Prevention of Homelessness Duties - A Joint Scottish Government and COSLA Consultation

ive worked in hospitals where street homeless people were taken to the door at discharge in a wheelchair and then placed - literally placed back on the street. It was abhorrent, immoral and sickening and yet a daily recurrence. Over the 3 years I worked there 3 homeless people simply died on the steps on the hospital and hours later someone noticed, the horror of this will stay with me for ever.

Housing first principle should be clearly stated (as it is in Funland), it works, we know it does, so why not do it?

Theres no money , we are in the middle of a pandemic,Redacted textthis will focus the authorities on homeless ness otherwsie it will easily be side lined.

BUt, this should be monitored, it sounds like a good idea, but in practice, will it be? and what exactly will they be asking? and how will it be consisytent between areas and what about those who have English as a second language, principle sounds good, but check it out! Redacted text

NHS Scotland
local authorities
homeless charities
private provision for homelessness- O know they are not PUBLIC! But wht should they be excluded?
Religious institutions

why 6 months? why not immediately, 6 months is a long long time

Clear, tried and tested pathways out of homelessness, with easy to access forms and information,
a live cloud based RAG dashboard to see how they(the public bodies) are doing week to week- if you can see you are doing well, it will make you proud to be part of such a great team and work harder, being left guessing if all your hard work has acheived anything demotivates people very quickly.
proactive reviews of cases where it went wrong and people ended up on the street with yearly shared learning between bodies, run on a NO BLAME/RCA basis, this isnt about who is best or rubbish like that, this is about helping the people we serve.

its not the best way, but it will help, prevention of homelessness should be on us all as caring communties, this should be the underlying principle, integrated authorities should set up a frameowrk, traning and support to achieve this,

worried that this just means a lot of blame and letters and lawyers but wont actually help the very people we are trying to help here.

you are going to need a whole new set if people to get this up and running to avoid variation, with regular monitoring and meetings to see how its going, A bit like the TASKFORCE you have for the FME stuff

I don't think we can say until youve tried it and seen what happens and monitored outcomes, need some good charity and service user involvement the whole way along.

But this must be clearly defined, so there is consistency across scotland

but the effect must be monitored, it sounds like agood idea, but will it be in practice?
I think there is likely to be alot of stigma and pre-held beliefs about homelessness in integration authorties and some basic service user led training and understanding of homelessness might be a good starting point

refer to my answer to the first question, I think it should be a JOINT reponsibility with the NHS with regular mandatory joint meetings to discuss cases and plan for discharge

where are they going to put them? How will they make sure where the people go is safe?
involving charities and thiose with lived experience from the outset
planning services around this- where will they register for a GP?
how will they access food and nexessities of life?
Many homeless people actively avoid hostels because they are often violent and full of drugs and abuse

Always done this anyway (find it rather insuting that you have even included this!), how many letters do GPs get asked for to help someone who is homeless or at risk of homelessness? Redacted text as a GP I usually end up saying we can do it but its likely it will be binned before they even read it- as that appeasr to be what happens- If you want GPs to do it then you will need to make sure it actually helps the patient, Redacted text

I think that offering expert by experience training to help identify people and designing a template that can be placed into EMIS/VISION etc that can easily be accessed and filled out- I know one already exists as it was designed with EMIS in England, its a bit long but could be adapted. Contact PATHWAY a charity based in UCLH in London for details. GPs like templates and it allows the SG to collect data easily to see if its being used and what types of homelessness presents to primary care. Its useful to look for info on modern slavery as well.

good idea to avoid the 'flock of seagulls 'effect
its hard work being homeless, never mind trying to work out whose helping you !!

everyone has to work as a team and as equals, so that any team member can be a co-ordinator of the path out of homelessness, I think it sounds like an amazing, exciting opportiunity for each area to design and trial different appraoches

the first and foremost will be staffing and training
and second is ensuring expert by experience involvement
I would combine the 2 and design roles/posts for ex homeless people who want to be co-ordinators and help others off the street/sofa surfing and into permanant housing and jobs.

continuity and reduction in huge effort required to access services while trying to stay alive and safe,

they are well placed for this, BUT what about those not in education, how will they be identified and helped?
Again need training from e by e, to reduce stigma

I would design a form of - at max- 5-10 questions that teachers/HV should ask/find out answers to, to make sure a consistent approach is maintained across scotland. I would set this up electronically via local authrorities and ask them to judge if a YP is 'at risk' of homelessness or already homeless (this is where understanding homelessness and its many forms comes in and why training is important), then send this into the safeguarding team, as becoming homeless is a safeguarding risk, electronic referral will make it easy to monitor situation across scotland and respond to areas in need appropriately. Having an 'at risk' list that could be reviewed monthly might help prevent YP falling into homelessness, this would have to be monitored of course.

