Consultation plan

Name of consultation	Draft homelessness and rough sleeping strategy 2025 to 2030
Why do you need to consult? (Brief Summary)	Under the Housing Act 2002 (as amended by the Homelessness Act 2017) there a statutory requirement for every local housing authority to review homelessness in their area and to develop and publish a homelessness and rough sleeping strategy at least every five years. While there is no legal obligation to consult on the strategy, best practice guidance and the council’s engagement framework indicate that we should seek to consult interested parties for a period of six to twelve weeks.
What are the main aims and objectives?	To develop proposed strategic priorities and areas for action with stakeholders and other interested parties.
What do you need to find out? (Essential)	Do residents (including people with lived experience of homelessness), partners and other interested parties support the proposed priorities?
What do you need to find out? (Desirable)	Do stakeholders have suggestions and ideas about how the council and its partners can best collaborate to deliver improved homelessness outcomes for the city?
What do you already know? (from previous consultation, knowledge or experience)	We have used council and partner data to examine trends in homelessness in the city over the last 5 years. We have also undertaken engagement exercises with stakeholders to inform the review of homelessness and the pre-consultation phase of strategy development. This includes in person and online workshops explore trends in homelessness and to map services, activities and resources to address homelessness in the city. We also engaged with existing networks and forums including the Homeless and Rough Sleeping Network, the Youth Homelessness Working Group, the Homeless Operational Forum, the Violence Against Women and Girls Network and others. We have had input from people with lived experience of homeless, supported by Common Ambition and Justlife during the first two phases of the work to develop the strategy. The review of homelessness also examined other relevant consultation exercises, for example, homeless pathway mapping by Common Ambition and service mapping led by Justlife as well as other consultations, e.g work to develop the recent housing strategy and violence against women and girls strategy.
Who will you consult with?	Any interested party will be able to respond during the public consultation phase. This includes residents, community groups, and organisations delivering services in the city. It also includes regional and national bodies who have an interest. Other interested parties (for example, people who currently do not live in the city) will be able to submit a response. The initial equality impact assessment indicates that particular attention should be given to seeking responses from individuals with protected and other characteristics as set out in the council’s EIA Toolkit 2023. We will actively seek feedback from people with lived experience of homelessness and from groups who are at higher risk of becoming homelessness or at higher risk when homeless, for example, people experiencing mental health issues, disabled people care leavers, people from some Black and racially minoritised groups and others.
When will you consult?	Formal public consultation will run for a period of 7 weeks from 8 September to 26 October 2025.
How will you consult?	We will use a mixed methods approach. We will publish and promote a survey on the council’s consultation platform Your Voice. Printed copies of the survey in Easy Read, large print and the most common community languages will be available for download or on request. The consultation will be promoted by the council’s communication team and through mailing lists of partners and community groups across the city. We will also design a simple set of questions that can be used with individuals and small groups in People with lived experience of homelessness and people from groups with protected and other characteristics will be targeted through focused promotion of the consultation – for example, reaching out to community groups and organisations working with or supporting people with specific characteristics or intersecting characteristics. We will work with Common Ambition, Justlife, the Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Network membership and with a reference group of workers and managers from frontline services to engage people with lived experience of homelessness. We do not have capacity to respond to request for speakers however we will provide downloadable resource materials including an Easy Read guide to the strategy and Easy Read survey for community groups and others who wish to engage their members or service users in making a response.
How will the consultation be communicated/ publicised?	Through the council consultation portal, broadcast and targeted social media, press release, staff networks, promotional material in libraries, family hubs and other public facilities, mailout to strategic partners including the Homeless & Rough Sleeping Network and Community Works, targeted mailouts to lists held by equalities and community engagement teams. We will also promote through word of mouth to reach seldom heard groups.
Who will monitor responses and provide updates on results?	The homelessness and rough sleeping strategy project steering group will review reports on progress with the consultation and assess whether further work is needed to reach groups of stakeholders who are underrepresented in responses.
Who will analyse the results from the consultation?	Project group.
Who will act on the consultation?	The council and its partners in developing a final strategy and in developing an action plan to deliver the strategy.
Who will the results be reported to and when?	Council Cabinet December 2025 The consultation report will be published on the council consultation website and shared with partners.
How will you provide feedback to respondents and when?	With committee report, on council consultation portal and through a written report for sharing with partners.
Who will evaluate how successful the consultation has been and when?	Project group as part of project closure report.

Consultation timetable outline

Action	Dates
Engage DLT, lead member and policy advisor on consultation plan	July
Project group agree final consultation plan, including final consultation questions	July
Begin web design, set up and testing of consultation portal survey	August
Consultation supporting materials finalised	31 August
Consultation launch	8 September
Consultation responses analysed and considered by project group	October/November
Publication of consultation response	December
Final draft strategy to Cabinet	December