Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group: final report and recommendations

Priority 3: Providing the support people need to move on

High quality, person-centred services with good regular communication and advice on housing options and support to navigate the housing system are crucial to enabling people to move out of TA into permanent accommodation as quickly as possible. It supports households to quickly access the right information about their rights and housing options, and thereby find and keep suitable permanent accommodation which meets their needs. It is dependent on the availability of suitable homes as well as an appropriately resourced local authority service, working in close partnership with the RSLs and voluntary sector partners in the local area. The principles and recommendations under this priority primarily focus on addressing the backlog of households in TA by supporting people to move on, however they could also help prevent homelessness and support people to avoid the need for TA in the first place, where this is appropriate.

Whilst the end goal is to reduce numbers in TA, the approach must also ensure that people's right to suitable TA which meets their needs is immediately met, linking people up with the required support as quickly as possible to enable a speedy journey through the homelessness system. This is particularly important for households with children where assessment and meeting of needs of the household through provision of appropriate TA and support can help mitigate the impacts of TA on children's health, wellbeing and development.

Recommendations

Recommendation 9: The Scottish Government should publish a review of funding of homelessness services, including any identified funding gaps and the provision of continued funding for RRTPs and Prevention of Homelessness. This should include a review of the funding model for TA^[22].

Current funding decisions and outcomes are opaque, and the statistics and evidence heard by the group outlines the different pressures facing different localities, which are not always linked to local authority performance. The Scottish Government and COSLA have already committed to develop a new and fairer TA funding framework, and the latest annual report on Ending Homelessness Together outlines a desire to provide greater clarity in budget documents as well as a funding formula that better represents 'the drivers of need in homelessness and recognises local authority efforts to reduce the use of TA.' ^{[23] [24]}

Recommendation 10: Following the review, action should be taken to make changes to the funding of homelessness services to ensure they are funded sufficiently.

A lack of resources means local authorities are unable to deliver the high quality, trauma informed, person-centred service required to provide advice and support to people to move on from TA to appropriate permanent accommodation as quickly as possible, as well as preventing homelessness where possible. This can disproportionately affect people with multiple and complex needs, or certain protected characteristics, who might need tailored support to navigate the system.

Recommendation 11: COSLA and the Scottish Government should consider a focus on how to address the recruitment and staffing crisis across the housing sector.

This should include a recruitment drive, including supporting people with lived experienced to work on the front line where this is appropriate; engaging with skills development or recruitment organisations to recruit to this sector; and support to retain staff. The delivery of recommendation 10 should ensure that adequate resources are provided to local authorities to hire and train and fairly pay the required staff, to support recruitment and retainment and delivery of a high-quality service.

Recommendation 12: Health and Social Care Integration Authorities should ensure that Housing Contribution Statements detail what care and support provisions are the responsibility of Health and Social Care Partnerships and what are the responsibility of local authority housing teams.

There needs to be better collaboration between health and social care and housing. Housing Contribution Statements should express the mechanisms that exist to facilitate how health and housing will work together to ensure people move into settled housing that meets their needs, with continued support in place. Implementation of recommendation 12 will provide clarity on roles and responsibilities. It should ensure that people are adequately supported which is essential to address the needs of the individual and enable people to move swiftly through their homelessness journey as well as preventing homelessness from happening in the first place.

Recommendation 13: The Scottish Government should work with local authorities to assess the current Community Care Grant process and make it faster to overcome the delays it can cause in moving people out of TA.

Recommendation 14: COSLA should undertake a benchmarking process on TA and there should be greater transparency on charges of TA by individual local authorities.

The benchmarking process would compare TA services and costs across local authorities. It should be a collaborative exercise between COSLA and local authorities, looking at what TA includes, what charges are made, and what is reasonable to charge.

Improving transparency around what local authorities charge for TA and what these charges include will inform discussions on what value for money looks like and will facilitate a shift towards a standardisation of TA charges across local authorities which should help make TA more affordable.

Recommendation 15: The Scottish Government should review the guidance to local authorities on setting charges for TA by clearly defining the terms "reasonable charge" and "affordable".

Reviewed guidance should help to ensure that individual circumstances are fully taken into account when setting charges.

The Task and Finish Group supports the HARSAG principles of approach to TA funding.^[25] Recommendations 14 and 15 are in line with the HARSAG 2018 principle that rents of TA should be reduced to prevent those staying there from building up debt, and the recommendations should help ensure that TA is affordable to the households that live there and tackle the poverty trap. This poverty trap prevents people living in TA taking up employment, as this would mean that they would build up debt from the high TA charges no longer being covered by housing benefit. If TA is affordable to the households that live there, this should enable households to move through the homelessness system and into a permanent home more quickly.

