July – September

Appoint a coordinator  

The local authority lead should decide whether to coordinate their own estimate or give responsibility for the count-based estimate process to an external coordinator, for example a rough sleeping coordinator, Housing Options manager or outreach team leader. They will need to involve local partner agencies in the process, including at least one independent partner to attend the count on the ‘typical’ night.

Check that the local authority lead has access to MHCLG’s DELTA online data collection system. See the DELTA guidance below for more information.

September

Choosing the date and time

Allow at least 6 weeks to plan the count. Activities leading up to the count will include:

  • Gathering intelligence from partner agencies
  • Identifying your independent partner
  • Preparing a data protection statement.
  • Organising volunteers, including an independent partner.
  • Planning the night's activities.
  • Liaising with the police
  • Arranging a Homeless Link Quality Assurance Verifier

The count must take place on a single ‘typical’ night. If it spreads over two or more nights, the process cannot be verified.

When choosing a date, you should:

  • Avoid a night when unusual local factors may distort the numbers, such as events, festivals, charity sleep-outs, higher levels of police activity or changes to service opening times.
  • Identify an appropriate day of the week: people may bed down later or be less visible on weekends. Also take into account whether certain days, such as those on which football matches or club nights take place, may distort average levels of rough sleeping in the area.
  • Make a contingency plan for severe weather conditions that change patterns of rough sleeping (see below).

The count night should not be used for media activity – the presence of film crews or photographers means that it is not a ‘typical’ night, for example because people may move sleep sites to avoid being filmed or photographed. Journalists can be present during the count provided they follow the guidance.

The date of the count should only be shared on a ‘need to know’ basis in case this causes a change in the pattern of rough sleeping, resulting in a less accurate figure.

Start times should be tailored to meet local circumstances. The earliest permitted start is midnight. In cities and towns with a busy nighttime economy, a start time of 2am or even later is more appropriate to include people who bed down after pubs and clubs close. In rural areas, where the majority of people are sleeping rough away from built-up and well-lit areas, counts may be conducted in the hours after dawn.

There is no fixed duration for a count – it will depend on geography, number of counters, number of people sleeping rough, and what occurs as the teams are talking to the people they meet e.g. getting people to shelter/hubs, or dealing with emergencies. Typically counts start between 12-2am and finish between 3-6am. In most cases, if appropriate intelligence has been gathered and enough volunteers recruited, counts take no more than 2 to 3 hours to conduct.

Local authorities without regular outreach might want to do a street needs audit with a smaller team in advance of the count to gather intelligence about sleep sites, so that the count can be planned around known sleeping sites. In most areas it is not feasible to check every street/alley/car park etc., so some way of targeting teams is needed.

Pre-count activity

Please note that ‘pre-counts’ by outreach or police teams on the evening of the chosen ‘typical’ night should not be used, as they create a risk of disruption. Homeless Link may refuse to assure the quality of your count if it becomes clear that people who were sleeping rough during the pre-count are no longer visible (i.e. the pre-count moved them on, whether intentionally or not).

Homeless Link may require people housed during the pre-count to be included in your final figure, as they would have been counted if found later that night.

If outreach teams are in the habit of contacting people during an earlier evening pre-count because they are not visible at night (e.g. because they sleep in tents), the local authority should consider whether this is grounds to choose an evidence-based estimate, including a spotlight count approach instead.

Update Homeless Link and arrange your snapshot estimate quality assurance meeting/calls

All snapshot estimates are quality assured by Homeless Link to ensure that they have been carried out safely and in accordance with the guidance.

All Quality Assurance Verifiers are trained and supported by Homeless Link. They are associates or volunteers drawn from our staff. The Quality Assurance Verifier’s role is to speak to key individuals involved in the count and assess how well the organisation and execution met the requirements of this approach.

From 2025 onwards, the quality assurance process for all count-based estimates will be carried out remotely and in two parts.

Part 1

A compulsory pre-count meeting with the Quality Assurance Verifier is now compulsory and should take place, online, no later than two weeks prior to the ‘typical’ night.

The purpose of the pre-count meeting is for the Quality Assurance Verifier to ensure that the count-based estimate approach is the most appropriate for the local authority context via the following questions:

Who was approached for intelligence on known rough sleeping sites and hotspots and to agree the ‘typical night’ for the count

The process for deciding which areas to include in the count mapping

Whether any of the mapped areas are difficult or risky to access

What access arrangements have been made e.g. for tower blocks and locked parks

Whether there are any events, e.g. Bonfire Night, Xmas lights switch-on, football fixtures, Armistice Day commemorations, etc., schedule on or around the date of the ‘typical night’

The count-based estimate quality assurance form has been updated for 2025 and the responses to these questions will recorded by the Quality Assurance Verifier. A template form will be sent to all local authorities following the count-based estimate approach.

Based on the responses to the above questions, the Quality Assurance Verifier will recommend either proceeding with the count-based estimate approach or switching to the evidence-based estimate including a spotlight count approach.

It is not the role of the Homeless Link Quality Assurance Verifier to insist local authorities change their rough sleeping snapshot estimate approach. Rather, where a local authority proceeds with a count-based estimate when recommended not to, the approach is not properly followed on the typical night, and the Homeless Link Quality Assurance Verifier does not feel the snapshot figure is robust, they will record it as ‘not assured’.

Part 2

The post-count quality assurance process will take place via phone/online during which the Quality Assurance Verifier will speak separately to the local authority lead or count-coordinator (as appropriate), the independent partner, and one other participant from a partner agency. The Quality Assurance Verifier will ask the local authority lead for contact details for the relevant partners and arrange the calls / online meetings directly with each one. The calls / meetings should last no more than around 20 minutes.

Please note that if, at the end of the quality assurance process, the Quality Assurance Verifier is not able to grade a count-based estimate as ‘fully assured’ that local authority will not be offered the option to hold an evidence-based estimate meeting with a further quality assurance process.

New snapshot estimate quality assurance & RAG ratings

In 2025, along with the changes to the quality assurance process for count-based estimates, updated quality assurance ratings and RAG ratings are also being introduced.