Hansard

I am pleased to be able to bring before Parliament the report of the Glasgow street homelessness review team, which has been conducting a fundamental and strategic review of efforts to tackle the problems of street homelessness in Glasgow. Members will recall that last November my predecessor, Wendy Alexander, announced the establishment of the review team. The report sits very much in the context of the wider work that the Executive is carrying out—through the homelessness task force and the rough sleepers initiative—to tackle the scourge of homelessness, especially street homelessness in Scotland.

We recognise that the problem of rough sleeping is most acute in Glasgow. That is compounded by the continued existence of wholly inappropriate and unacceptable hostels in which many people who would otherwise be homeless are accommodated. Those hostels have been described by many as more frightening and dangerous than sleeping rough. It is clear that Glasgow's old and out-of-date hostels are part of the homelessness problem—they are not part of the solution.

I will give members an idea of the scale of the problem—the figures are truly stark. In Glasgow, an estimated 6,500 people experience street homelessness every year. Of those, 2,500 are homeless for the first time and the rest have continuing or repeat experience of street homelessness. About 1,000 of the total are women.

Many of those people have complex needs—the problem is not simply about bricks and mortar. In Glasgow, 41 per cent of young single homeless people have drug problems. Alcohol addiction is a serious problem that affects 61 per cent of homeless people in older age groups. About 50 per cent of the homeless people that were surveyed have physical health problems and there are high levels of neurotic disorders and other mental health problems. Almost all homeless people are unemployed.

Hostels were never designed to cope with the problem—they are too big and too basic and they are outdated. Despite the best efforts of staff, conditions are getting worse. About a third of those who sleep rough in Glasgow have been barred from hostels and many others would rather sleep rough than use them.

The report found that an exceptionally high proportion of Glasgow's young population is presenting as homeless during the course of a year. Of the 6,500 people who were identified as being street homeless, more than 2,000 are under 24 years of age. We tend to deal with that group—as we do with others—by accommodating them in large and understaffed hostels where they are prey to drug dealers and money lenders; where they feel less safe than they do on the streets; and where their temporary experience of homelessness can quickly become a lifestyle. We must put a stop to that.

Although there has been a considerable increase in investment in services in Glasgow through the rough sleepers initiative—more than £12 million through to March 2002—we recognised a year ago that a thorough and fundamental review of the current efforts to address street homelessness in the city was needed. The review needed to be focused on the particular issues that affected homeless people in Glasgow and it needed to involve all the organisations that contribute to overall homelessness provision.

We brought together health, housing and social work departments, Glasgow's voluntary organisations, Strathclyde police, Shelter Scotland, the Big Issue and academics who have specialised in researching and understanding homelessness, to consider service provision from the point of view of the needs of the individual and to make recommendations on that. The team, which was led by the Executive, set out to identify what needs to be done to improve the provision of accommodation, especially hostel accommodation, and to improve and increase the availability of social and other support for people who are homeless or who live in temporary hostel accommodation.

The review team reported on its work through the homelessness task force. I am pleased to present that report to Parliament today, with the Executive's endorsement of its conclusions and recommendations. The report contains many challenging recommendations on prevention of street homelessness and alleviation of it when it occurs.

The review team rightly highlights the need for more to be done to prevent people from arriving on the streets in the first place. However, the report underlines the need for an effective and multidisciplinary response once people are on the streets. It clearly sets out the inadequacy of current resettlement arrangements, under which people end up in inappropriate hostels with little or no prospect of being helped to move on to something more secure. The report recognises that present levels of personal support are inadequate, despite the considerable efforts of many people in the voluntary and statutory sectors.

In June this year, we informed Parliament of the emerging conclusions of the review—that there should be a rolling programme of hostel closures in Glasgow to rid the city of such outdated large institutions. We identified £2 million to be used to begin to implement that programme. The recommendation and the reasons why such action is necessary are set out clearly in the report. The large hostels, which are so much a part of the street homelessness problem, must be closed down. Long-term hostel residents should, where possible and appropriate, be moved into supported tenancies. I stress that that will be done where it is possible and appropriate—we recognise that it must be done with care and sensitivity.

