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PROGRESS WITH DELIVERY

5. This section records progress on the priorities we set for 2004 and summarises significant progress made in the period since we last reported. In particular, the following key developments should be highlighted:

• All local authorities have a homeless strategy in place and all but one have had these strategies approved by the national assessment panel.
• A methodology for assessing local authorities' capacity to achieve the abolition of priority need has been developed and local authorities have been asked to assess their current position.
• Health and Homelessness Standards have been launched.
• New regulations to limit the use of unsuitable temporary accommodation for homeless families have been put in place.
• National co-ordinators have been appointed to provide support in relation to rent deposit schemes and social networks.
• The Scottish Homelessness and Employability Network has been launched.
• Research relating to the rough sleepers initiative, homelessness amongst black and minority ethnic communities, lead tenancies, housing advice services for prisoners, priority need and local connection has been published and is being taken forward.

6. The rest of this section lists the progress made against each suite of Homelessness Task Force recommendations. A more detailed progress report covering all 59 of the recommendations, and setting out future action required against each, is at Appendix D.

Legislation

7. The priorities we set for the year were as follows:

• Ensure that the agreed commencement plan for the 2003 Act is followed and that local authorities, other service providers and homeless people themselves are given adequate support to understand and prepare for implementation of the new legislation.
• Provide comments on draft regulations, and consultation material, as necessary.
• Secure a sound evidence base to inform the detail of the commencement plan for the 2003 Act.
• Feed into, and draw upon, work to develop the Scottish Housing Quality Standard and Local Housing Strategies and the research into expansion of priority need in order to assess the current situation on supply and quality of housing and inform the Ministerial statement on the abolition of priority need which is required to be made by December 2005.
• Monitor local authorities' implementation of their legislative duties towards homeless people - including overseeing the continuous improvement of homelessness and housing strategies and development of local outcome agreements specifying clear outcomes which local authorities will seek to achieve with their homelessness funding.

8. In relation to these priorities we note:

• The commencement plan for the 2003 Act has been followed, with the exception of section 11 of the Act which will now be commenced later this year.
• During the year we have provided comments on draft regulations under section 9 of the 2003 Act, and were given the opportunity to comment on consultation material relating to section 7 of the 2001 Act.
• The research carried out into implementation of the local connection and priority need provisions of the 2003 Act is part of the work required to secure a sound evidence base for implementation of the 2003 Act - the intentionality research being undertaken this year, and the work of the 2012 planning subgroup will ensure momentum is maintained.
• All local authorities now have a homelessness strategy in place, and all but one have had these formally assessed by the panel we established.

Housing (Scotland) Act 2001

9. The Scottish Executive is currently consulting on the content of regulations under section 7 of the 2001 Act. These regulations will set out the rights and responsibilities of residents in, and providers of, hostels and other forms of insecure accommodation. The consultation closes on 15 April - details can be found on the Scottish Executive website ¹.

Homelessness etc (Scotland) Act 2003

10. Sections 1-3, 7,9-10 and 13-14 of the 2003 Act came into force in January 2004, immediately following our last annual report. These provisions have the following effects:

• Expanding the priority need definition to include the categories of applicants previously set out in the Code of Guidance on Homelessness. The full definition now encompasses: people with dependent children who can reasonably be expected to reside with them; pregnant women and people who reside with them; anyone aged 16 or 17; anyone who has experienced, or is at risk of, discriminatory harassment; anyone who runs the risk of domestic abuse; anyone under the age of 21 who is at risk of sexual or financial exploitation or involvement in substance misuse because of their living circumstances; anyone vulnerable as a result of old age, mental illness, personality disorder, learning disability, physical disability, chronic ill health, having suffered a miscarriage or undergone an abortion; or having been discharged from prison, the armed forces or hospital.
• Giving Scottish Ministers the power to abolish the priority need distinction at a point when local authorities could carry out their duties on that basis, and requiring that Ministers consult on and publish a statement by 31 December 2005 incorporating a target of 2012 for achieving this objective, setting out the steps to be taken and outlining interim objectives.
• Updating references to domestic abuse rather than domestic violence throughout homelessness legislation.
• Giving Scottish Ministers the power to make an order setting standards for temporary accommodation.
• Ensuring that homelessness applicants who have previously been housed in NASS accommodation do not form a local connection with the relevant local authority by virtue of being so housed.

