Appendix B - HOMELESSNESS MONITORING GROUP - PRIORITIES FOR 2004-05
Continue to promote and support action which makes culture change a reality.
Ensure that our Group is accessible for people who have experienced homelessness.
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.
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.
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.
Secure a sound evidence base to inform the detail of the commencement plan for the 2003 Act.
Provide comments on draft regulations, and consultation material, as necessary.
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.
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.
Ask the Scottish Executive to raise with DWP the specific issues relating to barriers to sustaining tenancies established under rent deposits schemes, as noted in recent research.
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 Health services and local authorities work together to mainstream health services for homeless people.
Monitor the progress of the Glasgow Homelessness Partnership in achieving the milestones set out in the delivery plan for the Glasgow hostels programme.
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.
Ensure that the needs of homeless households are taken into account in work being taken forward to bed in Supporting People.
Continue to develop and communicate the Group's performance framework and data for monitoring delivery of Task Force recommendations and their effects, and to build wider understanding of homelessness trends and reasons for these.
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.