Background
H&F Council is committed to significantly reducing the number of people rough sleeping in the borough and preventing people from sleeping rough in the first place. The Rough Sleeping Commission was established to help meet this vision by developing ground-breaking new policies with the goal of reducing the number of rough sleepers to zero.
The commission met for the first time in February 2017 and had six meetings with the last being held in November 2017. These meetings helped formulate the commission's recommendations.
Following endorsement by H&F Council Cabinet on 15th January 2018, the commission report can be found below.
Stage 1: Literature review
From February until March 2017, the commission conducted a literature review of international, national and local analysis and good practice, maintaining its focus on the the relevance of this data to H&F. The information gathered enabled the commission to build an accurate picture of why people sleep on the street in H&F.
Rough Sleeping Commission Literature review (300KB pdf)
Stage 2: A call for evidence
A call for evidence was undertaken in April until June 2017 to gather the views directly from people who are, or are at risk of, sleeping rough in H&F, frontline workers and experts in the field.
Groundswell were commissioned to conduct a peer led research project with the aim of enabling people with experience of homelessness to contribute to the work of the commission.
Groundswell peer led research report (1.7MB pdf)
Frontline Workers Evidence Session (269KB pdf)
Stage 3: Public hearing
The commission consulted H&F residents on its findings and draft recommendations at a meeting of the Health, Adult Social Care and Social Inclusion Policy and Accountability Committee on 12 December 2017.
A link to the report that was presented at this committee can be found here.
HASCSI PAC Report of the H&F Rough Sleeping Commission (823KB pdf)
Stage 4: Commission report
You can find the published final report here.