Blogs

The Welfare Reform Policy Briefing Paper has been produced to inform services about the changes and amendments to the Welfare Benefits System that may impact on individuals using their services.

The briefing is a live document and will be updated on a quarterly basis to reflect changes and further developments to the Welfare Reform Act, including administration arrangements of benefits.

Glasgow Winter Night Shelter was open for 12 weeks from December 2012, and closed on the morning of Sunday, 24^th February.

Last Autumn the Scottish Government consulted on their plans to introduce legislation for the integration of adult health and social care services. Following the analysis of responses, key feedback from the Scottish Government is that they intend to legislate -

On the 21^st November 2012, the Scottish Parliament voted to approve the Homelessness (Abolition of Priority Need Test) (Scotland) Order 2012.

Glasgow Homelessness Network (GHN) responded to the Scottish Government consultation on the Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill, which proposed to support communities to achieve their own goals and aspirations through taking independent action and by having their voices heard in the decisions that affect their area. The bill is desgined to:

New homelessness statistics for July to September 2012 have been published by the Scottish Government providing information on homelessness applications, assessments and outcomes during the quarter.

Key information for Glasgow includes:

The Scottish Social Housing Charter came into effect on 1st April 2012 and it sets out a series of outcomes to be achieved by Local Authorities and Registered Social Landlords in relation to the delivery of housing and homelessness services (see section below – 11th April 2012).  The Scottish Housing Regulator has the role of monitoring progress towards meeting these outcomes and has published the final set of indicators they will use to assess and report on performance.  In terms of homelessness services, Local Authorities will be required to report annually on:

New homelessness statistics have been published by the Scottish Government providing information on homelessness applications, assessments and outcomes during the quarter April – June 2012.  The figures show a 5% drop in homelessness applications compared with the same period in 2011.

Key information for Glasgow includes:

The Glasgow Winter Night Shelter opened its doors (for the third year) at 10pm on Sunday, 2^nd December 2012, and ran until Saturday, 23^rd February.

Glasgow City Council has been implementing an incremental phased approach to abolishing the assessment of priority need. The final change came into effect on 1^st October 2012 meaning that everyone assessed as homeless in the city is deemed to have a priority need. This change sees Glasgow City Council implement the legal requirements of the 2012 target before the target date of 31^st December and has led to a steady increase in the percentage of priority need assessments since the initial enactment of the policy in 2010.