I think as soon as there is a suspicion that there might bea risk of homelessness, make sure LA is aware, with an option to withdraw 'at risk' status is things improve

by involving charities and young people themselves in the design, make sure the YP can then use this experience of service design on thier CVs and support them into further education if they want to take it further and work in social care/health. YP must be front and centre of any design not a side line at the end of a meeting- seen that happen too often!

maybe, once again it sounds like a good idea but everyones rights and capacity to take part must be assessed first, no coercion just to solve a problem, e.g 'you must live with your grandparents', is a common one and much more support for those family members who take a YP on when thier immediate family has rejected them.

hopefully, but must be monitored with qualitative questionairres and feedback from homeless charities and things progress

the risk here is going to be exclusion/stigma- look at what happens to YP who have been in the care system and ask their experiences-overcoming that will only be achieved by invoving thise very people you are trying to help and listening to them.

cos they'll be back otherwise!
Prison is a safer place then the streetsm and theres food and a bed

make people think about homelessness and support prisoners more consistently

the 2 private ones, although they are coming back to SG ? They will have contracts that do not include this new legislation/guidance so they will not have to comply
ensuring all prisons use the same IT systems to allow easy transfer of information about homeless status/health etc
designing interface or adopting new sytems to alow seemless communication between prisons and partners on hosuing issues
legal implications aroud GDPR etc

I dont work in this system so not sure

obvious really. along with benefits advice and where to go for nearest foodbank etc

should be recorded and central data base kept , and standr=ard questions advised to ensure consustanecy,
anti-stigma training should be given

as above

including access to health care is very improtant, should be made a mandatory part of kt, Redacted text
should include assessment of risk of slavery as this can present as domestic abuse until you look more closely

ensure consistency across scotland

good data collection
is it happening
when do things go wrong and why
improving the service according to these measures

yes, of course, there are a very small group of people who prefer to be homeless and don't want to be forced into housing, if they have capacity then this wish should be respected however we may feel about it.
there is a stigma to homelessness and and individuals consent must be sought and recorded, its about showing respect and empathy

because it won't happen otherwise

strategies are just useless documents until they are put into practice
so create one and then it MUST have an action plan with a timeline to deliver and regular reviews, otherwsie its just a huge ewaste of everyones time

so long as its for direct care, the person is aware their data will be shared and the principles of transparency and 'need to know' are adhered to, shouldnt be a problem

problem- who is going to want to be a social landlord after this?

no, but they will need support and time to deliver this and probably payment, Redacted text

again, though, how are you going to ensure that there is any social housing left?

support and referral pathways for landlords

missed 2 months rent?

just like social landlords, better make sure that doesnt mean they only let to tenants who can pay a big deposit

like the social landlord proposal, but would have to be legilated for, and m,aybe licensed?

clear referral pathways and awareness training

that would be up to them

no

needs to be monitored and see if what seems like a good idea, actually is

needa a team of co-ordinators and that team must include experts by experience

needs standard form and questions, desoigned with experts by experience and social care/health

a health asssessment- deteriorating health can lead to job loss/homelessness
specifically focussing on addiction and autisctic spectrum/dyslexsia/ADHD

need to work on much more specific definntions of what is expected, by when and by whom and how it will be monitored

they need money to do this, and time to train staff and access to training for staff

try to employ and includr as many e by e (ex homeless) as possible at every stage and listen to them and respect thier views

as soon as they are assessed as being at risk of homelessness

24 hour national helpline, if you are suddenly made homeless, what can you do at that moment- like ensurers have after big storms!

again 24 hour helpline with appropriate onward referral as needed

health assessment when seen for homelessness, really important not to miss physical/mental health issues that need to be addressed

need specifically to think about pets, number of people I habve met over the years who wouldnt leave a violent partner because they were afraid for thier pets
and I've met people whose abusive partner took thier pet and had it put down while they were out/at work, MUST include pets in this

no

not sure

not sure

as below

it must be as fast as possible and high level outcomes reported to ensure fairness

no

big ones, will be hard work to begin with

but must be monitored and kearnt from because it will never be perfect, there will always be unintended consequences

much better access to neurodiverse assessments and much n=better access to addiction and mental health services
a community approach where evrybody is involved in this, anyone can see a homeless person on the streetm, anyone can reach out and help, lets make this something thats for ALL of scotland , everyones responsibility, we can see this happening with the Ukrainian refugee crisis, we can do this.

Its good, but need to specifically add in the need for experts by experince at every level and every implimentation.

reduce homelessness to near zero!

Its a big ask and there's a lot to do.

improving the housing first option, making the hostel a safe place to be, expanding the addiction team, expnading the knowledge and traning of mental health teams

but it'll cost up front!

lots of co-design and traning and discussion abut homelessness and reducing stigma

ive listed these in many of the questions already