Inspection report into Highland's homeslessness service
Issued by Communities Scotland
The Highland Council’s homelessness service has been given a ‘fair’ rating following an inspection by Communities Scotland, the housing regulator. The council has the largest geographic area in Scotland and this brings its own challenges in delivering services to homeless people.
The number of social-rented housing in Highland is lower than the national figure. Alongside this there has been a 73 per cent increase in the number of homeless people applying to the council over the last four years.
Almost 2,400 applications were assessed by the council in 2005/06. It assessed fewer people as having priority need than the national average, and the council recognises that it has a number of challenges to overcome if it is to deal successfully with all homeless people by the national target date of 2012.
Fanchea Kelly, Communities Scotland’s head of inspection, said: “Inspectors were aware of the challenge of delivering consistent homelessness services across a large, and often remote, geographic area. The council is working on a plan to improve its homelessness services and Communities Scotland is confident that the weaknesses identified during the inspection will be addressed.”
Councillor Margaret Davidson, Chairman of The Highland Council’s housing and social work committee, said: “We welcome this comprehensive Homelessness inspection. It has highlighted extremely dedicated work by many of our staff. We are absolutely committed to providing the best possible service for our homeless people, and are determined to work on the areas of weakness identified by the inspection and also to build on the strengths it recognised in our services.”
NOTE TO NEWS EDITORS
1. Communities Scotland’s purpose in inspection is to provide an independent external assessment of the effectiveness of homelessness service delivery and make recommendations to help improvement. Inspections are conducted within a published framework of performance standards. The inspection of the The Highland Council took place in August and September 2006. The inspection covered homelessness services only. The council was awarded the following grade: Homelessness - C - Fair. Some strengths, but with many areas where improvement is required or with a small number of significant weaknesses
2. The full report can be accessed at the Communities Scotland website www.communitiesscotland.gov.uk.