HSEU Responds to Inquiry into Proposed National Outcomes

The Housing Support Enabling Unit has responded to the Consultation on the Review of the National Outcomes welcoming the new proposed housing outcome.

The Housing Support Enabling Unit has responded to the Finance and Public Administration Committee’s Inquiry into proposed National Outcomes, which closes today (28 June).

The review of the National Outcomes is a key opportunity to improve joined-up policymaking around housing and social care in Scotland. The current proposals for new housing and care outcomes are welcomed, but there must be acknowledgement of the intersection of people’s housing needs and their care and support needs.

The current proposals may leave people who need support to maintain their own tenancy in a gap between the proposed housing and care outcomes. The Housing Support Enabling Unit recommends that the housing outcome includes explicit reference to the support required by some people to exercise their right to adequate housing. Housing support promotes the wellbeing of people by enabling people to live at home as independently as possible.

The Housing Support Enabling Unit supported the previous joint call from Crisis, the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers, Chartered Institute of Housing and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations for a new outcome in the National Performance Framework focused on home and housing support:

‘We all have good homes we can sustain: Everyone has a home to live in that is good quality, affordable, and suitable to their needs, and can access the support they need to live in it.’

The Finance and Public Administration Committee has expressed the expectation for the National Outcomes to be the ‘golden thread from which all other policies and strategies connect to delivery on the ground’.

In order to meet this expectation, we recommend broadening the proposed care outcome to ‘care and support’ to better reflect the breadth of social care and support services, experiences and people supported.

Clear links between the new proposed housing and care outcomes will be important for more effective joint working, and in order to support fair work across social care and housing.

You can read the full consultation response here.