11. Section 12 of the 2003 Act was brought into force in July 2004 - courts must now take into account the impact of a failure or delay in the payment of Housing Benefit when deciding whether to grant an order for repossession.
12. An order made under section 9 of the 2003 Act came into force in December 2004 - setting standards for temporary accommodation for households with children and pregnant women. This Order defines "unsuitable temporary accommodation" and prevents its use by local authorities in all but a few well-defined circumstances, some of which are time-limited to 14 days. The Order can be found on the HMSO website.
13. Research on the abolition of priority need has been published and is available on the Scottish Executive website ². As a result, local authorities are now being asked to provide further information on the current and anticipated levels of homelessness applications, lettings, support needs and wider housing need. This information, combined with more qualitative feedback and homelessness strategy progress reporting, will feed into the development of the Ministerial statement to be made by the end of this year.
14. A subgroup of the Monitoring Group has been established to collect and analyse the relevant data and identify support required by local authorities. The work of this subgroup will enable us to advise Ministers on the timing of, and arrangements and process for, the abolition of priority need.
15. Research has also been published on potential changes to local connection provisions and is available on the Scottish Executive website. ³ The Executive has announced it will legislate next year with an aim to implementing the Task Force's recommendation on local connection.
16. Research considering the accommodation and support needs of intentionally homeless households has been commissioned and is due to report later this year. This will inform implementation of sections 4-6 of the Homelessness etc (Scotland) Act 2003.

Culture and training

17. The priorities we set for the year were as follows:

• Continue to promote and support action which makes culture change a reality.
• Ensure that our Group is accessible for people who have experienced homelessness.

18. In relation to these priorities we note:

• Members of the Monitoring Group have been involved in a number of activities designed to raise awareness of homelessness and identify and disseminate good practice. Other stakeholders and delivery partners have also taken forward a range of activities.
• The Group is not as accessible to homeless people as we would like - the Awareness Raising and Good Practice subgroup will consider this further over the course of this year.

19. The Homelessness Strategy Assessment Panel has continued to provide feedback to local authorities on the importance of embedding joint training approaches within their homelessness strategy, and the Code of Guidance reiterated this. A number of events have taken place at both local and national level to promote the Task Force recommendations and the principles behind them. The Awareness Raising and Good Practice subgroup will consider how to build on current activity to ensure that common myths about homelessness are challenged and service providers are supported in empowering homeless people.
20. An updated version of the Code of Guidance on Homelessness was published online in May 2004. Supplementary guidance on the new order under section 9 of the 2003 Act was also made available in December 2004. Hard copies will be distributed this year and the Awareness Raising and Good Practice subgroup will consider further revisions and presentational aspects. Communities Scotland has published some good practice material, drawn from inspection experience, on-line. The subgroup will also consider the identification and dissemination of good practice guidance more widely.

Housing Policy

21. The priorities we set for the year were as follows:

• Feed into, and draw upon, work to develop the Scottish Housing Quality Standard and Local Housing Strategies and the research into expansion of priority need in order to assess the current situation on supply and quality of housing and inform the Ministerial statement on the abolition of priority need which is required to be made by December 2005.
• Monitor the progress of the Glasgow Homelessness Partnership in achieving the milestones set out in the delivery plan for the Glasgow hostels programme.
• Ask the Scottish Executive to raise with DWP the specific issues relating to barriers to sustaining tenancies established under rent deposit schemes, as noted in recent research.

22. In relation to these priorities we note:

• The Executive's review of affordable housing included a range of research projects which help to build the evidence base on supply and quality of housing. The 2012 planning subgroup will take forward the work carried out to date to assess the current situation as regards supply and quality of housing - to inform the Ministerial statement to be made by the end of this year.
• Quarterly progress reports are produced by the Glasgow Homelessness Partnership - these reports will be available online shortly.
• Further work is required to ensure that DWP are aware of the barriers to sustaining tenancies established under rent deposit schemes.

