Ending homelessness together: annual report to the Scottish Parliament, December 2025

Progress against actions to join up planning and resources to tackle homelessness

25. Ensure the National Performance Framework review includes explicit consideration of homelessness

26. Improve how we use Public Health Scotland data and intelligence capabilities

27. Further improve drug and alcohol treatment and harm reduction services

28. Improve join up between health, social care, housing and homelessness planning

29. Embed homelessness as a public health priority and ensure local authorities, housing providers and public bodies join up to prevent homelessness

30. Ensure the Hard Edges Scotland report continues to inform the response to severe and multiple disadvantage

31. Update the code of guidance on homelessness

32. Join up housing, employment and employability support

• The Scottish Government has committed to reform the National Performance Framework (NPF). We expect to launch the next iteration of the NPF at the start of the new parliamentary session.
• Public Health Scotland has published a homelessness and health dashboard providing approved users with access to linked homelessness and health and social care data. Public Health Scotland is making this data available to all local authority areas to inform where best to target support for people experiencing multiple and complex needs within the healthcare system.
• The Scottish Government continues to improve drug and alcohol treatment and harm reduction services through the implementation of the medication assisted treatment (MAT) standards. A safer drug consumption facility, the Thistle, opened in Glasgow in January 2025 and has been able to respond to a number of onsite overdose incidents.
• The latest statistics on homeless deaths were published in November 2024. They showed that drug misuse deaths accounted for two fifths (41 per cent) of all estimated homeless deaths in Scotland in 2023.
• The Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 requires local authorities to include in their local housing strategies an assessment of the housing support needs of people in their area and the availability of housing support services in relation to homelessness.
• Public Health Scotland has engaged with local NHS territorial health boards and other stakeholders to identify what is required to develop the public health approach to homelessness – an approach which advocates for a shift in focus to the primary prevention of homelessness. Through workshops and webinars, Public Health Scotland has already reached over 250 people.
• The Scottish Government is providing Cyrenians with up to £30,000 in 2025-26 from the mental health budget to extend its hospital in-reach service. The team from Cyrenians connects with people who are homeless and who have been admitted to hospital and ensures that access to suitable accommodation is prioritised as part of discharge planning. This assists recovery and reduces the risk of hospital readmission.
• Scotland’s new homelessness prevention duties will require better coordination and cooperation between local authorities, housing providers and relevant public bodies to help people avoid the crisis of homelessness and the longer-term harms associated with it.
• We have committed to working closely with relevant bodies and other stakeholders, including people with lived experience of homelessness, to ensure that guidance and regulations developed to support the new homelessness prevention duties are fit for purpose.
• In September 2025, the Scottish Government invested £750,000 in a pilot project in Glasgow to make it easier for women affected by substance use to access services. The funding will be delivered through the Corra Foundation.
• The Scottish Government will begin updating the code of guidance on homelessness during 2026 to take account of recent changes, including the new homelessness prevention duties in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025.
• No One Left Behind is Scotland’s strategy for making the employability system more responsive to people’s needs. The Scottish Government publishes statistics on the number of people receiving support and these capture whether people are experiencing homelessness.
• The Scottish Government’s housing first monitoring reports record positive outcomes as a result of housing first tenancies, including whether people are employed or engaged in voluntary work.
• The housing options training toolkit, enabled through funding from the Scottish Government, contains a module on supporting employability. The aim is to assist housing and homelessness staff in Scottish local authorities to provide employment and housing support in a joined-up way.