disadvantage – when their lives are shaped by poverty, trauma, violence or abuse, or they face other barriers including homelessness, addiction and discrimination.
These disadvantages often overlap but the current model of services that are paid for and provided in different sectors doesn’t reflect their reality. It means people often have to share their stories repeatedly to access all the support they need, it’s costly and it deepens inequality. There needs to be No Wrong Door to getting help.
Homeless Network Scotland Head of Partnerships and Consulting Grant Campbell writes about the need to explore how we can join up services to ensure people facing such challenges get the support they need more easily.
All the way through my career I’ve had the privilege of working alongside some brilliant people. At Homework Network Scotland that also extends to those beyond our organisation and to the many partners and collaborators we work alongside. I’m fortunate enough to be connected in with people and organisations doing amazing things in what is currently an increasingly difficult context.
Many people acknowledge that most, if not all of our statutory services are on their knees, and gone are the days of shiny new ‘pilots’ with five years of secure funding to add a new service somewhere. Controversially, I’m glad!
Now I’m not saying that services don’t need money – they do. Our statutory services need significant funding as do our commissioned third sector partners. Yet if all we do is pursue more funding, there will never be enough money to build the system that we need.
How often have we listened to our political leaders talk about ‘record funding’ for their departments? It doesn’t matter – the hole is always bigger than the money we pour into it.
Increasingly in meetings, no matter the agenda, the conversation seems to always drift towards the siloed nature of the work we do in the care sectors. This is the itch that I feel we need to scratch.
Many of us know it, but we all just play along with how we’ve always done things. We fight our corner, compete for our budgets and argue for additional funding for X at the cost of Y.
I’ve yet to meet anyone who disagrees with this, but who’s prepared to take a different approach if you’re the only one? That’s why we need to go together.
As the old proverb goes, if you want to travel fast, go alone, if you want to travel far, go together. I’m encouraged by this, not least because this journey certainly doesn’t feel fast from my perspective.
Homeless Network Scotland has been steadily working with partners across Scotland towards this different approach… towards No Wrong Door.
Together we’re not only testing change, bending rules (might have broken some…sorry) but we’re determined to learn from failing fast, learn from our mistakes, fixing them and move forward.
The ambition is not only to see significant change in the few areas that we’re working in, but also to build a framework from our learning which shapes decision making across Scotland for the future. We imagine an established No Wrong Door Approach Framework which informs funders, commissioners, service delivery, law makers, and many more.
To this end, we’ve established a National Learning Set, which meets again in the new year. Using the Human Learning Systems approach we’re bravely curious about what works and what doesn’t. Learning wht it will take to break down barriers between siloes and creating paths through the maze for others to follow.
In our current context, this isn’t the time for defeatism. I’m not advocating a naïve ‘talking it up’ approach, pretending all is well. Rather, we need to resist the temptation to fold inwards and extend out to others. We not only need to recognise the connection between poverty, education, housing, mental health, community justice, addiction and health, we need to plan, fund and deliver services that address these issues together.
The Scottish Government today took important steps towards addressing the homelessness and housing crisis by promising to ramp up delivery of social and affordable homes with £768million of investment next year and £4million to fund homelessness prevention pilot schemes.
Homeless Network Scotland welcomes these commitments, which are crucial to set the foundation to improve things for people and communities now and in the long-term.
With more resources committed to homelessness and housing, we can continue to safeguard the strong legal rights to housing we all have – rights which are the pillars of those systems. Now is the time for councils to use the increased funds coming their way to prioritise resource to make these homelessness rights a reality again.
Money to boost homelessness prevention will help the government, local authorities, housing associations and the third sector to put meat on the bones of prevention proposals in the Housing Bill currently going through parliament.
This funding must be used to demonstrate how the Bill’s new Ask and Act duties, which will require a wider range of public bodies to share responsibility for preventing homelessness, will work in reality. The £4million should also be used to scale up successful prevention practice already taking place in parts of the country. Everyone benefits when homelessness is reduced.
Restoring investment in affordable housing is also welcome, particularly as the £768million announced includes a significant rise in capital spending on the homes we need.
We applaud the political leadership behind this action, at a time of fierce and justified competition for spending – this is the right move to benefit people and communities in the long term. Last year’s £200million cut was the wrong decision and only stored up problems for the future. There is no way to ending homelessness that doesn’t involve building sufficient social housing for people.
This time last year our sector and the people we support were dealt a severe blow in the Budget. Since then, the housing emergency has deepened and homelessness in all its forms including rough sleeping has continued to rise.
The promise of progress offered by the Scottish Government in this Budget is welcome but represents just the start of the much bigger investment in housing and homelessness that is needed to transform Scotland into a place where everyone has a home.
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