23. The supply and quality of Scotland's housing is crucial to fulfilment of the Task Force's recommendations. As a result of the Spending Review 2004, the Scottish Executive has announced plans for investment of £1.2 billion in affordable housing over the next 3 years. This is linked to a new 3-year target - for the supply of 21,500 affordable homes - to support economic growth and make sure people have the choices that meet their needs. It is planned that over 16,500 social rented homes and nearly 5,000 homes for low cost home ownership will be funded by 2008. Communities Scotland published a discussion paper on shared equity schemes in November and a paper on the response to the consultations in March. The Executive also launched in March 2005 the new shared equity schemes it will introduce in 2005/6. The Executive has also allocated funding for accelerating targeted land acquisitions in pressured markets including fast growing rural areas in Scotland.
24. The Scottish Housing Quality Standard was finalised in February 2004. To meet the Standard a house must be compliant with the tolerable standard; free from serious disrepair; energy efficient; provided with modern facilities and services; and healthy, safe and secure. Local authorities and registered social landlords are required to ensure that their stock meets the standard by 2015 and to submit Standard Delivery Plans by April this year. In the private sector, it is ultimately a matter for individual owners to decide whether to make improvements if their properties do not meet the Standard. However, local authorities will wish to take account of the Standard in monitoring the condition of the private sector housing stock in their areas and will need to consider what measures might be adopted to encourage private owners to undertake relevant works.
25. All local authorities now have a Local Housing Strategy in place. However, the links between homelessness strategies and LHS still require further development in relation to setting out what is required within local areas to make possible the phased expansion of priority need. As we highlighted in our last report, it is essential that these strategy processes produce sound local estimates of housing requirements associated with priority need expansion, within the context of assessing overall demand for affordable housing. We hope stronger linkages will become evident as data is collected and analysed in preparation for the Ministerial statement later this year. The 2012 planning subgroup will have an important role to play in considering the local housing requirements associated with priority need and highlighting any continuing gaps.
26. The third of the large homeless hostels in Glasgow has now closed, with former residents being provided with alternative accommodation and a wide range of tailored support packages.
27. A further 1000 additional furnished tenancies have been put in place over the course of 2004-05 and a furniture re-cycling website ⁴ has been launched.
28. The National Rent Deposit Forum was funded by the Scottish Executive to establish a base in Scotland for the first time in July 2004 ⁵. The Task Force's recommendation that all local authorities provide access to a rent deposit guarantee scheme by December 2004 was not met but all authorities will be in a position to offer access to such a scheme by Spring 2005.

Benefits

29. The priority we set for the year was as follows:

• Feed into research/reviews being carried out by DWP, determine to what extent these deliver against the Task Force's recommendations and consider the need for further action.

30. In relation to this, we note that:

• Further work is required to ensure that the Task Force's recommendations are taken into account in current and future reviews being carried out by DWP.

31. A review of financial support for 16-19 year olds was published in March 2004 ⁶ - this launched consultation on short and long-term measures to improve choice and provide decent minimum levels of income to deliver a more individualised, professional service to young people. The Department for Work and Pensions is continuing to work to simplify Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit rules to make them easier to understand and administer and introduced a number of measures to improve work incentives for Housing Benefit recipients in April 2004. Performance in some aspects of Housing Beneift administration by Scottish local authorities improved in 2003-04, but few authorities are currently meeting the performance standards in relation to processing new claims.
32. DWP's Five Year strategy ⁷ published in February 2005 also states that DWP will continue to develop additional support targeted at people aiming to return to work with specific or multiple needs, where only joined-up interventions across a number of departments and agencies are likely to be effective: homeless people are mentioned specifically.

Action to Prevent Homelessness

33. The priorities we set for the year were as follows:

• Clearly identify the agencies responsible for taking forward the Homelessness Task Force recommendations on benefits issues, homelessness amongst institution leavers, improving tenancy sustainment, improving access to health/employment services, and illegal eviction and harassment and ensure they are aware of this responsibility and addressing it. Continue to monitor the delivery of these recommendations through homelessness strategies and ensure that Executive guidance reflects these recommendations and emphasises their importance.
• Ensure that Communities Scotland and the Scottish Executive work with the agencies that regulate prisons and care facilities to ensure clear standards for housing and homelessness services are set and monitored.
• Ensure that the Executive discuss illegal eviction and harassment with ACPOS and the Crown Office, as recommended by the Task Force.
• Ensure that the needs of homeless households are taken into account in work being taken forward to bed in Supporting People.