Much smaller, highly supported units will be developed where there is a need for such accommodation. In addition, greater emphasis will be placed on providing people with the help and support that they need in mainstream tenancies. By developing small supported and responsive units, we can deal more effectively with individual needs and we can prevent institutionalisation of individuals—which is all too often a feature of the current provision and regimes.

We recognise that there will be a need for highly supported accommodation units for some people, particularly people who have acute and chronic needs. The report recommends that such units should be small and focused in their purpose. We must move away from the situation where vulnerable young people live in close proximity to people who have severe and chaotic behavioural problems.

There must be a new process of comprehensive assessment at an early stage and there must, where necessary, be linked provision for very short-term temporary accommodation. The key will be to ensure that the assessment is comprehensive and multi-disciplinary. It is not good enough that people are assessed four or five times by different agencies and for different purposes. The needs of the whole person should dictate the support and services that that person receives. Assessments should measure employability and basic skills so that people can be helped back into meaningful employment. However, even with such assessments, there is a risk that some people will need greater personal support to give them the confidence and knowledge that will enable them to identify the choices and opportunities that are available to them.

Many people will have become disconnected from the family and community support networks that we all rely on from time to time. The report has recommended that a pilot project should be set up, which will connect homeless people with a personal assistant or a befriender to provide that support. We will establish such a pilot project and we will assess its success before we consider how it might be applied more widely.

So much needs to be done to prevent people from ending up on the streets in the first place. A key recommendation of the report is that, as an immediate priority, all the relevant authorities should examine what more can be done to prevent people who leave care, prisons and other institutions from becoming homeless. The homelessness task force is taking forward that issue in the wider context of homelessness throughout Scotland, but there are clear actions that can be taken in Glasgow that will prevent homelessness and reduce the numbers of people who come on to the streets.

It is also essential that we address the need to improve the services that are available to homeless people and the accessibility of those services. Health services, including addiction services and other support services, need to be brought in and delivered effectively to street homeless people. In the short term, those services will be developed for and delivered to hostel residents. As the hostel closure programme proceeds, an essential element of the process will be to ensure that an individual's connections with support services are not disrupted. We have already approved the establishment of a hostels addictions team as part of the rough sleepers initiative. That team will ensure that the services that people need are available where they are needed.

Even if we develop and build on partnership working—which has evidently contributed to the production of the report—and the joint working that provides so many good examples of cross-sector projects in Glasgow, we need to make a step change in our efforts. That way, we will be able to make a significant impact on the problem of street homelessness. As the review team identified correctly, the problem of street homelessness in Glasgow will not be solved overnight, nor will it be solved if we continue with the current policies within the current framework at current funding levels. A major long-term programme is required, which will need to be funded.

The hostel reprovisioning programme in itself is ambitious, but it is an absolutely necessary element of the plan. I am therefore pleased to announce that—in addition to the £2 million that we have made available this year—the Executive will make available a further £12.5 million in the next three years to provide for that programme. In addition to the services that are funded under the RSI, Greater Glasgow Health Board is planning additional mental health, addiction and physical health services to benefit those who sleep rough or who are at risk of doing so.

We also announced the national health service funding for next year under the new Arbuthnott arrangements. Greater Glasgow Health Board received a 7.7 per cent increase—£60.5 million—which gives it a hospital, community health and prescribing budget of £846 million. The Executive continues to act to ensure that the health needs of rough sleepers are addressed effectively.

There has been much activity during the past year, but we recognise that many fundamental problems have yet to be tackled. By taking forward the actions that are proposed by the review team, we can begin to tackle the fundamental structural problems that stand in the way of long-term success. The homeless people of Glasgow deserve nothing less.