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HOMELESSNESS
AN ACTION PLAN FOR PREVENTION AND EFFECTIVE RESPONSE
REPORT FROM THE HOMELESSNESS TASK FORCE TO SCOTTISH MINISTERS

ACTION TO DELIVER AN EFFECTIVE RESPONSE TO HOMELESSNESS

75. Action to reduce the number of people who become homeless is critical. Over time it is essential to achieve a step-reduction in the number of people becoming homeless. But meanwhile many people still live in inappropriate and temporary accommodation — some for long periods — people still sleep rough, and too many people suffer homelessness on more than one occasion. This shows that for many the response to homelessness is inadequate. It also shows that insufficient emphasis is being placed on creating effective long-term pathways out of homelessness. We stress the following points:-

(i) The response should be based on a thorough assessment of a homeless household’s needs. This should always extend to an assessment of the household’s support needs. Housing solutions will not work if wider needs are not addressed.

(ii) The objective should be to find sustainable solutions which enable homeless people to be reintegrated into mainstream society or a supportive community. By sustainable we mean solutions that not only provide housing and income but also restore individual confidence and self-esteem, and lead to the development of positive social networks in the longer term.

(iii) Action needs to be appropriate to the individual circumstances and needs of the household. In particular we are concerned that the specific needs of families and children are often overlooked. The scale of family homelessness is often underestimated, since it is unlikely that a family will be roofless. Those who have no choice but to live with relatives or friends are equally in need of assistance. We have stressed that homelessness cannot be solved through the provision of accommodation alone. This needs to be acknowledged for families as well as for other homeless people. Intensive interpersonal support should be available to parents and children, both on an individual basis and as a family.

(iv) Joint working is crucial in addressing complex or multiple needs. However, in many areas the pattern of services available to people experiencing homelessness is a patchwork of fragmented provision, operating in the absence of any overall coherent, co-ordinated strategy. Local authorities, through their homelessness strategies, should provide the direction and create the framework within which all agencies can work together. Effective joint working requires high levels of communication and co-operation between local authorities and other statutory and voluntary sector agencies. A great deal needs to be done in many areas to develop and deliver the levels of communication, co-operation and integration necessary.

Culture and training

76. All services - statutory and voluntary - with a role to play in preventing and tackling homelessness should ensure that they are promoting values, attitudes and behaviours which deliver responsive and personalised services. They should ensure that staff — many of whom are working in difficult and pressured circumstances — are supported and trained in serving people affected by homelessness.
77. Training should cover, as appropriate, the definition of homelessness, risk assessment techniques to help ‘first-to know’ agencies respond effectively, joint working with other agencies, support packages, consultation techniques, and how to help and empower people experiencing homelessness to find appropriate solutions. We strongly commend joint training approaches which involve all sectors and providers with a role to play in delivering local authority homelessness strategies. We also recommend that the training programmes run by the Scottish Training on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (STRADA) partnership should include coverage on serving homeless people.

Crisis response

78. The immediate response to the needs of homeless people is key, especially where they face complex and multiple problems. We are clear that this crisis response should be based upon a comprehensive "fit-for-purpose" assessment of people’s needs, and shared care and support management across services. This approach is not novel or radical. It has already been advocated strongly in several other recent reports — by the Glasgow Street Homelessness Review Team, the Joint Futures Group and the Social Work Services Inspectorate.
79. Some local authorities are now well advanced in developing services, based upon this co-ordinated approach, with their partner organisations. However, crisis response systems need to operate in all local authority areas to create effective responses to homelessness which will produce both short-term and long-term solutions. We recommend therefore that all local authorities, through their homelessness strategies, should develop a comprehensive crisis response system, and that, in due course, the effectiveness of these systems should be subject to inspection by Communities Scotland.
80. We envisage the crisis response system having several key features. It should :-

(i) be flexible and provide individualised responses to the different experiences of homelessness and the different service requirements of people of differing age, family background, race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, and belief;

(ii) ensure that all those without accommodation are able to access at least immediate emergency accommodation until appropriate assessment is carried out;

(iii) be permanently available and accessible and perform a triage function, in other words, initial assessment, information, filter and correct referral across a full range of services;

(iv) include joint protocols and procedures for needs assessment to ensure appropriate support for people with complex or multiple needs;

(v) have effective referral arrangements in place with response staff responsible for ensuring linkage into the full range of relevant services;

(vi) ensure that explicit exit strategies from the crisis response stage are devised immediately upon assessment as homeless, to ensure that the resettlement process begins immediately; and

(vii) monitor and evaluate the outcomes of resettlement services and adjust and improve provision wherever appropriate.

