Item 14 - Appendix 2

Page 1

Temporary Accommodation Task & Finish Group
SG Response What it means for WDC
Mar-23 Jul-23
PRIORITY ONE
1
The Scottish Government must at a minimum adequately fund the
delivery of new social homes through the Affordable Housing Supply
Programme (AHSP) to meet a target of delivering 38,500 social homes
by 2026
We will invest at least £60 million through the Affordable Housing Supply
Programme in 2023-2024 to support a national acquisition plan.
WDC had an increase like all LAs to our
budget but this was in pipeline prior to the
response.
2
The Scottish Government should urgently introduce a large-scale
national acquisition policy and action plan to buy private sector
properties.
As above
3
Local authorities should assess and report to the Scottish Housing
Regulator (SHR) on whether their Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans
(RRTPs) and Housing Need and Demand Assessments are directly
informing and influencing their Strategic Housing Investment Plans
(SHIPs)
The Scottish Housing Regulator has commented that the recommended
reporting process is a substantial departure from its current functions and will
require further consideration. Nonetheless, the Regulator recognises that
temporary accommodation is the main issue that local authorities are grappling
with and is keen to support solutions.
If confirmed to go ahead this would require
reviewing both our RRTP and SHIP and self
evalutate, possible added to assuarnce
statements.
We have agreed with the Scottish Housing Regulator that it will take more of a
strategic overview when engaging with local authorities. To support this
process, the content of its structured conversations with local authorities will be
enhanced to obtain more intelligence about successful projects.
Depending on approach maybe required to
provide more information.
4
The Scottish Government should publish data annually on how long
households who are currently living in TA have been there
The team is also committed to meeting the needs of users as fully as possible
through standard outputs, which are reviewed regularly. In the most recent
annual publication, data tables were included to show the distribution of
households (with and without children) in temporary accommodation, by
length of time, for cases which had closed. This is available at both national
and local authority level.
As we report this quarterly in our returns this
shouldn’t have any additional impact other
than this being published nationally and
potentail more attention to this particular
area.  We gather the data monthly already
therefore if increased monitoring requested
no impact on WDC.The team will expand outputs to provide useful information for live
homelessness cases for the next annual homelessness publication. If more
granular detail is required, such as breakdowns of longer periods of time spent
in temporary accommodation, the team can provide bespoke analysis.
If taken forward this would require review of
our data gathering if further breakdown
needs to be provided.
5
The Scottish Government and local authorities should work
together to review how they could standardise and improve collection
and recording of data on people experiencing homelessness with
disabilities and/or support needs.
The Scottish Government homelessness statistics and analysis team has
started work on an extensive review of the homelessness data collections. A
number of topic groups have been arranged to discuss different data collection
areas and to determine a renewed set of content. The data review will also fully
explore the appropriateness and feasibility of collecting high quality information
on protected characteristics. The aim is for content to be agreed and finalised
by early 2025, to be followed by two years of implementation.
WDC take part in statistic user groups to
provide feedback and help shape reporting
going forward.  The intention is to make
changes/improvements therefore a review of
our data gathering will be reuired and
subsequent actions taken forward.
PRIORITY TWO
6
All local authorities should provide a Locality Profile outlining needs
and demands aligned to their RRTP and undertake refreshed
modelling on TA in their area.
Flipping - we will support social landlords to increase the frequency of this
practice. By the end of this year, we will have worked with COSLA, ALACHO
and the SFHA to develop national guidance to help maximise the impact of
effective stock management and to support good flipping practice.
Already operate flipping in WDC and have a
budget to allow for 30 per year.  Welcome
and further tools to help expand this option
where appropriate
7
The Scottish Government and COSLA should develop national
guidance on the tools available for local authorities to actively manage
housing stock in their area to ensure maximal use of stock.
Empty homes - We are working with COSLA to reduce empty home
ownership and have introduced financial disincentives, such as providing local
authorities with additional powers to charge council tax premiums on second
homes and higher premiums on long-term empty homes. Our consultation on
this approach recently closed, and we will announce next steps which will be
informed by responses to the consultation.
WDC already have a FTE empty homes
officer.  Awiting further steps and review our
processes as necessary but welcome any
further additional powers where no extra cost
to WDC or costs covered.
VOID management - Building on previous communication with the UK
Government, energy companies, Ofgem and Scottish Water, we will bring
utility companies round the table to identify ways to improve this situation.
Await any improvements in this area and
review processes as necessary
Allocations LA and RSLs - To help address regional disparity in allocations to
homeless households, we will develop a set of broad allocation parameters for
application at a national level, with specific detail to be agreed locally. These
tailored allocation policies will help meet the needs of the number of homeless
households locally and ensure any barriers to achieving this are understood
and addressed.
