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Scottish Frontline Network

Scottish Frontline Network

Scottish Frontline Network

Cyrenians run the Scottish Frontline Network, which offers support to frontline workers who work with people experiencing homelessness across Scotland.

The Scottish Frontline Network facilitates quarterly events, which provide a regular opportunity to bring together frontline workers in Scotland to network, share expertise, and experience, and link to decision makers.

Events

'Ending Homelessness Together Plan' - Consultation Workshop - 3rd September 2019

'Ending Homelessness Together Plan' - Consultation Workshop - 3rd September 2019

This September, a consultation workshop took place in Glasgow to hear the views of those with lived and frontline experience, on the Scottish Government's 'Ending Homelessness Together Plan’.

Please read the consultation workshop's report here.

The Scottish Government has agreed to fund the new End Homelessness Change team. The core purpose is to put the voice of Lived Experience and Frontline staff at the heart of designing services which make up the Plan to End Homelessness.

It was great to see that sixty people attended this workshop to discuss: what the ‘New Direction’ of the 'Ending Homelessness Together Plan’ looks like; and how a ‘Change Team’ is created to deliver this programme.

Ending Homelessness Together: ‘New Direction’

The ‘New Direction’ of the 'Ending Homelessness Together Plan’ was described at the workshop as follows:

  • A new duty to prevent homelessness — and clearer paths for those most at risk
  • Joined up working – less silos in services that don’t put people first
  • Preventing people having to repeat their story
  • Universal legal rights in relation to local connection and intentionality
  • New standards and time limits in temporary accommodation.

Ending Homelessness Together: Change Team

The workshop also came together to describe how a ‘Change Team’ would be comprised to deliver the 'Ending Homelessness Together Plan':

  • Balanced in terms of frontline and lived experience.
  • Diverse in geography, knowledge, skills and specialisms
  • Connected to evidence of what works.

Ending Homelessness Together: Change Lead

Within this team, the workshop also looked at how a Change Team would be driven by a ‘Change Lead’.

It was proposed that a 'Change Lead' should have the following attributes:

  • Passionate and motivated to create change
  • Working from a strong value base
  • Good knowledge of the of the plan to end homelessness in Scotland
  • The ability to translate complex messages in a simple, straightforward way; excellent listening skills
  • The ability to facilitate [potentially] challenging conversations in a positive way
  • Strong local networks to engage with and feed back to.

The Common Ground Steering Group - 27th November 2018

Finding a Common Ground - 27th November 2018

The 'Common Ground' Steering Group has been meeting for the last 3 months to deliver a Peer Lead Homelessness Advocacy Network, and as a result of this they have produced a strategic plan for the next year.

 

This strategic plan outlines the services they aim to deliver, and the specific requirements for those services, and the whole group, to function.

 

With £10,000 of initial funding secured from St Martins in the Field the group has almost everything in place that it needs to go forward, and support others to create change in their own lives.

Preparing and Caring for Staff Working in Health and Homelessness - 2017

Preparing and Caring for Staff Working in Health and Homelessness - 2017

Cyrenians hosted our event in partnership with St Martins in the Field and Faculty of Health and Homelessness looking at Preparing and Caring for Staff
Working in Health and Homelessness.

The event aimed to unpack the long term impact of health, wellbeing and resilience of frontline staff.

In particular, seeking to explore the role academia, employers and peers can have in preparing and caring for people in ‘tough’ jobs and compassion fatigue.

Resources

Calls from the Frontline to end homelessness in Scotland

Calls from the Frontline to end homelessness in Scotland

Frontline workers have a unique insight into what works and what doesn’t to tackle homelessness. So, it is important we hear those voices to share good practice and build positive solutions through their expertise. 


The Scottish Government’s Homelessness Rough Sleeping Action Group (HRSAG) recognised that too. Through their collaboration with people with lived experience, they kept hearing that the impact frontline workers have on people’s day, optimism and confidence is huge.

This report presents the knowledge and ideas gathered from 75 frontline workers from across Scotland, while attending two networking events in Glasgow and Edinburgh during April 2018.

Read the report here.

'Ending Homelessness Together Plan'

Ending Homelessness Together Report

The “Ending Homelessness Together: High Level Action Plan” (2018) includes a plan to develop a wide-reaching prevention duty as a legal backstop for those experiencing homelessness.

The High-Level Action Plan also aims to revise legislative arrangements on local connection and intentionality. It is premised that these changes will remove arbitrary barriers, making it easier to act early in preventing homelessness.

Within the latest Frontline Worker 2018 Report, it was identified that Frontline workers in Scotland found it slightly easier than other areas of the UK to prevent homelessness at 64% compared with Wales (73%) and Northern Ireland (89%) where it was seen as harder to prevent homelessness.

Local Blogs

Shadowing Fund And Wellbeing: Visit To Cyrenians

Shadowing Fund And Wellbeing: Visit To Cyrenians

Highlights From A Visit To Cyrenians

Highlights From A Visit To Cyrenians

Housing First Scotland

Housing First Scotland

Upcoming events

Event Partners

Partners we have worked in collaboration with to deliver many of our events: