This report and recommendations have been developed to improve the housing journey of care leavers in Scotland, and prevent homelessness for people with experience of care. The Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group (HARSAG) recommended that pathways to prevent homelessness should be developed for groups which evidence tells us are more at risk of homelessness and rough sleeping, including care leavers.
This guidance is the result of work undertaken between May and September 2019, including assessment of the problem, ambition, activity, partnerships and implementation process required for improvement. A multi-agency working group has progressed this work, which has been coordinated by the A Way Home Scotland coalition. The working group has engaged closely with the Independent Care Review to ensure recommendations and advice set out in this paper are in line with the direction of travel the Review is taking. Key members of the working group and the A Way Home coalition have attended meetings of the Care Review’s ‘Edges of Care’ workstream, and the Chairs of A Way Home and the Independent Care Review have also held discussions. Together with continuous engagement between Ministers and officials from both homelessness and children and families policy areas, this has ensured that both areas of work have gone forward with strong understanding of one another. An agreement has been reached that the Independent Care Review will seek to endorse and build on this work as it draws its conclusions in 2020, and it is intended that implementation of the recommendations from the Independent Care Review and from the Care Leavers Housing Pathway work will be taken forward in tandem.