81. We appreciate that integrating service responses to a high standard of effectiveness will require strong commitment, time and effort. We believe this process would be assisted if our expectations were set out clearly in guidance. We recommend therefore that the Executive, in its forthcoming guidance on homelessness strategies to local authorities, should provide advice on the development of crisis response services, drawing upon good practice elements already in place. We further recommend that, to support the operation of the local crisis response systems, a national database and website of homelessness services should be established.

Resolving homelessness

82. We have investigated how people resolve homelessness. This has shown that there are many different routes out of homelessness. Some are largely independent of statutory or voluntary sector assistance. Other routes involve varying degrees of agency support. It is also evident that people’s statutory homelessness status, their support needs and their personal efforts heavily influence the routes taken. However, several resources are common to helping people find effective routes out and achieve sustainable solutions. These fundamental resources are advice and information, accommodation and resettlement support, healthcare, work and related opportunities, and social or personal support.

(a) Advice and information

83. Access to information and advice is vital for successful resettlement. Finding routes out of homelessness depends on information about what to do if you are homeless, about the range of housing, employment and support options available, and about practical assistance in relation to rent deposits/guarantees, furnishings and decoration, benefits and form-filling. Yet several of our studies have, independently, confirmed that serious information deficits exist. This includes gaps in the information provided by local authorities to homeless applicants.
84. Section 2 of the 2001 Act requires local authorities to secure that information and advice relating to homelessness, the prevention of homelessness and relevant services is available free of charge in their area. Guidance on the form and content of this advice and information will be issued shortly by the Scottish Executive. This guidance will stress the need for local authorities to review access to information, advice and practical assistance for homeless people and new tenants, and to target information and advice to reach people who are vulnerable to homelessness, or who are moving on from homelessness.
85. The histories of many formerly homeless people have highlighted the important difference advocacy can make in accessing benefits — particularly community care grants — and sometimes in the quality of accommodation obtained. We recommend that local authorities, in providing advice and information on homelessness and the prevention of homelessness, should give priority to ensuring the availability of independent and informed advocacy services within their area and should ensure that these services are well publicised. We also recommend that advice and information should be made available in forms which are accessible by people of all ethnic groups and of all abilities.

(b) Accommodation and resettlement support

86. In considering resettlement, we start from two general premises. First, we believe that most of those experiencing homelessness have the potential to sustain long-term housing, providing the necessary supports are in place. For some people the need for support will be short-term and low in intensity. Others may need intensive and ongoing support or varying levels of support at different points in time. Secondly, the move towards a case-based approach should mean that, increasingly, people take appropriate assistance packages with them between dwellings or access assistance from one dwelling in which they have secure tenure. This should make it possible for people to use crisis assistance when they need it, and reduce its use over time, without their housing depending on the provision of support.
87. Most people given crisis assistance should move quickly into permanent accommodation. However, in addition to the need for improvements in the supply and quality of affordable mainstream housing, a sufficient range and supply of various other forms of accommodation is required in each local authority area. This may take a number of forms  including hostels, foyers, Bed & Breakfast, refuges, night shelters, supported tenancies, independent tenancies with floating support, furnished accommodation, clustered accommodation, shared housing projects, mobile homes and private sector leasing arrangements. These may be linked to varying types and intensities of practical and emotional support. Some may be long-term specialist accommodation services and others may be permanent accommodation with fluctuating support. However, in most cases the accommodation will be interim in nature, where the main focus will be to move residents on to permanent housing with support as appropriate. In order to reduce the risk of repeat homelessness the number of moves from interim accommodation should be as few as necessary.
88. Section 1 of the 2001 Act obliges local authorities to carry out an assessment of homelessness in their area. Interim guidance issued by the Executive in September 2001 has requested local authorities to supply information on the range of temporary and supported accommodation available, its use and the client groups served. We recommend that local authorities should build upon this assessment and, through their housing and homelessness strategies, plan the delivery of a sufficient supply, range and location of temporary and supported accommodation. In so doing, local authorities should take account of the following points:-

(i) Provision should be made for the (sometimes very different) needs of families, young people and groups who currently find it difficult to access or sustain any form of accommodation — such as people with problematic alcohol or drug use, people with mental health problems and people with challenging behaviour.

