March Policy Round-Up

Welcome to the Homeless Link Monthly Policy Round-up for March 2011. We aim to keep you up-to-date with our latest policy and influencing work, across the sector and at all levels of government.

The Welfare Reform Bill had its second reading on 9th March. This Bill brings about profound changes in the welfare system, many of which will impact on homeless people and potentially increase levels of homelessness. Homeless Link was pleased to see that the government dropped its proposal to cut housing benefit by 10% for claimants of Jobseeker’s Allowance after a year. This follows concerted campaigning by Homeless Link, its members and others in the sector.

Homeless Link has been working in partnership with Shelter and Crisis, as well as with the Welfare Rights Consortium, to lobby the government on the Bill. We sent a briefing to all MPs for the second reading and will be offering amendments for the Bill in its Committee Stage. Homeless Link is meeting with the Shadow Labour team about the Bill, and the Bill team at DWP and we will be seeking to lay amendments on the issues of concern that we set out in our second reading briefing. We also sent out a briefing supporting an amendment secured by Crisis on strengthening the duty for homeless people not in priority need. We have also written a letter to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with Centrepoint, De Paul and South London YMCA about the impact of the benefit cap and the potential risk of increased youth homelessness. We are also part of a wider consortium working to secure changes to the Welfare Reform Bill.

Further reading:
We have created a Welfare Reform Bill briefing document which is an overview of the key changes and some commentary about their wider implications.
For a copy of all the Bill documents, please visit the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) website
The Government’s report in response to the Select Committee’s report on Housing Benefit was published last week

Social Fund: Changes to Crisis Loans and proposed abolition of Community Care Grants

Community Care Grants (CCGs) are a crucial part of the resettlement package for many homeless people. The Welfare Reform Bill proposes that CCGs and Crisis Loans for general living expenses are abolished and replaced with a local scheme at the discretion of the local authority.

The DWP have also announced an immediate change to Crisis Loans. From April 2011 they will no longer be available for items such as beds and cookers, the amount will be reduced and the number of times and individual can make an application will be reduced. We will publish a briefing document on our Policy Briefings page by 18 March.

Homeless Link is disappointed about these proposals and have a number of concerns about the impact on homeless people. We invite your opinion on the changes to the Social Fund through our online survey and the impact on homeless people to inform our response to the Social Fund Call for Evidence

Localism Bill

The Decentralisation and Localism Bill aims to shift power away from central government to the people, families and communities of Britain. Homeless Link is concerned that there are numerous considerations that have been neglected and which may result in a lack of representation for some community members. There is insufficient acknowledgement of different groups’ capabilities and opportunities to represent their own interests. As such there is a need to build in a duty to hear the voice of more marginalised groups.

Homeless Link has also been lobbying on this Bill, supporting joint amendments from Shelter, Crisis and CIH on issues including opposing the provision for local authorities to discharge their homelessness duty by housing applicants in the private rented sector. We have also offered an amendment aimed at strengthening the local authority offer to homeless people not in priority need.

For further information:
Homeless Link’s Localism Bill Briefing
DCLG’s Decentralisation and the Localism Bill: an essential guide

Health Bill and NHS Restructuring

We continue to lobby around health and convey our concerns about some of the new health reforms. We submitted evidence to the Health Select Committee’s follow-up inquiry into Commissioning (as all submissions become property of the Committee, we are unable to share the document at present). Among our asks was a requirement for Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs) to record the needs of groups with significant levels of health inequalities such as homeless people, so that these are taken into account by Health and Wellbeing Boards and GP Consortia. We have met with NHS Connecting for Health who are leading the NHS Information strategy. We have spoken to them about how to improve recording of homelessness as a wider support need by health services such as GPs so that they are more visible in the new structures. NHS Connecting for Health are keen to take this forward.

We are undertaking some work on the Health and Social Care bill, working with St Mungos and other member agencies. A key concern is the lack of housing representation on Health and Wellbeing Boards which we believe should be part of its membership. We will be sending further evidence in the two Public Health consultations due at the end of March.

