Publication - Progress report
Ending Homelessness Together: annual report 2021
Annual report setting out the progress made in the last 12 months by national government, local government and third sector partners against actions in the Ending Homelessness Together action plan.
Homelessness vision
Homelessness vision: Everyone has a home that meets their needs Homelessness is ended
National Performance Framework: Our Values
‘We are a society which treats all our people with kindness, dignity and compassion…’
To end homelessness we will:
Embed a person centred approach
- My support is flexible and builds on my strengths and successes
- I always have choice and control
- I am listened to, valued and treated with dignity and respect
Prevent homelessness from happening in the first place
- I can find support quickly if I need it, before reaching crisis point
- I am helped to keep my home, which helps me focus on other goals
- My housing options are considered when my other circumstances change
Join up planning and resources to tackle homelessness
- I know where to get help
- I expect services to work together, in partnership with me
- I trust that the right people are informed about my needs and experiences
Respond quickly and effectively whenever homelessness happens
- I expect my housing crisis to be responded to with urgency
- The help I get is right for me, and reduces the risk of homelessness happening again
Prioritise settled homes for all
- I can exercise my right to access and maintain a safe and secure home
- I build and maintain positive relationships and am part of the community
Status of actions 2021
The following table provides information on the status of all the actions, organised by the five themes. We have deleted actions that were already complete at the time of our last publication and have grouped actions that are similar.
| Theme | Action | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Embed a person-centred approach | 1 | Develop the evidence base on homelessness and, in particular, understand the impact of COVID-19 on the risk of homelessness for particular groups | Well underway |
| 2 | Strengthen the role and influence of the Change Team | Completed since last publication | |
| 3 | Support people to access digital equipment, data and training | Well underway | |
| 4 | Apply a gendered analysis to our actions, ensuring the homelessness system meets the needs of diverse groups of women | Started | |
| 5 | Ensure homelessness services are grounded in no wrong door and person-centred principles (explore options for taking forward personal housing plans; ensure child wellbeing assessments are undertaken; and develop housing options training toolkit) | Started | |
| 6 | Raise public awareness of homelessness and challenge stigma | Well underway | |
| Prevent homelessness from happening in the first place | 7 | Introduce the transfer of tenancy provisions for social housing tenancies as part of the Domestic Abuse Bill | Completed since last publication |
| 8 | Improve outcomes for women experiencing domestic abuse (publish an implementation plan to respond to the recommendations of the domestic abuse pathway group; and develop and implement human rights-based accommodation pathways for women and children with no recourse to public funds who are experiencing domestic abuse) | Started | |
| 9 | Increase focus on tenancy sustainment and share innovative and successful examples of early prevention and effective tenancy sustainment work | Started | |
| 10 | Work with COSLA and local authorities to consider shared and more streamlined application processes for discretionary housing payments and use information sharing powers to help local authorities target people who are most in need of discretionary housing payments | Started | |
| 11 | Support the social housing sector to identify and support households at risk of homelessness before they reach crisis point and create a homelessness prevention fund for social landlords | Completed since last publication | |
| 12 | Develop cross-sector project to establish mechanisms for avoiding evictions into homelessness | Planned in the next 12 months | |
| 13 | Take forward further awareness raising activity on financial support and tenancy rights | Completed since last publication | |
| 14 | Look further at affordability in the private rented sector, building on the work to set up and review rent pressure zones | Planned in the next 12 months | |
| 15 | Assess the impact of temporary pre-action protocols in the private rented sector to inform the development of permanent pre-action protocols | Well underway | |
| Prevent homelessness from happening in the first place | 16 | Support the First-tier Tribunal to improve transparency around outcomes for tenants through better use of data | Well underway |
| 17 | Respond to the recommendations from the prevention review group, setting out our next steps in 2021 | Well underway | |
| 18 | Develop prevention pathways for groups at particular risk (develop rapid protocols with public institutions as part of prevention pathway work and test, learn from and improve the homelessness prevention approaches recommended in the pathways) | Well underway | |
| 19 | Prevent and respond effectively to youth homelessness | Started | |
| 20 | Make homelessness assessments more flexible | Started | |
| 21 | Understand the impact of UK welfare reforms | Well underway | |
| 22 | Review implementation of the SHORE standards | Well underway | |
| Prioritise settled homes for all | 23 | Take forward work on the right to adequate housing (through work on First Minister's national taskforce for human rights leadership) | Started |
