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FINAL EVALUATION OF THE ROUGH SLEEPERS
INITIATIVE
CHAPTER 1: POLICY BACKGROUND AND THE OBJECTIVES
OF THE EVALUATION
Introduction
1.1 This Chapter provides the contextual background to
the Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) before outlining the
aims and methods of this evaluation. The Chapter also
outlines the structure of this report.
Background
A short history of the programme
1.2 The Scottish RSI was prompted by the RSI launched in
1990, which was in response to the increased visibility of
rough sleeping in central London in the late 1980s. The
London RSI funded outreach workers, hostel places, move-on
accommodation and resettlement services, while a
complementary programme, the Homeless Mentally Ill
Initiative was rolled out to address high rates of mental
health problems among people sleeping rough. The RSI was
subsequently extended to other English cities in 1996.
While the RSI was criticised for addressing the 'symptoms'
rather than the causes of homelessness (Anderson, 1993), it
did achieve a significant reduction in the scale of rough
sleeping in England's capital, particularly in the early
years of the Initiative (Randall and Brown 1993; 1996). The
Labour government which came to power in 1997 then
introduced a target to reduce rough sleeping in England by
two-thirds by 2002 as part of its strategic response to
'social exclusion'. This target was reported as being met
ahead of schedule in 2001 by the Rough Sleepers Unit (RSU),
which coordinated the funding for rough sleeper services.
The body that recently replaced the RSU, the Homelessness
and Housing Support Directorate, is now charged with
maintaining this lowered level of rough sleeping in
England.
1.3 An RSI was established in Scotland in 1997 with an
initial budget of £16 million over the first three years of
its life. These funds were allocated to local authorities
that submitted successful bids, in partnership with other
statutory, voluntary and private sector bodies, to address
the needs of rough sleepers in their area. A subsequent
round of funding in RSI-2 brought the total amount
committed to the programme by the Scottish Executive up to
£63 million by 2003/4.
1.4 Monitoring of the RSI was via Local Outcome
Agreements (LOAs) which detailed the range of RSI funded
services that were to be provided in each local authority
area. LOAs were introduced in the latter stages of RSI-1
and agreed between the Scottish Executive and relevant
local authorities.
1.5 An interim evaluation of RSI-1 was produced by
Yanetta
et al (1999). This evaluation made clear that RSI
needed to be integrated with mainstream services if the
programme were to achieve its objectives. The interim
evaluation found sometimes unsatisfactory integration with
mental health services and drug and alcohol services and
underdeveloped joint working with NHS and social work
services, limiting service effectiveness. Yanetta
et al also found that service coordination
problems could be coupled with difficulties in securing
move-on accommodation.
1.6 Since the interim evaluation, there has been an
imperative to 'mainstream' rough sleeping services into
wider homelessness strategies and to create a situation in
which social housing, social work, Supporting People and
NHS Scotland services are better orientated towards the
needs of people sleeping rough (Yanetta
et al, 1999; SWSI, 2000). The main agents through
which these changes are to be achieved are the local
homelessness strategies and health and homelessness action
plans. Part of the funding in RSI-2 was devoted to rolling
out the Glasgow Homelessness Network (GHN) monitoring
framework to all RSI projects across Scotland.
Eliminating the need to sleep rough
1.7 When the Scottish Executive took over responsibility
for homelessness from the Scottish Office in 1999, it set a
new target of eliminating the 'need to sleep rough' in
Scotland by the end of 2003. The Scottish RSI thus attained
a new significance, with progress towards the target
measured by means of bi-annual audits (Laird
et al, 2004). In December 2003 it was reported
that the number of people sleeping rough in Scotland had
dropped by a third since 2001, but that the target of
eliminating the need to sleep rough had been narrowly
missed. A range of homelessness agencies paid tribute to
the achievements of RSI in reducing the numbers of rough
sleepers, and in enabling significant improvements in
services throughout Scotland, but emphasised that the
plight of people sleeping rough must remain a policy
priority.
The integration of RSI within strategic
responses to all forms of homelessness
1.8 Recent years have seen major developments in
homelessness policy. Shortly after devolution, in August
1999, a Homelessness Task Force (HTF) was set up by the
Scottish Executive, with membership drawn from across the
statutory and voluntary sectors. Recommendations in the
HTF's first report, published in April 2000, formed the
basis of the homelessness provisions in the Housing
(Scotland) Act 2001. This legislation was particularly
notable in granting a right to temporary accommodation for
'non-priority' homeless groups (mainly single people) and
in establishing a duty for local authorities to produce
homelessness strategies for their area.
