Come along to this session to discuss homelessness prevention - we'll be having some great conversations around prevention policy, prevention in practice, and the role of coaching in preventing homelessness. The full abstracts are below.
Presentations from these authors and a live Q&A session are available to all HSA members. Book here
1. Peter Mackie, Suzanne Fitzpatrick and Jenny Wood The mobilities of homelessness prevention policy under devolution in the UK
The desire to address inequalities and exclusionary practices within homelessness policy led Wales to become the first country to attempt to fully reorient homelessness services towards prevention and to make preventative services universally available. At the heart of the Welsh approach is a legal duty on local authorities to assist everyone who seeks help and is at risk of homelessness. This presentation will briefly discuss the history and rationale for the Welsh prevention legislation and the lessons learned since implementation in 2015. The focus of this presentation will then turn to the processes that have led to significant policy mobility across the UK and globally. Legislation in Wales was largely replicated in England in 2018, has informed debates in Scotland and further afield has informed new directions in thinking and emerging pilot programmes in Canada. Findings identify key influences on the mobilities of prevention policy including; the evidence base, civil society, policy and practice windows, policy one-upmanship, as well as individuals, relations and networks. The presentation reflects on what this means if good policy is to travel faster.
2. Sophie Boobis and Cuchulainn Sutton-Hamilton Prevention in practice: How do we make homelessness prevention work across Great Britain?
The Housing Act (2014) Wales and the 2017 Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) in England both shifted the statutory approach to homelessness across Local Authorities from crisis management to preventative action, widening the eligibility of those seeking assistance. However as Local Authorities are constrained by short term funding, the housing supply available to them and further restricted by housing benefit changes, their ability to provide sustainable outcomes for homeless households becomes harder to deliver. This paper presents the second wave of findings of a three-year research project research currently being undertaken by Crisis’ exploring the implementation of the HRA across six Local Authority areas in England. The study is based on a mixed methods approach involving surveys and interviews with over 900 people currently experiencing homelessness, and Local Authority staff. It considers the housing outcomes being achieved through the HRA and compares with those achieved to date under the Housing Act Wales. In comparing the emerging housing outcomes in England with the Welsh outcomes it will consider the similarities and differences in implementing prevention focussed legislation. In exploring their respective policy contexts, it will look at the opportunities and barriers to delivering sustainable housing outcomes and the considerations that each nation needs to make to ensure successful deliver of prevention focussed homelessness legislation.
3. Hannah Holmes and Gemma Burgess Homelessness prevention through tackling digital and social exclusion in the East of England: the role of one-to-one coaching
This research explores the impact of one-to-one coaching on people suffering from financial, digital, and labour market exclusion, and explores its role in preventing severe poverty and homelessness. It draws on qualitative research with coaches and participants from the New Horizons programme, funded by the European Social Fund and National Lottery Community Fund, and managed by CHS Group, a Housing Association with partners across the East of England. Coaches work with people furthest from the labour market and most at risk of social exclusion, who then access coaching on money, work or getting online. Although the extent to which people experiencing poverty can achieve autonomy in the face of complex individual challenges and structural inequalities is questionable, the research identifies positive outcomes of coaching, including debt management and improved confidence. Tackling digital exclusion is shown to have positive effects in this regard. The research draws on literature on the psychological and cognitive effects of poverty, which shows that scarcity has a clear impact on cognitive function. We suggest that coaching helps to provide psychological relief for participants, which in turn frees their “mental bandwidth”, allowing them to focus on issues such as managing debt and rent arrears. The research also seeks to reveal longer term impacts of coaching on participants’ lives, with reference to their skills in the related areas of money, work and getting online.