(ii) The Glasgow Street Homelessness Review Team emphasised the unsuitability of large-scale hostels in Glasgow and recommended their replacement with alternative provision — human in scale and humane in approach. We strongly endorse this recommendation and consider it should be applied throughout Scotland.

(iii) Bed and Breakfast provision is rarely the right option (though in some situations it may be unavoidable in the short-term). We recommend that homelessness strategies should include proposals to reduce the use of Bed and Breakfast to a minimum, and to eliminate its use for families.

89. In identifying permanent solutions, it is important to consider the formal and informal support arrangements which will help successful resettlement. Location is very important. Homeless people should be located in a community in which they feel comfortable and are likely to be integrated fully into community life. Wherever possible, they should have the opportunity to live near friends and family to maintain contact with them. Employment and education should be similarly accessible.
90. We have emphasised the need for support throughout this report. Through their homelessness strategies, local authorities should ensure that appropriate support packages are available for homeless people during their resettlement. We believe that programmes supporting reintegration, if they are to be meaningful and effective, must help those people affected by homelessness to identify and pursue their own solutions. This does not simply mean involving people affected by homelessness in the design and running of homeless services, important as this is. It means encouraging personal resourcefulness, agreeing with those receiving support services when and how to adjust individual support levels over time, and helping people to live as independently as possible. It also means that packages should be available in ways that enable homeless people to develop social networks through occupational activity and community involvement.
91. Local authorities’ homelessness strategies should make specific provision for the accommodation and support of people with disabilities, and for people whose homelessness is a result of domestic abuse.
92. For people with disabilities, homelessness can mean being unable to occupy their present accommodation without excessive hardship or risk to personal safety. Examples include:-

• where the accommodation is not large enough to accommodate the individual and his/her personal assistant or carer;
• where the accommodation does not have a ground floor bathroom or shower or toilet, and the individual cannot climb stairs;
• where the nature of the disability requires equipment which cannot be installed or accommodated in the current house;
• where there is no method of emergency escape which can be accessed.

We recognise that people with disabilities have particular housing needs which can only be met by increasing the numbers of houses built or adapted to barrier-free standards. Links between homelessness and housing strategies should ensure that adequate provision is identified which can be made available to those homeless people with additional housing needs. Local authorities should plan the provision of barrier-free housing for varying needs and respond quickly to requirements for adaptations to housing stock which will prevent the occupier from becoming homeless.

93. Domestic abuse often leads to homelessness and is a key cause of repeat homelessness in Scotland. We also recognise that the threat of homelessness may compel those experiencing abuse to remain in a situation where they may be subject to further abuse. It is essential that local authorities’ homelessness strategies should be dovetailed with domestic abuse strategies. We recommend that, in drawing up their homelessness strategies, local authorities should review:-

(i) the information and advice available to those who are, or may become, homeless as a result of domestic abuse;

(ii) the availability of safe, emergency, supported accommodation for those who have experienced domestic abuse, taking into account the diverse needs of disabled women/children, women/children from black and minority ethnic groups and those with addiction problems;

(iii) the availability of suitable long-term accommodation and support packages within a framework which offers options and choice and minimises the risk of further incidents of abuse and/or homelessness; and

(iv) the extent to which local arrangements recognise the needs of children involved in domestic abuse situations, given that the trauma and distress of being so involved is compounded and deepened by leaving the family home.

In undertaking this review, local authorities should take account of the work of the National Group to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland which has established a working group to undertake a review of current recommendations on refuge provision.

94. As well as considering the needs of those who have experienced domestic abuse from their partners, it is important to bear in mind that young people may leave home due to violence, threats of violence or other abuse (including sexual abuse). Older people may also be the subject of abuse from their children, carers or partners. Local authorities’ homelessness strategies should address the needs of all those who are, or may become, homeless as a result of abuse.