1.9 The HTF final report, published early in 2002,
contained 59 recommendations intended to achieve a
'step-reduction' in homelessness in Scotland over
a 10-year period (Scottish Executive, 2002). Further wide
ranging changes to the homelessness legislation in Scotland
were enacted in the Homeless Etc. (Scotland) Act 2003. It
is intended that, over a 10 year period, the 'priority
need' criterion will be phased out entirely so that all
homeless people will be entitled to rehousing, except for a
small number of 'intentionally' homeless households who
will have this right suspended temporarily (although such
households will be entitled to some form of accommodation
and support in the meantime). A cross-sectoral Homelessness
Monitoring Group was established to monitor progress in
implementing the Homelessness Task Force's recommendations,
and made its first report in February 2004.
1.10 With most of the capital commitments made
1, the agreed ongoing revenue costs of RSI-supported
services were absorbed into local authorities' Revenue
Support Grant in 2004, and current levels of RSI-related
funding will continue to form part of this calculation
until at least March 2008. Since the introduction of the
requirement to produce homelessness strategies and
following guidance from the Scottish Executive, rough
sleeping outcomes are now absorbed into wider LOAs attached
to each local authority's homelessness strategy.
1.11 Alongside the integration of rough sleeper services
into local authority homelessness strategies and the
monitoring of those services within the LOAs covering the
entire homelessness strategy, several other developments
have taken place. Greater integration between homelessness
and health services is being encouraged through the
requirement that health boards produce health and
homelessness action plans. The homelessness strategy for
each local authority should also be closely integrated with
the Supporting People strategy for that area. Many rough
sleeper services, including some of those which have
received RSI funding in the past, or which are still
recipients of RSI funding at the time of writing, are now
also funded through Supporting People. RSI funded services
for people sleeping rough are now within a strategic
planning framework involving the local authority, the
health board and the Supporting People team within each
area. This degree of joint working and involvement within
multi-agency planning places services for people sleeping
rough, which had hitherto sometimes been at the edge of
these processes and networks, in a quite different
situation from a decade ago. These issues are explored
further in Chapters
Three and
Six of this report.
Findings of the interim evaluation
1.12 An interim evaluation of the RSI, conducted by
Yanetta
et al; was published in 1999. This evaluation
reported on the initial round of RSI grants (RSI-1) which
were received by thirteen of the local authorities that
submitted bids. The authors found that RSI was proving
successful, but that a number of issues remained to be
resolved; these included:
- a stronger emphasis on incorporating services for
people sleeping rough into strategic planning,
including incorporation into homelessness
strategies;
- greater NHS Scotland and social work department
involvement in service provision for rough
sleepers;
- an appropriate package of resettlement, tenancy
sustainment and preventative services for people
sleeping rough in each local authority area;
- recognition of ongoing issues in affordable housing
supply in some areas, affecting the ability of services
to move former rough sleepers on;
- recognition of barriers to entry and shortages of
some forms of service for people sleeping rough,
particularly drug and alcohol services.
1.13 The interim evaluation also made a number of
national level recommendations related to people sleeping
rough and homelessness in general. These recommendations
echoed those of the HTF report.
The aims and objectives of this
evaluation
1.14 This programme level evaluation of the Scottish RSI
was designed to:
- assess the extent to which RSI funding has been
used effectively to help eliminate the need for rough
sleeping in Scotland;
- examine the extent and effectiveness of the
mainstreaming of RSI services;
- assess the effectiveness of current monitoring
systems, and;
- produce recommendations on future practice for the
delivery and monitoring of services to meet the needs
of rough sleepers, in order to sustain a position where
no-one need sleep rough.
1.15 A series of specific substantive questions arise in
the context of these broad objectives:
- How effective overall has the Initiative been with
regards to its overriding aim of reducing rough
sleeping and enabling individuals to sustain a life
away from the streets?
- To what extent has the RSI helped to address the
service barriers faced by rough sleepers?
- Are successful RSI services being effectively
mainstreamed and integrated into the delivery of local
authority homelessness strategies?
- How appropriate and effective has the Glasgow
Homeless Network monitoring framework been in capturing
progress towards the target of ensuring that no-one
need sleep rough?
- How appropriate and effective was the methodology
adopted for the bi-annual audit of rough
sleeping/available accommodation?
- To what extent have the recommendations of the
interim evaluation of the RSI (Yanetta
et al, 1999) been taken on board?
Methods
1.16 The evaluation comprised the following
elements:
- A critical assessment of statistical research and
monitoring information on rough sleeping in
Scotland;
- A national telephone survey with local authority
staff concerned with implementing the RSI across
Scotland;
- Case studies of eight widely used service models,
focused on representing the views of both service
providers and service users.