The evidence we heard

Lived experience

(Recommendation 9, 10, 11)

The group heard from people with lived experience of TA who highlighted significant issues with the quality and type of services which they had access to while homeless, which prevented them from moving out of TA and on to settled accommodation. These issues spanned from a lack of contact or negative interactions with staff, to difficulty in accessing support appropriate to their needs.

Lizzie shared how difficult she found it to get the support she needed. She found a disparity in the support she was offered by organisations, with some being more sympathetic and willing to help than others.

Thomas felt there is minimal support available to people in hostels, in particular that there was no support to help people access a permanent tenancy. He described that the only support he saw was staff checking whether someone was alive.

Rory described his experience of staff in the hostels he stayed in treating him 'like dirt' because he had a drug addiction. He said that when he asked to be given access to rehab, this was denied. He felt that staff in hostels need better training to support people with addictions and that there needs to be better support for people in hostels. He was eventually given his own flat but because of a lack of support to help maintain it, he lost it again.

Grant said that the support he received was key in helping him to move on from TA.

Dennis was released from prison with no accommodation to go to. After his release, he managed to find a hostel to stay in where he remained for 8 months before he got vital support enabling him to find a home.

Recruitment

(Recommendation 11)

Local authorities highlighted the barriers to following through on the best practice initiatives and structural changes required because of low job retention in the sector, reduced staffing levels and recruitment challenges. For example, Fife Council has been unable to take forward some of their plans to mitigate the Unsuitable Accommodation Order (UAO) including converting hostel accommodation because of staff shortages in housing support disciplines following from the recruitment crisis.

Glasgow HSCP reported that RRTP funding was key in allowing them to put in a number of key posts to better match demand for services, and this meant frontline staff capacity was able to increase.

The recruitment policy in Wheatley group offers staff vacancies to tenants. This recruitment from a consumer base could be considered by other RSLs and LAs. One group member urged caution here emphasising that it can be inappropriate to employ people who have experienced trauma to support others experiencing similar trauma.

Housing options

(Recommendation 10, 12)

Housing Options Scotland help people to navigate the housing system to find them permanent homes and, where there is an alternative, suitable outcome they have supported people to avoid homelessness and TA. They highlighted the importance of an individualised approach, as well as building relationships and trust when working with clients, to achieve positive housing outcomes.

Funding

(Recommendation 9, 10, 12)

When Supporting People was introduced in April 2003 the investment in support for vulnerable people increased dramatically. In 2005, a decision was taken by the Scottish Government and COSLA to de-ringfence the funding. Group members identified that this has resulted in a reduction in funding as overall budgets have been cut.

Shelter Scotland funded two full-time staff with a combination of clinical and housing expertise, within an acute hospital setting in Fife. The staff liaised with clinical staff to assess and provide support to patients prior to discharge (and follow up with them post discharge if necessary), and local authority staff to help facilitate the provision of suitable accommodation. The intervention showed that having a mix of health and housing expertise within a hospital setting to support patients to have their medical and wider housing and support needs met can:

• lead to better use of healthcare resources
• offer a better way of working between hospital staff and housing staff, leading to better outcomes for people experiencing homelessness, and
• raise awareness of the wider issues faced by people experiencing homelessness.

Complex Needs

(Recommendation 12)

The Scottish Government Coming Home Implementation Report from 2022 places duties on Health and Social Care to improve health and wellbeing outcomes for people with complex disabilities. The core outcomes for this work relate to meeting the housing needs for people who have complex needs and disability. This work will see the emergence of a Dynamic Support Register, National Support Panel, and Peer Support Network to activate these duties and improve the coordination of care and housing for people who have complex needs. This work will create opportunities and ownership for Housing, Health and Social Care to work together to design and deliver good housing outcomes that prevent homelessness and unnecessary institutional care.

Community Care Grants

(Recommendation 13)

Linda had been in TA for years. When she was finally offered her own tenancy, she was unable to move in for another six weeks until her Community Care Grant was processed as there was no furniture or white goods included.

Several examples were shared on how local authorities have overcome barriers caused by the length of time Community Care Grants take to be processed. Perth and Kinross set up new 'property ready' fund with goods turned around within a day; North Ayrshire Council have set up a furnished tenancy grant fund and Fife Council have placed two staff members in their Community Care Grant team to enable turnaround in two weeks. Glasgow have a fast tracking process for all homelessness community care grants and they are processed by Revenues and Benefits Section within a matter of days.

TA Financing

(Recommendation 14, 15)

Legal Services Agency's research found that only four local authorities explicitly stated that they take individual circumstances into account when setting charges for temporary accommodation. This means that TA is often unaffordable for the households living there, especially if they are in work or education and so not entitled to housing benefit. The total debt owed by people living in TA in Scotland exceeds £33 million.^[26]