(c) Healthcare

95. The link between unmet health needs and homelessness is well established. Homeless people experience higher levels of ill health than the general population. Many have drug and alcohol addiction problems and/or mental health problems and/or physical health problems. Their health needs are acute and many of these needs are unidentified and unaddressed. The NHS is largely, though not exclusively, a reactive service which depends on self-referral. Many people experiencing homelessness fail to recognise, or cannot prioritise, their own health needs. Many, especially those with substance misuse problems or chaotic behavioural patterns, find it difficult to cope with appointments systems and other aspects of complex NHS bureaucracy. Many use NHS services only when their health needs become critical, and then turn to Accident and Emergency Departments which, under their own pressures, find it difficult to cope.
96. Put simply, the range of health needs of the homeless population is not well met by the current health services. This means that the health of individuals suffers, not only directly, but also indirectly. Where homelessness results from complex personal issues involving health problems, it is hard for people to access a secure home and to sustain a tenancy. In these situations, sustaining "move-on" accommodation will not succeed without positive health service intervention, help with coping strategies and health support linked with housing and social care.
97. Amongst the problems we have identified are:-

(i) Homeless people do not find it easy to register with a GP or continue to access GP services when they start to move on from temporary accommodation. GPs operate on the basis of registered patient lists. These lists identify people through their address, normally their permanent address. This presents particular problems for people without fixed accommodation. In rural areas, access difficulties may be compounded by the remoteness of health care service points.

(ii) The continuity of care requires improvement. Health services may respond to an immediate problem but find it more difficult to provide continuing care where people move in and out of homelessness. In addition, some homeless people with complex problems find that not all GPs provide the full range of services which they may require.

(iii) Negative self-images, lack of self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness — all part of the damage done by homelessness — mean that many homeless people lack the ability and confidence to seek out appropriate health care.

(iv) It is difficult to tackle health problems effectively when people are living in poor accommodation and lack social support. This does not however change the fact that there is a lack of some vital services — especially services for substance misuse. Even where services are available, their success can be undermined if people are then discharged back into hostels or other inappropriate accommodation.

98. Significant steps are, however, now being taken to address these issues. Scottish Executive Guidance, issued to NHS Boards in September 2001, places a new requirement on Health Boards to produce Health and Homelessness Action Plans. These Plans will set out the action which Health Boards will take to address the needs of homeless people in local areas. They will take effect from April 2002. This timing means that NHS Boards should be well placed to dovetail their Action Plans with local authority homelessness strategies. To support the homelessness work of Health Boards, a Health and Homelessness Co-ordinator has been appointed by the Scottish Executive. A Health and Homelessness Steering Group, comprised of Scottish Executive, Health, local authority and voluntary sector representatives, is overseeing implementation of these new arrangements. This steering group will also play an important part in monitoring the delivery of our recommendations, where they relate to the health services.
99. We welcome these new measures. However, they are only the beginning. To ensure they achieve results, we recommend that a high priority be placed upon the monitoring of the quality and delivery of Health and Homelessness Action Plans. We also make the following further recommendations to address access, planning, co-ordination and health service delivery issues affecting homeless people.

(i) Primary care Ensuring registration of homeless people and families with a GP practice is crucial. This is the gateway to primary care services. We recommend that the Health Department’s Primary Care Modernisation Group should set out how the primary care needs of homeless people would best be met, within the context of its wider recommendations on improving access to primary health care across Scotland. We also recommend that all local authorities should record information about the GP registration of all those who are assessed as homeless, and should offer information about local health services to homeless people rehoused outwith their existing GP area.

(ii) Planning Health Service planning has tended not to consider the needs of homeless people. For example, unplanned hospital discharges often contribute to a cycle of repeat presentations at Accident & Emergency Departments. We recommend therefore that NHS Boards should ensure their strategic planning embraces the current and future service needs of homeless people. We also recommend that Drug and Alcohol Action Teams should include, in their planning priorities, the service requirements of homeless people relating to substance misuse. Monitoring of the effectiveness of such processes should be undertaken through the Scottish Executive’s assessment of local Health Plans and local drug and alcohol strategies and plans.

(iii) Children’s services We have strong concerns about the healthcare of children in families who are homeless. Where families are moving around temporary accommodation, it can be difficult to ensure that children are included in health screening and immunisation programmes and are able to access support from health visitors and GPs. We recommend that NHS Boards should ensure that all children in homeless families are able to access the full range of universal health services for children; and that the Health and Homelessness Co-ordinator, through Health and Homelessness Action Plans, should monitor this action.

