WIDER POLICIES
English Advice and Support Policy

Key policies:

• 2002 Homelessness Act
• More than a roof: a report into tackling homelessness
• Connexions 

Advice and support is viewed as predominantly an issue for local authorities.

All local authorities have a statutory duty to offer advice and support under the 2002 Homelessness Act, which stipulates a minimum level of advice to be given.

National framework

The 2002 Homelessness Act requires that all local authorities offer advice and support to all households who are officially recognised as homeless and stipulates a minimum level of advice to be given.  This duty is particularly important for single homeless people since, unless deemed to be ‘vulnerable', advice and assistance is the only support they will get from a local authority.  It states that "advice and assistance will need to be up-to date and robust if it is to be effective and help achieve the housing authorities' strategic aim of preventing homeless".  It also states that "the service will need to be wide ranging so that it offers advice not only on housing options, but also on the broad range of factors that can contribute to homelessness".  This might include, for example, advice on social security benefits, household budgeting, tenancy support services, and family mediation services. 

The government's report More than a roof: a report into tackling homelessness highlighted the value of the ‘one stop shops', a model of service provision that provides a holistic approach to homelessness, providing "benefits, employment advice, access to rent deposit schemes, help to return home, family mediation, links to health and social services etc".   A focus on the complex personal problems of the person is crucial to preventing homelessness successfully, as lessons from tackling rough sleeping have showed.

DCLG (formerly ODPM) also spreads ‘good practice' about advice and assistance, and supports some prevention schemes with funding.^[1]

In practice, it appears that models of support vary around the country, depending on the approach adopted by the local authority.  Whilst some local authorities offer clients substantial and holistic provision, others only provide a list of accommodation possibilities in the area.  Many authorities will be somewhere between these two extremes.  There is also no national data about the local services on offer nor the standards to which they must adhere.  Rather, the guidance for local authorities simply states that they "may wish to refer to the quality assurance systems applied by the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux and the Shelter network of housing advice centres".^[2]  

Connexions

The one area where there may be greater consistency of provision is for younger people, as provided through Connexions.  Although the primary motivation behind Connexions is getting young people back into learning, it also provides advice and support across a wide range of areas including housing advice, family mediation, and drug and alcohol services.  Clients may be allocated a personal adviser in cases where the support needs of the person are identified as high, or they may be put in touch with a specialist adviser in their area of need, to negotiate service provision and provide advice.  Either way, Connexions provides access to a wide range of advice and support services which are available at a single point of entry.

A Greater London Authority evaluation of youth homelessness prevention initiatives found that young homeless people most value services when advice on a range of issues is available in a single place.^[3]   As More than a roof: a report into tackling homelessness indicates, there is no reason to assume that the preferences of older adults would be substantially different.

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End notes

[1] The way in which the Homeless and Supported Housing Directorate does this is to allocate funding on the basis of applications from authorities, so long as those applications fit with the homelessness strategy of that local authority, and therefore, by extension, so long as it deals with homelessness prevention.  In 2003, it had a budget of £70 million to distribute between authorities and prevention was one of three key areas to which funding would be prioritised.  Back to text

[2] Homelessness code of guidance for local authorities, ODPM and Department of Health, 2002. Back to text

[3] Evaluation of initiatives to prevent youth homelessness, Greater London Authority, 2003. Back to text

Page last modified on 06/07/2007 at 08:28