Have your say on our plan to end homelessness

To help develop our plan to end homelessness, we asked policy experts and people with experience of homelessness to identify the key problems and solutions. Over 1000 people were involved in the consultation in total, which ran from June 2017 to March 2018.

During our consultation, we focused on preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place, responding rapidly so problems don’t escalate, and ensuring long terms solutions are in place for those that need support with more complex issues.

 The consultation was made up of three stages:

Stage 1: Identify problems and policy solutions (June to Oct 2017)

During stage 1, we invited people with lived experience of homelessness and experts from all relevant sectors in policy, on the front line, or in government, to tell us about their experiences of homelessness and how they think we can end it.

We held a call for written evidence, creative sessions for people with lived experience, and policy themed events.

We had some great #PlanToEndHomelessness sessions last week. Many more events to come! Sign up now >>> https://t.co/JmriUrrIbV #ukhousing pic.twitter.com/mJA3ZC08x9

— Crisis (@crisis_uk) October 9, 2017

In preparation for stage 2, the Research team identified 90 policy recommendations for consideration, which were condensed to 40. This allowed us to identify the key questions that still required further drilling down to get to the core of the solutions and understand what else needed to change in order to successfully implement our policy recommendations.

Stage 2: What needs to change to deliver the solutions (November-December 2017)

During stage 2, we invited senior civil servants, local authorities, Thinks Tanks, Business and Academia/Research Bodies to review the solutions identified in stage 1, and consider what changes need to happen to successfully deliver these solutions.

We held a collection of high level roundtable discussions and one to one meetings with senior officials in England, Scotland and Wales.

These focused on three key areas:

• How to deliver an integrated service model of homelessness prevention - what is needed for different departments within local authorities, and across a range of public bodies, to design and deliver a shared agenda on homelessness prevention?
• Rapid response for homeless people with low level needs - how can we best create pathways into permanent housing for people who have become homeless and have low support needs?
• Sustained support for homeless people with more complex needs - how to commission a package of support services that people using Housing First need to sustain their housing: which services are needed, and how best to commission them in an effective and integrated way?

Three roundtable discussions (one on each question) were held in England, delivered in partnership with local authorities in Croydon, Newcastle and Birmingham. In Wales, two roundtable discussions, also covering the three questions above, were held in Swansea and Cardiff. Fourteen further group and 1:1 meetings were held in Scotland. Delegates included senior officials in positions of authority on implementation from across a range of sectors, including health commissioners, probation commissioners, Jobcentre Plus district managers as well as housing and homelessness leads from local authorities.

Stage 3: Consensus and prioritisation (February to March 2018)

During stage 3, we invited people who’d participated in stages 1 and 2 of the consultation to help us identify where there is consensus and what solutions are a priority for the plan to end homelessness.

Our Head of Research, Francesca Albanese, explained the process so far at the beginning of stage three. 

We created an online platform where we listed the 40 policy solutions identified and refined during stages 1 and 2, and invited people to review and comment on these solutions. The solutions were available to view by (for example, prevention or sustained support) and by category (for example, housing or welfare).

We also prioritised the key areas which we think are key to ending homelessness, and asked people to let us know which they feel are most important. Participants were asked to drag and drop from the list of priorities, putting their biggest priorities at the top of the list, and lowest at the bottom.

During stage 3, we also held sessions with people with lived experience of homelessness to get their feedback on the areas we’d prioritised, including with our Experts by Experience panel members.

All of the information gathered from each stage of the consultation was fed back to Crisis’s policy and research teams, and considered as part of the final version of the Plan to End Homelessness, which will launch this summer.

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the consultation, and provided valuable insight. We know that together, we will end homelessness. Make sure you're signed up to receive updates for other ways you can help make it happen.