(iv) Mental health In some areas of Scotland there are mental health outreach services for homeless people. In other areas such services are lacking and the mental ill health of homeless people remains undiagnosed and untreated. There are also significant gaps in services for those with complex multiple needs, including personality disorders. This, combined with differing views about whether or not certain deep-rooted psychological problems can be treated, has led to fragmented and inconsistent approaches. Yet effective interventions can enable individuals to progress within a resettlement process. We therefore recommend that NHS Boards, through their Health and Homelessness Action Plans, should address the provision of mental health services to homeless people to minimise the barriers to access. We also consider that being free from substance misuse should not be an automatic pre-condition for access to services.

(v) Drugs and alcohol Issues around substance misuse extend well beyond healthcare and apply across a wide range of prevention and support services required by vulnerable and homeless people. The Scottish Executive updated its Planning Framework for Drug Misuse services in 2001 and its Plan for Action on alcohol problems in 2002. Actions within these national approaches, which will prevent substance misuse contributing to homelessness and which will tackle homeless people’s drug and alcohol problems, should be given high priority. Examples of such actions include prevention, treatment and care services for vulnerable young people, support for families affected by addictions, throughcare work with former prisoners with drug problems, and the linking of training and employment opportunities. In addition to these wider actions, we make a number of specific recommendations:-

• Homelessness and substance misuse issues need to be addressed in parallel. New co-ordinated local action should be developed through homelessness strategies and Drug and Alcohol Action Team plans. Local authorities should set out in their homelessness strategies the links they have made with these plans.
• The recommendations of the Glasgow Street Homelessness Review Team in relation to the development and provision of drug and alcohol services to people currently accommodated in hostels should be more widely applied.
• The results of Scottish Executive work on effective interventions in tackling drug and alcohol problems should be disseminated to support commissioners and purchasers of services and service providers in both homelessness and drugs and alcohol agencies.

(vi) Co-ordination We have already stressed the need for a single, co-ordinated assessment approach between statutory and voluntary agencies, particularly for vulnerable homeless people who have multiple needs. This approach should begin to address the many factors which lead to the exclusion of homeless people from health services.

(vii) Service delivery There is a balance to strike between providing specific services directly to homeless people and ensuring that homeless people can access mainstream services. We see a danger that increasing the number of specific services will increase the exclusion of homeless people from mainstream services and society. We recognise the value of specialist provision for homeless people - particularly where this is integrated with housing and social work support, and in urban areas with concentrations of vulnerable homeless people. However, in the case of primary care services, we consider that specialist provision should be seen as transitional for all but a small number of homeless people. It should provide planned support over a reasonable period of time until individuals are re-housed and settled with access to their local GP practice and primary health care team. The general approach should be to support homeless people to maintain their current health networks or to establish new regular contact with mainstream health services. This approach will require mainstream health services to be both flexible and accessible. It will also necessitate attitudinal change within health services generally.

(viii) Training We have already emphasised the importance of the training of staff involved in the provision of services to people affected by homelessness. The Health and Homelessness Co-ordinator, whose remit includes setting standards for homelessness training programmes, should support training on homelessness for health professionals and ancillary staff.

(d) Employment opportunities

100. Services addressing homelessness have traditionally focused on finding housing, with little emphasis on employment, education or training. This must change. Employment is a route to social and economic inclusion and a key part of the solution to homelessness. Participation in employment may offer a permanent pathway out of homelessness for many people. It can enable people to make their own housing arrangements and choices. It can give structure and purpose to people’s lives, as well as providing social and professional contacts. We believe that socially oriented services must focus also on supporting homeless people towards employability and employment. At the same time, traditional training providers and employment advisers must understand the problems faced by homeless people and their families.
101. We fully appreciate that some homeless people will require supported development before they are able to take up employment. We have examined the range of new approaches focused on developing employability being tested north and south of the Border and make recommendations about pre-vocational support below. We also recognise that, for some families, the disruption caused by their homelessness, along with the need to care for children in the family, makes accessing and sustaining employment even more difficult. In these and other cases employment may not be a realistic option in the medium term. Where this is the case the focus should be on supporting homeless people to engage in other rewarding activities which seek to develop skills and confidence.
102. We appreciate the considerable success of measures, such as the National Minimum Wage which have increased incentives to work, and the help for unemployed people, particularly unemployed young people, through the New Deal and Welfare to Work. We especially welcome the commitment in the Government’s March 2001 Green Paper to extend employment, help and choices to those who have traditionally been neglected. However, we have very strong concerns about the difficulties homeless people face in accessing employment and related opportunities.
103. Foremost amongst these difficulties is the inflexibility of the benefits system. Homeless people face serious barriers and disincentives within the benefits system to moving into employment. The rapid withdrawal of benefits, particularly housing benefit, as income rises creates a strong disincentive to take up work. People may be worse off working once their social security entitlements are removed or significantly reduced, particularly if they have to pay full or near to full rent for their accommodation. This problem is particularly acute for those in supported accommodation. This is also impeding transitional employment programmes - programmes which would provide supportive environments and incentives to help unemployed homeless people move from benefits into permanent work over suitable transition periods. The new Supporting People funding regime from April 2003 will offer a different approach to funding supported accommodation.
104. The creation of employment-led routes out of homelessness, along with the resolution of benefit traps, need to be a high priority. We also attach great importance to continuing the development of pre-vocational services for the most disadvantaged and excluded. We therefore recommend a range of actions. These aim to improve gateways for homeless people to access employment services, generate new employment opportunities for homeless people, pilot transitional employment programmes to overcome benefit traps, and evolve personal development services for the extremely vulnerable. We are particularly concerned that the actions we recommend are applicable to all homeless people/households. The extension of the New Deal to lone parents recognised the importance of assisting some of the most vulnerable families to move away from welfare dependency to economic independence. However sheltered employment, training and/or work placements are often designed to meet the needs of single people or those without childcare responsibilities. It is therefore important that the range of actions we recommend also addresses the needs of parents.

