Housing, Policy and Strategy
Local Housing Strategy
Housing Advice and Information
The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 recognises the important role that good quality
advice and information plays in the prevention and alleviation of homelessness.
Section 2 of the 2001 Housing Act requires local authorities to ensure that advice
and information about homelessness and the prevention of homelessness is available
free of charge to any person in the local authority area.
In addition the act gives local authorities an enhanced duty to provide housing
advice and assistance to homeless applicants who are not in priority need or have
become homeless intentionally.
The Homeless Persons Advice and Assistance (Scotland) Regulations 2002 outlines
the type of advice which must be available and includes:
- Advice on accommodation options
- Advice on a range of social issues
- Financial Advice.
Here are just some of the things that South Ayrshire Council's Housing Service is
doing to comply with the new duties.
Review of Services
In 2003 a review of Housing Advice and Information Services in South Ayrshire was
commissioned. The aim of the review was to examine:
- The current availability and nature of housing advice and information
- The quality and consistency of advice and assistance
- To identify gaps in current provision and to make recommendations on how best to
fill these gaps.
The researchers looked at the services provided by the council's Housing Services,
Social Work Services, Money Advice Team and a wide range of voluntary sector providers.
The report is at the final draft stage and once completed will provide a basis for
South Ayrshire Council to work with partners and other stakeholder to develop a
strategy which will ensure that service users have access to quality, accurate and
independent housing advice and information across South Ayrshire.
The Scottish National Standards for Advice and Information
The HomePoint section of Communities Scotland has published “ The Scottish
National Standards and Good Practice Guidance for Housing Information and Advice
Providers” We are presently working with Communities Scotland to implement
these standards within Homeless Services with the aim of seeking accreditation for
the service from HomePoint. A key element of this is staff training and to date
10 staff from Homeless Services and Area Office Teams have been trained to provide
housing advice up to Homepoint standard and a further 11 staff are currently undertaking
training.
We are also working to improve the way the service is delivered, the accessibility
of the service, and the quality and availability of our written information.
Housing Options Guide
South Ayrshire Council's Housing Options Guide is a valuable resource in the provision
good housing advice and information.
We aim to ensure that the guide is continually improved and updated. Our booklet
A Guide to Social Housing in South Ayrshire is also available
for downloading.
South Ayrshire Council's Housing Option Guide along with the Housing Option Guides
of other local authorities in Scotland is available on Communities Scotland's website. This website also gives access to housing advice and information in a number of
different community languages.