34. In relation to these priorities we note:

• The process of reviewing and updating the action plan attached at Appendix D has ensured that the appropriate agencies have been identified and made aware of the relevant recommendations - the action plan indicates where gaps in implementation remain.

• Further work is required to ensure that Communities Scotland and the Scottish Executive work with the agencies that regulate prisons and care facilities to ensure clear standards for housing and homelessness services are set and monitored.
• Discussions on illegal eviction and harassment have not yet taken place.
• The new Supporting People formula takes account of the number of homeless people in the area; however monitoring will be required to ensure that the needs of homeless people continue to be taken into account in development of services.

Vulnerable groups

35. An evaluation of housing advice services in Scottish prisons was published in September. ⁸ This contained a number of recommendations for the Executive, the Monitoring Group, the Scottish Prisons Service and local authorities including increasing the 13 week rule on housing benefit, as raised by the Task Force in 2002. While some of these have been taken forward already, and others are being considered within the context of the Criminal Justice Plan. The Monitoring Group should consider its role in overseeing progress against the recommendations and in ensuring that the recommendations are progressed in a co-ordinated and consistent manner. A seminar to discuss the future of these services will be held later this year.
36. The MoD introduced an early leavers policy in April 2004, providing resettlement advice and sign posting for service leavers who are not entitled to the Armed Forces resettlement package.
37. New duties for local authorities to improve services for young people leaving care came into effect on 1 April 2004. Work will be required to monitor the impact of these duties in relation to the prevention of homelessness among young people.

Evictions

38. As is noted above, section 12 of the 2003 Act is now in force and courts must therefore take into account the impact of a failure or delay in the payment of Housing Benefit when deciding whether to grant an order for repossession. Communities Scotland has recently published a thematic regulation study on Evictions in Practice ⁹ which will inform our consideration of the Task Force's recommendations on evictions over the coming year. The registration of private landlords was enacted by the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2004 - evidence that a landlord has been acting improperly in relation to eviction processes will be taken into account in determining whether the landlord is 'fit and proper' to be registered.

Homelessness Strategies

39. All 32 local authorities now have homelessness strategies for their areas in place and all but one have had their strategies approved and detailed feedback provided by the national assessment panel. These are central to the achievement of the national homelessness agenda - around a quarter of the Task Force recommendations are reliant on their delivery through homelessness strategies. Communities Scotland has begun inspecting local authorities' provision of homelessness services and 5 reports have been published to date. Communities Scotland's main findings were as follows:

Strengths:

• Highly committed staff
• Increasing focus on prevention (particularly in terms of advice and information initiatives and housing management practice for existing tenants. It was noted that there tended to be a focus on young people.)
• Examples of good partnership working, particularly in terms of developing homelessness strategies.
• Good initiatives to improve information & advice more generally
• Developing use of dispersed lets in own stock to replace B&B (although it was noted that this was not being done in a particularly strategic manner)
• Early progress in implementing strategies

Weaknesses:

• Weak assessment processes and inadequate investigations
• Length of time spent in temporary accommodation
• Lack of planned approach to temporary accommodation
• Little information on outcomes and patchy performance monitoring
• Few explicit service standards (i.e. what a homeless person should expect from the service)
• Poor information about decisions or right of appeal
• Attitudes and cultures

40. Communities Scotland will publish a themed report on their findings on homelessness in the Pathfinder inspections in March/April this year and will inspect a further four authorities in 2005-06. The Scottish Executive will continue to assess progress against homelessness strategies on an annual basis - and progress reports relating to 2004-05 will be fed into the development of the Ministerial statement on priority need to be made later this year.

Effective response

41. The priorities we set for the year were as follows:

• Ensure that Health services and local authorities work together to mainstream health services for homeless people.
• Ensure that support services funded through the Rough Sleepers Initiative are effectively integrated into homelessness strategies.
• Support national work on workforce planning for the social care sector by building a clearer picture of the social care support demands associated with the new homelessness duties, the workforce supply to meet these demands, and possible solutions to help address recruitment and retention of social care workers.
• Advise the Executive on the quantification of its target to substantially reduce, by 2006, the number of households becoming homeless more than once in a year - monitor progress against this target and promote action to help its achievement.