Need to await any further detail to assess
the impact.
Allocations - We will urge all local authorities to consider the case for
undertaking an appropriate level of increase for a specified period of time. 
Housing associations need to play an active part in supporting households
experiencing homelessness in their areas to access a settled home through a
short-term increase in allocations to homeless households.
WDC already liaise and ask our RSL to
match our allocations based on our RRTP
modelling, any further support increasing
may help where some have been slightly
more reluctant.
8
There should be a statutory requirement for each local authority area
to have a single common housing register and a single common
allocation policy to remove barriers for people in applying for social
housing and navigating the system.
As part of our engagement with social landlords, we will identify ways to
remove local barriers to establishing a common housing register appropriate to
each area. Given the different challenges across local authority areas, we
intend to pursue a non-statutory means of achieving this in the first instance.
WDC restarted conversations with our local
RSL's with a view to creating a CHR
PRIORITY THREE
9
he Scottish Government should publish a review of funding of
homelessness services, including any identified funding gaps and the
provision of continued funding for RRTPs and Prevention of
Homelessness. This should include a review of the funding model
for TA
It will be critical to agree with local government ways to ensure homelessness
funding is carefully targeted to increasing positive outcomes for households in
temporary accommodation. We will seek agreement on a shared approach to
funding arrangements for local authorities that will support the immediate aim
of reducing the use of temporary accommodation and support more effective
homelessness prevention and the transition to rapid rehousing by default.
Once new ways of working agreed will
requre will review of our own operation and
lead to any necessary changes.  WDC will
ensure any involvement in the review
process.
10
Following the review, action should be taken to make changes to the
funding of homelessness services to ensure they are funded
sufficiently.
Await any actions following the review.
11
COSLA and the Scottish Government should consider a focus on
how to address the recruitment and staffing crisis across the housing
sector.
We want to support local authorities’ efforts to avoid the risk of burnout and to
retain talented people in these crucial roles. To support local efforts to recruit
staff, we will work with the Chartered Institute of Housing to develop initiatives
that local authorities can use to help retain staff. We recognise short-term
funding awards affect staff retention and recruitment, both of which
subsequently impact on service delivery. We will explore the possibility of multi-
year funding within the current financial constraints.
WDC already exploring its own Housing
Academy but welcome any supports put in
place by Scottish Government surrounding
burnout.  WDC will also be able to have
more long term plans if multu year funding is
agreed.
12
Health and Social Care Integration Authorities should ensure that
Housing Contribution Statements detail what care and support
provisions are the responsibility of Health and Social Care
Partnerships and what are the responsibility of local authority housing
teams.
The recommendations made on health and social care also form part of our
longer-term approach. While we agree that Housing Contribution Statements
should be clear on where the responsibility for care and support provisions lie,
this is part of a much larger and longer-term piece of work to improve
community health and social care support in Scotland            By placing duties
on relevant public bodies, the responsibility to prevent homelessness becomes
a shared public responsibility and action to prevent homelessness starts much
earlier. We will work with public bodies in advance of the introduction of the
legislation to ensure they each play their part.
Awaiting further guidance when the bill is
laid in Parliament, although duty to other
public bodies has the potenial to impact
WDC homeless services with unseen
increase in demands to our housing options
service with potentially no further resources. 
Risk diluting in service we can offer.
A co-design approach with the public has been adopted to develop Scotland’s
National Care Service, which will include consideration of the way in which
social care and homelessness services work together. The process will provide
clarity on the roles and responsibilities of those involved in supporting people
at risk of or experiencing homelessness.
13
The Scottish Government should work with local authorities to
assess the current Community Care Grant process and make it faster
to overcome the delays it can cause in moving people out of TA.
Scottish welfare fund - The Scottish Government has developed an action plan
with local authorities and stakeholders, which sets out next steps on
improvements to processing timescales and assessment prioritisation.
Welcome any changes that help speed up
the process or supports priitisation which
can potenially help reduce move on time and
therefore ultimately numbers in temporary
accommodation
14
COSLA should undertake a benchmarking process on TA and there
should be greater transparency on charges of TA by individual local
authorities.
NO COMMENT OR MENTION IN RESPONSE
15
The Scottish Government should review the guidance to local
authorities on setting charges for TA by clearly defining the terms
"reasonable charge" and "affordable".
NO COMMENT OR MENTION IN RESPONSE
15 Reccommendations
ITEM 14 - APPENDIX 2