Homelessness Policy and Procedure

BACKGROUND

South Ayrshire Council provides a centralised homelessness service based in Ayr. However, preliminary homeless assessments are also carried out at four area offices, namely, Maybole, Girvan, Prestwick and Troon, as and when required. The service is provided by staff who are appropriately trained in homelessness and other relevant areas.

The Homeless Section comprises the Homeless Service Manager, Assistant Homeless Service Manager, five full-time Homeless Officers, a Temporary Accommodation Manager , three Accommodation Officers and a Clerical Officer.

The Homeless Officers interview applicants, provide advice and information and maintain contact with homeless households until they have been housed. In addition they specialise in areas such as youth homelessness, joint assessments with the Social Work Throughcare Team, benchmarking performance, statistical information and homelessness and education. The Accommodation Officers are responsible for allocations to temporary accommodation and manage the Council's temporary furnished and unfurnished units, hostel and Bed and Breakfast accommodation and providing support thereto.

Therefore, the purpose of this manual is to provide those staff with responsibility for homelessness with guidance on policy, procedural and legal matters which are likely to arise on a day to day basis, and to ensure that consistency is achieved throughout all of the Area Offices.

Obviously there have been many changes and this is likely to continue. However future homeless provision will be enhanced by the multi-agency approach that is now common place. Joint working and training initiatives have and will enhance our overall perceptions of both social inclusion and housing objectives and this will ensure that this manual will be regularly updated to take account of new legislation, policy directives and changed circumstance s .

Regulation and Inspection

The 2001 Act gives Communities Scotland the role of regulating Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and the landlord and homelessness functions of local authorities. Communities Scotland's purpose as a regulator is to promote quality, continuous improvement and good practice in these services, for the benefit of current and future tenants, and other service users. One way it does this is through the inspection of RSLs and local authorities. Inspections provide an in-depth assessment of an organisation, its service quality and its ability to improve. Communities Scotland's Guide to Inspection describes how it carries out inspections.

Communities Scotland published Performance Standards with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA). These standards set out joint expectations for the performance of all social landlords and homelessness functions: there are nine standards on local authorities' homelessness strategies and their delivery of services to people who are homeless; and one standard on RSLs' duties to help local authorities discharge their duties to people who are homeless.

The inspection process is built around an assessment of how well these standards are being met, and inspectors will take account of the Code of Guidance when assessing landlords' performance in meeting the needs of homeless people.

The Guide to Inspection and Performance Standards are available on Communities Scotland's website at http://www.inspection.communitiesscotland.gov.uk/

The future

Over the coming period it is expected that there will be a need to update this document on a regular basis. These updates will derive from:

further legislative change as the 2003 Act is commenced and its provisions take effect;
specific additional guidance developed in particular areas; and key messages emerging from this Council's homelessness strategy as these are implemented.

DEFINITIONS

Throughout this manual, 'the Act' means the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987, as amended by Part 1 of the 2001 Act and 'the homelessness legislation' means Part II of the 1987 Act, as amended by Part I of the 2001 Act. The Homelessness etc (Scotland) Act 2003 will be referred to as the '2003 Act'. 'The 1995 Act' means the Children (Scotland) Act 1995; 'the 1993 Act' means the Asylum and Immigration Appeals Act 1993; 'the 1996 Act' means the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996; as amended by the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 and the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, 'the 1996 Order' means the Housing Accommodation and Homelessness (Persons subject to Immigration Control) Order 1996, as amended. 'Registered social landlords' include all housing associations and co-operatives.