Breaking the Cycle – Criminal Justice Green Paper

Homeless Link responded to the Ministry of Justice consultation ‘Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders’. Our response highlighted the role homelessness services already play in supporting ex-offenders, the need to include voluntary sector providers in payment by results model planning and the need for a sophisticated measurement tool that shows distance travelled and a payment model that acknowledges such. Key asks included organisational and managerial support for cross sector working; commitment to the education, training and employment (ETE) programmes offered by homelessness services; endorsing the Real Lettings model; noting the need for a variety of housing provision including supported and social housing; and commitment to real cross sector working in order to provide the coherent package of support which addresses all an individual’s needs. Download our full response.

Transparency Code Consultation

This consultation seeks to establish a code that local authorities have to adhere to regarding what data they publish and how they publish it. Homeless Link is concerned that there is no clear chain of accountability for non-adherence to the code. We would also like to see data put in to context to make it understandable to all local stakeholders. We would like to see more consistency in data collection and dissemination that will facilitate comparison between LA areas. We would also like to see data concerning homeless people’s health, criminal justice, housing and employment outcomes collected on a national basis. Download our response here.

Skills Strategy

As part of the implementation of the government's new skills strategy Homeless Link attended a consultation meeting at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on Reforming and Reinvigorating Informal Adult and Community Learning.

EVENTS

Homelessness Prevention and Hospital Discharge

21st March 2011, Birkenhead YMCA 12.00 noon – 4.15pm
This event is open to local authorities, health trusts and PCTs, members of Homeless Link and other interested agencies from across the voluntary and statutory sectors. It provides an opportunity to discuss homelessness prevention in relation to discharge from hospital. The event will also introduce the Health Needs Toolkit, a new resource to help you evidence and improve the health needs of your local homeless population. Download details of the event here.

Age UK: free seminar on Older Homelessness – working together to find solutions

31st March 2011, NCVO offices London, 1.30pm – 4.00pm
Homeless Link will be represented on the panel of speakers at this event. For further information about the seminar please contact Joe Oldman (joe.oldman@ageuk.org.uk)

Feel free to share this invitation with colleagues you think might be interested in attending. Please RSVP to the Age UK events team by Friday 18th March by email eventsdept@ageuk.org.uk or calling 020 8765 7602.

PUBLICATIONS

Survey of Needs and Provision 2011

The Survey of Needs and Provision (SNAP) 2011 will be published this month. Homeless Link published the first SNAP in 2008, and this year’s SNAP provides an updated picture of the extent and nature of services for single homeless people and couples without dependent children in England, and the clients that use them.

SNAP allows service providers, local authorities, commissioners and policy makers to see where services fit into the national picture. It provides key evidence on the characteristics of homeless people and their service needs. Information in SNAP can be used in the following ways:

As supporting evidence in proposals for service provision
To inform strategies for homelessness policy and services
To help determine decisions about awards of contracts for service provision
To complement other evidence as to the needs and background of homeless people.

The full report will be available for download from our website.

Department of Health – Homeless Health Needs Audit

The Homeless Health Needs Audit was launched on 15th March 2011. As this project draws to a close, over 1,000 homeless people have taken part and 11 areas have used the audit process. We have produced a toolkit which will enable areas to undertake an audit in future. It includes new guidance, case studies and data learning from the audit pilots, including a resource we commissioned from Groundswell about supporting peers to input into health service delivery and commissioning. This tool is available on our website. We will be working with Public Health, GP consortia and other local partners to encourage them to use this tool to gain a picture of the health of their local homeless population.

BRIEFINGS

Monitoring the Extent and Impact of Funding Cuts on Homelessness

Homeless Link continues to contact members and local authorities across England to build a comprehensive picture of changes to their funding and the impact of this on homelessness services. More information on the impacts to services is available here. As local authorities begin to confirm their budgets for next year, Homeless Link is also pulling together this information to be able to show where the cuts have hit worst. This analysis will be published shortly.

This project will help support local services to campaign and share best practice in their response to the changes. At the same time, we are lobbying directly to ministers and local authorities to protect services to the most vulnerable, including homeless people. If services are able to tell us about the cuts they are facing in their areas, this would be much appreciated. Please contact your local regional manager or complete our online survey.

Update on the Vetting and Barring Scheme

As part of the Protection of Freedoms Bill the government has now unveiled a new scaled back employment vetting scheme and a fundamental reform of criminal records checks. New primary legislation will amend the current scheme, in particular, through the abolition of the registration and monitoring requirements and the re-definition of the range of posts to which barring arrangements apply. For a briefing on the current situation and the proposed changes visit our policy briefing page.

March Policy Round-Up

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