Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group minutes: August 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Paul McLennan MSP, Co-Chair, Minister for Housing
• Cllr Maureen Chalmers, Co-Chair Community Wellbeing Spokesperson, COSLA
• Aaliya Seyal, Legal Services Agency
• Alison Watson, Shelter Scotland
• David Pentland, Change Team
• Eileen McMullan, SFHA
• James Stampfer, Change Team
• John Mills, ALACHO
• Jules Oldham, Scottish Woman’s Aid
• Kate Polson, Rock Trust
• Lorraine McGrath, Simon Community Scotland
• Maggie Brunjes, Homeless Network Scotland
• Matthew Downie, Crisis UK
• Mike Callaghan, COSLA
• Ruth Robin, Healthcare Improvement Scotland
• Shea Moran, Aff the Streets
• Susie Fitton, SFHA (on behalf of Sally Thomas)

Apologies

• Angela Keith, SOLACE
• Janice Stevenson, LGBT Youth Scotland
• Sally Thomas, SFHA

Also in attendance

• Catriona McKean, DD Better Homes
• Karen Grieve, SG
• Louise Thompson, SG
• Laura Fegan, SG
• Kerry Shaw, SG
• Pamela McBride, SG
• Emily Foster, SG

Items and actions

Mr McLennan, Minister for Housing (Chair) welcomed HPSG members to the group and invited Cllr Chalmers (Co-Chair) to share some opening remarks.

Change Team roadshows: key findings

DP and JS shared the Change Team report from their series of roadshows. The research confirmed that the two greatest barriers to realising the four New Directions are supply of permanent homes and lack of funding. Frontline workers shared concerns about the quality of services due to increased pressure from high caseloads and the replacement of face-to-face interactions with digital support services. There is pressure on the private rented sector in most areas and rent costs are increasing. Access to support services can be challenging and referrals can be complicated due to hesitancy in sharing information due to GDPR.

Despite clear challenges, there was a solutions focus and the rapid rehousing approach is recognised as being effective. There was much positivity about the good work being done by dedicated, caring and passionate frontline staff. In particular, the successes of Housing First were noted as well as prevention activity being carried out. Finally, the benefits of having a community hub with co-located services was noted as one service may not be able to provide all the supports required for a household. Best practice identified will be shared and promoted, e.g. strong prevention work in Edinburgh.

Housing emergency

CM gave an overview of the Housing to 2040 Board meeting which had taken place on 22 August 2024 and suggested that HPSG should take a similar approach towards addressing the housing emergency. HPSG members agreed to the following proposal:

• an official-led meeting of HPSG will be scheduled to mirror the Housing to 2040 approach
• HPSG will consider the 17 actions in the coalition letter and the recommendations from the four task and finish group reports, alongside the Change Team’s report, with the aim to prioritise the most impactful actions
• there is recognition that some ongoing work may need to pause, stop or change to support the focus on the identified priority actions
• actions to address the housing emergency will be developed, with the Housing to 2040 Board having overall oversight with input from HPSG on the homelessness and people aspects

Actions  

• SG officials to circulate the Housing to 2040 Board Paper, the coalition’s ‘asks’ and summary of the T&FG recommendations. Update: complete
• SG officials to invite HPSG members to a meeting to prioritise actions. Update: complete – meeting is scheduled for 18 September 2024
• ALACHO to identify priorities in the housing emergency action plans developed by the local authorities that have declared housing emergencies, and to ask those that have not published an action plan why not

HPSG membership survey: discussion on findings

The group split into two break-out rooms to discuss the findings from the survey (paper 2).

Feedback from room 1

• joint working and communication should continue in between meetings, e.g. the partnership approach to early prison release scheme. There is much skill and expertise in the sector which should be maximised
• prevention activity should be prioritised to allow us to move away from crisis management/fire-fighting
• areas where we are already struggling with delivery should be identified to gain focus on where activity should be directed
• consider long and short-term actions and how they should be prioritised
• consider how we collaborate with other existing groups, e.g. Ministerial Oversight Group on Housing, to support other’s action and avoid duplication

Feedback from room 2

• members want clearer asks/actions assigned to them and an action log developed to monitor progress
• avoid duplication where actions are being taken forward by other groups
• actions from Task and Finish Groups should be included in the housing emergency response. The next phase is delivery
• information can be shared between meetings to maintain momentum, e.g. work of the Everyone Home Collective
• deep dives/short life working groups are effective but need broader membership

Actions

• SG to respond to the two outstanding T and F group reports
• action log to be developed (following prioritisation exercise) with owners identified for actions

SFHA: Homelessness Prevention Fund

EM shared the key findings, learning points and outcomes for people and families. The impact on poverty through increased income and reducing debt was significant as well as outcomes of improved health, wellbeing and confidence for households. SFHA commissioned a social value assessment to measure impact of services for social wellbeing metrics in addition to financial impacts of the programme. This calculated a social return of investment of 1:15.