(i) Improved gateways

105. The new Working Age Agency, Jobcentre Plus, will be a key player in the provision of employment assistance. It is critical that it responds to homeless people in a focused and flexible manner. We recommend that Jobcentre Plus should, as a key priority, improve gateways for homeless people to access mainstream employment services and programmes. We consider it should do this by forging links with appropriate statutory and voluntary partners to ensure:-

(i) systematic skills auditing of homeless people to assist rapid matching to suitable work opportunities. This could be achieved through linkages to homelessness assessments at key entry points to homelessness services.

(ii) easy access to employment services for homeless people. Lack of knowledge of available employment programmes should not be a barrier to participation.

(iii) connections between relevant employment initiatives to establish coherent systems for individual progression. A prime example would be closer working between New Deal Personal Advisers and resettlement officers involved in the delivery of the RSI to encourage a greater uptake of early entry eligibility to New Deal.

(ii) New opportunities

106. We also look to Jobcentre Plus to generate an increased range of employment, intermediate labour market and voluntary work options. The strongest focus should be placed on expanding the range of paid employment opportunities available to homeless people. This would open up solutions for many people. We recommend that Jobcentre Plus should work with the Scottish Executive and the Scottish New Deal Task Force to engage employers to develop employment initiatives targeted at vulnerable and homeless people. This should include wider employer participation in relevant transitional employment programmes for homeless people.
107. Some major private Scottish companies are already involved in initiatives to employ homeless people, in partnership with support agencies. Their models provide examples that others could follow. We believe that this is the area in which the private sector should make its main contribution. We recommend that appropriate business networks should be enlisted to promote such initiatives, using the examples already successfully undertaken by Standard Life and the Bank of Scotland. We also recommend that Jobcentre Plus should examine ways of supporting employers who are willing to participate in such initiatives, particularly smaller employers who lack the resources of the large corporate organisations.
108. We recommend that public sector employers should also examine ways of creating and expanding work opportunities for homeless people. New approaches could draw upon the success of a small pilot scheme between Edinburgh Council and the Big Issue, which has successfully employed several homeless people. We further recommend that new public sector initiatives, should strive to employ homeless people in the provision of their services.

(iii) Transitional employment programmes

109. We welcome the Government’s commitment to pilot transitional employment programmes and the planned StepUp pilots in East Ayrshire and Dundee. StepUp is a new DWP initiative to help people who have been unable to find employment after passing through New Deal move into sustained work through guaranteed jobs. We have ample evidence that many individuals, and those supporting their rehabilitation, do not view participation in employment programmes such as New Deal as an attractive proposition. This is largely because entitlements to housing benefit would be jeopardised. This is setting individuals back in their development. Unless these disincentives are tackled, we are in no doubt that both the range and the success of employment and rehabilitation initiatives will be limited. We also think that the front-end cost of transitional employment programmes could be substantially offset by the value of work produced and benefit savings. There is encouraging evidence from such schemes in other countries suggesting this would be the case.
110. We recommend strongly that transitional employment programmes be piloted in Scotland to test the creation of new incentives to work for homeless people. Such pilots should test how flexibility around housing benefit payments could overcome the poverty trap faced by homeless people when trying to access employment. We recommend that the DWP should aim to develop and test in 2002, a pilot scheme with The Big Issue in Scotland. We realise there are impediments in Social Security legislation which may prevent potentially effective schemes proceeding. We recommend that, if the DWP is unable to overcome these impediments, UK Ministers should consider amending the relevant legislation to remove these hurdles.