A critical assessment of research and
monitoring information on rough sleeping in
Scotland
1.17 This desk based review involved conducting a
critical assessment of the existing research and monitoring
data conducted on rough sleepers and services for people
sleeping rough. The review was primarily focused upon
delivering a critical assessment of how well existing
research and monitoring systems:
- described the extent and nature of rough sleeping
in Scotland;
- provided an overview and monitoring of service
activity;
- delivered data and other information that could be
used to assess the effectiveness of the RSI
programme.
1.18 The results of this critical review are presented
mainly in
Chapter Two of this report. The
main data sources on the RSI and rough sleeping reviewed in
Chapter Two are:
- existing research on people sleeping rough and the
RSI;
- the GHN database on the activities of RSI
services;
- the George Street Research bi-annual assessments of
the 'need to sleep rough'; and
- the HL1 returns that local authorities make to the
Scottish Executive on homelessness applications made to
them.
The national telephone survey
1.19 Telephone interviews were sought with a key local
authority officer in every area in Scotland in receipt of
RSI funds. Interviews were achieved with 26 respondents
from 23 authorities. A list of the participating
authorities is presented in appendix one.
1.20 The overall purpose of these in-depth, qualitative
interviews was to examine the 'whole picture' impact of the
RSI within every relevant local authority in Scotland. In
particular, they were intended to:
- assist assessment of the overall
impact/effectiveness of RSI at local level;
- add depth and clarity to the analysis of
documentary material pertaining to individual RSI
services and local homeless strategies/local outcome
agreements;
- assess the extent to which RSI services are being
integrated effectively into the delivery of local
authority strategies;
- inform the assessment of the GHN monitoring
framework, and in particular its usefulness in enabling
local authorities to monitor if the rough sleeping
target is being met/sustained; and
- inform the evaluation of the bi-annual measure of
the extent of rough sleeping/audit of available
accommodation.
1.21 The evaluation team conducted additional telephone
interviews in Glasgow because of the relative complexity of
the RSI-funded services in that city. In addition,
interviews where conducted with four commentators who were
involved in the development and implementation of RSI at
the national level and who were able to provide a broader
insight into the history of the programme.
1.22 The results of the national telephone survey are
reviewed in
Chapter Three. A list of participating authorities is
given in
Appendix one and the topic guide
used for the interviews can be found in
Appendix two.
Eight in-depth case studies
1.23 The evaluation team drew upon the results of the
national review and the telephone interviews to identify
eight services as case studies involving interviews with
both service providers and service users. This stage of the
fieldwork was intended to deepen the understanding
generated by the broader-based information provided by the
first two stages in the research. This fieldwork stage was
necessary for two reasons. First, the results of the review
and the telephone interviews needed to be checked against
more detailed case study work to ensure that they are
properly reflective of the practical experience of those
working on the ground. Second, it was of central importance
that the users of RSI services are represented in the
evaluation; this could only be achieved by detailed
face-to-face work.
1.24 These eight RSI-funded services invited to
participate as case studies were selected to reflect the
range of RSI activities; the diversity of client groups;
and a spread of geographical areas. Those which
participated were as follows:
- The Four Square Follow Up team in Edinburgh
- Dunedin Harbour Hostel in Edinburgh
- The Wayside Daycentre in Glasgow
- The Simon Community Street Outreach Team in
Glasgow
- The Dundee Cyrenians Street Outreach Team
- Loretto housing in Falkirk
- The SOLAS direct access hostel in Oban
- Inverness Daycentre
1.25 Interviews were conducted with 25 service
providers. In addition, the evaluation team asked these
services to help arrange a series interviews with service
users, who included current, former and potential rough
sleepers. In total, 32 service users were interviewed by
the evaluation team through a series of focus groups.
1.26 The results of the fieldwork in the eight case
study areas are reviewed in
Chapter Three. The topic guides
used for the interviews with service providers and service
users are presented in appendices three and four.
Structure of the report
1.27
Chapter Two of the report
provides a critical assessment of the available research
and current data sources used to assess the impact of the
RSI and understand the nature of rough sleeping as a social
problem.
Chapter Three draws on the
national telephone survey and face-to-face interviews with
national-level actors to provide a qualitative assessment
of the implementation and effectiveness of the RSI across
Scotland.
Chapter Four deepens this
analysis by drawing on the case study work with service
providers to assess the impact of the RSI programme at
project and local service network level.
Chapter five complements this by
drawing on the experience of service users within the case
study projects.
1.28
Chapter six draws together the
overall conclusions of the evaluation and presents both
some substantive recommendations on the future of the RSI
programme and on monitoring its achievements.
Chapter six also reviews the
recommendations of the interim evaluation of the RSI
conducted by Yanetta
et al (1999) and considers the extent to which
these recommendations have been followed by the
programme.
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