42. In relation to these priorities we note:

• Good progress has been made in implementing health and homeless action plans. Where joint working between local authorities and Health Boards has appeared to be lacking this has been incorporated into feedback given by the strategies assessment panel and the Health and Homelessness Steering Group.
• Integration of work under the Rough Sleepers Initiative into homelessness strategies was considered by the strategies assessment panel - any concerns were fed back to the local authorities concerned.
• The research which has been commissioned to inform implementation of section 4 to 6 of the Homelessness etc Scotland Act will help build a clearer picture of the social care and support demands associated with the new homelessness duties. Further information will also be available from the work being undertaken by the 2012 planning subgroup.
• Scottish Ministers have decided that repeat homelessness targets will be set and monitored at a local level.

43. Preventing repeat homelessness, and ensuring solutions are sustainable, is also key to the agenda we are monitoring. Much of this work is also being taken forward via homelessness strategies.

Health

44. This year has seen good progress in the implementation of Health and Homelessness Action Plans. All NHS Boards have been the subject of performance assessment visits by the Health and Homelessness Steering Group with the frequency of visits determined by the standard of activity. As a result a total of 25 visits took place this year. There have been several positive developments including multi-agency training programmes, discharge protocols, health improvement initiatives and new research looking at the health needs of homeless families. However the Health and Homelessness Steering Group has been aware that in some areas progress has been variable, which has been a concern.
45. The health related recommendations of the Homelessness Task Force are in the main delivered through Health and Homelessness Action Plans. However the Health and Homelessness Steering Group has been concerned at the apparent lack of effective links between substance misuse planning and health and homelessness planning which impact on the recommendations. In response the Scottish Executive brought together the relevant organisations and individuals for a one day conference in March 2005. We therefore look forward to improvements in this area in the coming year.
46. The Health and Homelessness Steering Group, in its current form, comes to an end on 31 March 2005 along with the post of Health and Homelessness Co-ordinator. A second phase of the policy has been developed based on the learning from the performance management process. As a result Health and Homelessness Standards were launched in March 2005. These are high-level strategic standards for NHS Boards which cover the key areas of corporate support, partnership working, needs assessment, access to services and service responses and the delivery of Health and Homelessness Action Plans. The on-going delivery of the health recommendations of the Homelessness Task Force is also incorporated into the Health and Homelessness Standards. The performance of NHS Boards in relation to the Standards will be monitored by the Scottish Executive Health Department with an external overview. The Homelessness Monitoring Group welcomes these Standards and will follow their implementation closely.

Employment

47. The Scottish Executive is currently in the process of developing a national Employablity Framework for Scotland which will take account of the needs of homeless people. The Scottish Homelessness and Employability Network was established in 2004 with the aim of bringing together local authorities, voluntary organisations and employers to improve opportunities for homeless people by promoting the role of education, training and employment in homelessness strategies; identifying and sharing models of good practice and influencing related policy, funding and legislative arrangements.
48. DWP published 'Building on the New Deal' in May 2004, signalling their willingness to tackle barriers to work for those who have not been able to access support in the past. DWP and Jobcentre Plus have also taken a range of actions to begin to address the issues faced by homeless people on benefits who wish to enter the labour market. Scottish Business in the Community have also established the Ready for Work programme in Scotland - acting as a broker between homelessness agencies and businesses to ensure that homeless people are able to benefit from the programme.

Social networks

49. A national social networks co-ordinator ¹⁰ has been appointed, based at the Rock Trust in Edinburgh. She has produced a factsheet and made introductory contact with a range of organisations in order to publicise her role. A reference group has been formed to advise the co-ordinator and a communication strategy and workplan agreed.

Further research

50. Research examining additional actions required to ensure people from black and minority ethnic communities receive quality homelessness services was published in July 2004. This incorporated a range of recommendations aimed at the Scottish Executive, Communities Scotland, the Commission for Racial Equality, RSLs, local authorities and other service providers who are each considering whether and how these might be taken forward.

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