(iv) Pre-vocational support

111. In Scotland, the innovative New Futures Fund (NFF) programme is running from 1998 until 2005. This has already demonstrated that some of the most vulnerable and excluded people can, with the right support, begin to escape their cycle of disadvantage and move towards employment. Most participants in NFF projects are not expected to leave with a job or qualification. Increased confidence, better family relationships or the ability to work in a team are just as valued as outcomes. An interim evaluation of the programme has shown that 41% of people assisted by NFF projects have been homeless people. We wish to emphasise the importance of sustaining and developing such pre-vocational services for vulnerable and homeless people. We recommend that a clear action plan is developed to use the results of the ongoing evaluation of NFF services to transfer successful service elements onto a permanent footing over the next three years.
112. In England, several initiatives aimed at developing basic skills and employability are being piloted. One example is the Routeways initiative, which helps people with chaotic lifestyles prepare for access to New Deal. Another example is the concept of extending employment-based cultures within hostels and other accommodation. We recommend that, if proved successful, the relevance of these and other approaches are considered for application in Scotland.

(e) Positive social support

113. Many people who have experienced homelessness will have lost, or be deprived of, their social networks of families, friendships or work. The circumstances and trauma of homelessness frequently lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness before and after re-settlement. Ensuing depression and mental health problems are common. There is overwhelming evidence demonstrating that isolation and loneliness are major factors in resettlement breakdown.
114. Overcoming social isolation is therefore crucially important. Virtually all people who move on from homelessness successfully receive some form of positive help and social support, either from families, friends or support agencies. Informal support in particular offers a valuable additional resource, by providing practical and emotional help. Yet this dimension of successful resettlement has, historically, been seriously under-emphasised. We recommend therefore, that the strength of a homeless person’s social networks should be an integral part of the assessment of their needs and of the support offered to them in temporary accommodation and during permanent resettlement.
115. We have stressed the importance of helping homeless people gain employment - not just for income, but for self-esteem and social connections. However, many homeless people, for various reasons, will not be able to gain paid employment for some time. Others may have difficulty sustaining employment. We therefore attach great importance to facilitating access to social connections through other means. We recommend that all projects serving homeless people should pursue strategies to promote and support opportunities for positive social interaction. Such opportunities may lie in training and education, in local community initiatives and in clubs, sports and recreational activities. Clearly, different forms of activity will be appropriate for different groups. Creating opportunities will require better information targeted towards people affected by homelessness, and skilful encouragement of personal motivation. It will also require awareness of barriers to participation such as illiteracy, disability or the need for childcare.
116. Many people affected by homelessness would welcome the opportunity to rebuild previous personal networks. In such situations, mediation may provide a forum for communication and positive discussion. Other homeless people may have no prior social networks or may have made a conscious decision not to re-engage with past contacts. In these circumstances, befriending and mentoring services could help in building new social bonds. The needs of children must not be overlooked — they too will have lost contact with friends and family members. Building the social confidence of children can also have a beneficial effect on parents who can access new social networks as a result.
117. We appreciate that there is a need for further testing and development of approaches for enabling social networks to be (re)built. We therefore recommend that a national co-ordination role is created to build and co-ordinate local mediation, befriending and mentoring services for people experiencing homelessness across Scotland. This role would also involve evaluating existing projects, disseminating good practice and facilitating information sharing.
118. We believe this action should be complemented by further effort at the local level. In some communities there are no real networks to tap into, while others may be hostile to formerly homeless people. We recommend that local authorities, through their homelessness strategies, should develop practical means of enabling people affected by homelessness to (re)build social networks. In some areas this may involve the use of new independent services, since too close a linkage with statutory services may undermine their purpose. In other areas it may be appropriate to review, with Social Inclusion Partnerships, how their practices might better support community and neighbourhood networks.

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