| 24 | Roll out Housing First in Scotland (support the Housing First Scotland pathfinder programme in five cities; build on early results from pathfinder programme and work with local authorities to scale up Housing First more rapidly; and forge partnerships with health and justice systems to embed Housing First) | Well underway | |
| 25 | Significant increase to the proportion of social homes allocated to people who are homeless while we are still in phase 3 of Scotland's route map | Started | |
| 26 | Complete the delivery of 50,000 affordable homes as soon as it is safe to do so | Started | |
| 27 | Encourage the housing sector to prioritise the process of bringing empty homes back into use and support local authorities to build stronger relationships with the private rented sector and to develop their empty homes services and private rented sector access schemes | Started | |
| 28 | Develop best practice examples of choice in settled housing and assess impacts of providing wide range of housing options in local areas | Well underway | |
| 29 | Set out our position on a temporary accommodation funding framework | Started | |
| 30 | Establish a third sector homelessness fund to support transformational change and launch it by the end of 2020 | Completed since last publication | |
| Respond quickly and effectively whenever homelessness happens | 31 | Work with local authorities and other partners to provide access to safe and self-contained accommodation during the pandemic | Well underway |
| 32 | Share summaries of the audits of the numbers and needs of people in emergency accommodation with the Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group | Started | |
| 33 | Support local authorities and health and social care partners with their efforts to provide appropriate move on support and stable accommodation for all those currently in emergency accommodation | Well underway | |
| 34 | Support local winter planning, including efforts by partners to modify night shelter provision in Edinburgh and Glasgow and end the use of night shelter and dormitory-style provision in future | Well underway | |
| 35 | Publish guidance later in 2020 on the Unsuitable Accommodation Order and bring forward a further Scottish statutory instrument that will provide clarity on the changes to the Order | Well underway | |
| 36 | Develop a model of frontline outreach and train and support frontline staff | Started | |
| 37 | Support people engaged in street begging | Started | |
| 38 | Prevent homelessness for those with no recourse to public funds (press UK Government on migrant homelessness; form alliances with like-minded partners; work with the Everyone Home Collective; explore alternative routes through which to provide accommodation to people with no recourse to public funds; and extend funding for projects that provide advocacy and legal advice to destitute asylum seekers and people with no recourse to public funds) | Well underway | |
| 39 | Set out broader range of accommodation options in crisis situations, including information about short-term community hosting as a crisis response | Started | |
| Respond quickly and effectively whenever homelessness happens | 40 | Revise legislative arrangements for intentionality and local connection and amend intentionality definition to focus more closely on 'deliberate manipulation' | Started |
| 41 | Introduce temporary accommodation standards | Started | |
| 42 | Complete voluntary review of homelessness provision at Glasgow City Council | Well underway | |
| 43 | Learn from recent initiatives and consider what further support is needed to help people with the transition out of the crisis | Well underway | |
| Join up planning and resources to tackle homelessness | 44 | Ensure next National Performance Framework review includes explicit consideration of homelessness | Started |
| 45 | Work with Public Health Scotland to ensure that guidance on infection prevention and control remains fit for purpose and develop separate guidance for homelessness services in Scotland | Completed since last publication | |
| 46 | Improve how we use Public Health Scotland data and intelligence capabilities to ensure improved outcomes | Well underway | |
| 47 | Learn from the crisis period to further improve drug and alcohol treatment and harm reduction services | Well underway | |
| 48 | Embed homelessness as a public health priority | Started | |
| 49 | Improve join up between health, social care, housing and homelessness planning | Started | |
| 50 | Ensure local authorities, housing providers and public bodies join up to prevent homelessness | Planned in the next 12 months | |
| 51 | Produce cross-government response to the Hard Edges report | Started | |
| Join up planning and resources to tackle homelessness | 52 | Update code of guidance on homelessness and review need for code of practice in code of guidance on homelessness | Planned in the next 12 months |
| 53 | Join up housing, employment and employability support | Started | |
| 54 | Work with local authorities and delivery partners on effective implementation of Ending Homelessness Together | Started | |
| 55 | Support the homelessness system to respond more appropriately to the shared needs of mothers and children | Started | |
| Other actions | 56 | Review the homelessness data collection (HL1) to improve our understanding of the causes of homelessness and the outcomes, improve homelessness data on protected characteristics and ensure Scottish Government data collections reflect the increased priority of tackling homelessness | Started |
| 57 | Conduct equality impact assessments | Started | |
| 58 | Undertake analysis of the economic impacts of homelessness | Planned in the next 12 months |
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