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May sees the rollout across all local authorities in England of the new Rough Sleeping Data Framework. Over recent years, recording data has become an increasingly important element of working with people experiencing homelessness. In the hubbub of daily casework, you might be left wondering what impact collecting all this data has on improving outcomes for the individuals you are working with.

Why is collecting data more important than ever?

On the one hand, collecting data allows services and decision-makers to see the big picture of how many people are rough sleeping in England. For example, since 2010, every local authority in England has carried out a rough sleeping snapshot estimate each autumn, which allows them to see a single night snapshot of the numbers of people sleeping rough and to measure the increases and decreases in those numbers over time. This gives decision-makers an indication of the level of need and, broadly, whether interventions are succeeding to support people sleeping rough away from the streets.

The government’s 2018 Rough Sleeping Strategy underlined the fact that accurately measuring the scale of the problem was key to solving it. Therefore, the accompanying Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) funding brought with it the requirement to carry out bi-monthly rough sleeper counts, with local authorities strongly encouraged to adopt a similar method to their annual count in order to provide comparable figures.

Defining rough sleeping

In developing the Rough Sleeping Data Framework, in conjunction with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), the Centre for Homelessness Impact (CHI) have created a model that takes the utility of data collection for local authorities (LAs) a step further.

Unique to the Framework is its foundational principle; it is possible to end to rough sleeping, but first we need to clearly define what that would look like. Hence, CHI formulated a definition with four key elements. Prevention is the first element, meaning wherever possible people should never have to sleep rough in the first place. However, they say that it is impractical to imagine that in a dynamic society every single episode of rough sleeping can be prevented, therefore, the Framework definition goes on to stipulate that where rough sleeping is unavoidable it should be rare, it should be brief, and it should be non-recurrent.

In other words, for DLUHC and CHI, rough sleeping can be defined as having ended when anyone ending up on the streets is very much the exception not the rule, and on those rare occasions, every individual will be quickly supported into suitable and sustainable accommodation. Prevented, rare, brief and non-recurring.

How can we measure progress towards ending rough sleeping?

Now that there is a definition, how do LAs measure progress towards meeting it? The Framework provides local authorities with core indicators against which they will submit monthly data to DLUHC. These include the total number of rough sleepers for the month and of those, who ended up on the streets having left an institution e.g. prison or hospital, how many have previously slept rough, who has been sleeping rough for three or more months in the past 12, and so on.

This data will be represented as both totals and as a ratio of the total population of each local authority, allowing LAs to accurately gauge how close they are to meeting the Framework’s definition of ending rough sleeping in their area.

Perhaps most importantly, measuring progress in this way will also allow local authorities to target their support and resources towards those most in need. This was seen to be the case in ‘early adopter’ local authorities across England, including Manchester, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, the London local authorities, all of which supported CHI and DLUHC in the development and testing of the Framework.

For example, as a result of the data on people leaving institutions gathered across the London local authorities during the testing phase, London Probation is now establishing new resettlement panels to review expected prison releases where a housing need has been identified. In Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole the council found that the Framework indicators gave them a more detailed understanding of the numbers of people experiencing rough sleeping over multiple and/or extended periods of time. This has allowed them to demonstrate a need, which experience told them needed meeting, but that they hadn’t previously had the data to reliably demonstrate.

Learn more about the Framework

The new Rough Sleeping Data Framework has the potential to nuance the understanding of what needs to happen across England and where resources need to be targeted in order to end rough sleeping. With that in mind, on 9th May at 11am, Homeless Link and CHI will be holding a free webinar on the new Rough Sleeping Data Framework.

We’d like to invite anyone from organisations across the sector to attend who would like to know more about the Framework, how it works and how it will impact working with people sleeping rough across England. There will be speakers from CHI, ‘early adopter’ local authorities, and lots of opportunity to ask questions.

Click below to book your place for the webinar on 9th May, 11am