Initial Equalities Screening Record Form

Date of Screening:	Directorate: People								Section: Early Help and Communities
1.  Activity to be assessed	Preparation of a new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy following a comprehensive review of homelessness data.
2.  What is the activity?	X Policy/strategy    Function/procedure     Project     Review     Service    Organisational change
3.  Is it a new or existing activity?	X New        Existing
4.  Officer responsible for the screening	Ian Stone
5.  Who are the members of the screening team?	Ian Stone, Brian Daly, Sarah Baynes
6.  What is the purpose of the activity?	The Council has a duty under the Homelessness Act 2002 to conduct a review of the nature and extent of homelessness in its District every 5 years and to develop a strategy setting out how services will be delivered in the future to tackle homelessness and the available resources to prevent and relieve homelessness.   The review of homelessness looks at homelessness casework data in relation to different groups of people, including those groups which are included within the protected characteristics set out in the Public Sector Equality Duty, to identify which, if any, groups are over or under-represented in the homelessness statistics.
7.  Who is the activity designed to benefit/target?	People who are homeless or have been sleeping rough, and people at risk of homelessness or rough sleeping across all cohorts and equalities groups.
Protected Characteristics	Please tick yes or no		Is there an impact? What kind of equality impact may there be? Is the impact positive or adverse or is there a potential for both?  If the impact is neutral please give a reason.							What evidence do you have to support this? E.g equality monitoring data, consultation results, customer satisfaction information etc Please add a narrative to justify your claims around impacts and describe the analysis and interpretation of evidence to support your conclusion as this will inform members decision making, include consultation results/satisfaction information/equality monitoring data
8. Disability Equality – this can include physical, mental health, learning or sensory disabilities and includes conditions such as dementia as well as hearing or sight impairment.	Y ü	N	Positive. The strategy recommends exploring opportunities for working with partners to provide employment assistance and support to people not in employment, working with the Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust to improve referral pathways for people leaving hospital or where mental health is an issue and establishing closer partnership working with local Registered Providers to promote access to social housing, including housing with adaptations for people with a disability.							The review of homelessness looked at self-reported physical ill health and disability and information on benefit related claims to see if people with a disability or ill health are over or under-represented in the homelessness statistics, compared to the overall population. This showed a higher level of ill-health and disability among homeless applicants compared to the population as a whole.
9.  Racial equality	Y ü	N	Positive. The strategy identifies recommendations to deliver positive outcomes for all groups, including people from different ethnic groups: e.g. strengthen data recording in order to improve our understanding and analysis of homelessness including repeat homelessness; review and improve information provided through the Council website and other media to promote available advice and support and self-serve help; deliver a programme of briefings and training to other agencies on homelessness and services in Bracknell Forest; establish a new Homelessness Forum to increase partnership working across all groups; and increase joint work with local landlords and Registered Providers to promote access to housing and support for a range of different groups.							The review of homelessness indicates that those who are White or Asian are under-represented in the homelessness statistics. People from Black African, Caribbean and Black British groups are at a significantly higher risk of homelessness than any other group.  This may partly be driven by income disparities between different ethnicities.
10. Gender equality	Y ü	N	Positive. The strategy seeks to identify people at higher risk of homelessness much earlier and to provide assistance before homelessness occurs. A strong partnership with other organisations is critical to reach women and female single parents where there are early signs of a housing problem and to resolve these before homelessness becomes a real possibility.  The strategy focuses on building closer working relationships and referral pathways with the Job Centre Plus, Registered Providers, Early Help services and other local service providers to ensure a focus on early help and prevention. This will benefit women who seek help before they become homeless.							The review of homelessness identifies that women are over-represented in the homelessness statistics, indicating that as a group, women are at higher risk of homelessness in Bracknell Forest. There is a clear gender delineation, with more women owed prevention duties due to threat of homelessness and more men owed relief duties. This relates to family composition: of the 265 women owed a prevention duty, 111 were single parents. Of the 90 men owed a relief duty, 80 were single with no dependent children.
11. Sexual orientation equality	Y ü	N	Positive. The strategy identifies recommendations to deliver positive outcomes for all groups, including lesbian, gay, and bisexual people: e.g. strengthen data recording in order to improve our understanding and analysis of homelessness including repeat homelessness; review and improve information provided through the Council website and other media to promote available advice and support and self-serve help; deliver a programme of briefings and training to other agencies on homelessness and services in Bracknell Forest; establish a new Homelessness Forum to increase partnership working across all groups; and increase joint work with local landlords and Registered Providers to promote access to housing and support for a range of different groups.							The review of homelessness shows data on sexual orientation of applicants which indicates that 0.8% of applicants were lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. However due to the high proportion of ‘prefer not to say’ and cases where sexual orientation was not recorded at all it is not possible to determine if lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people are over-represented in the homelessness figures. In 2018 the Office of National Statistics estimated that 2.2% of the population in the South East of England were gay, lesbian or bisexual.
12. Gender re-assignment	Y ü	N	Positive. The strategy identifies recommendations to deliver positive outcomes for all: e.g. strengthen data recording in order to improve our understanding and analysis of homelessness including repeat homelessness; review and improve information provided through the Council website and other media to promote available advice and support and self-serve help; deliver a programme of briefings and training to other agencies on homelessness and services in Bracknell Forest; establish a new Homelessness Forum to increase partnership working across all groups; and increase joint work with local landlords and Registered Providers to promote access to housing and support for a range of different groups.							No data was available on gender re-assignment.
13. Age equality	Y ü	N	Positive. The strategy sets out recommendations to review and improve the resettlement and tenancy sustainment offer to all client groups, including young people, to review and re-commission services for young people in housing need to achieve the best outcomes for those accommodated, to develop a new joint protocol with Children’s Services to reduce the risk of care leavers making homelessness applications and to provide information within local colleges and secondary schools working in partnership with relevant youth services.							The review of homelessness identifies that 18 – 34 year olds are significantly over represented in homelessness figures, with the 35 – 45 year old age group also over represented, but not to the same extent. Young people aged 18 – 24 are almost 3 times more likely to become homeless than those aged 45 – 54 in Bracknell Forest. This over-representation of young people is also found nationally, although to a slightly lesser degree.
14. Religion and belief equality	Y ü	N	Positive. The strategy identifies recommendations to deliver positive outcomes for all, including people from different religious groups: e.g. strengthen data recording in order to improve our understanding and analysis of homelessness including repeat homelessness; review and improve information provided through the Council website and other media to promote available advice and support and self-serve help; deliver a programme of briefings and training to other agencies on homelessness and services in Bracknell Forest; establish a new Homelessness Forum to increase partnership working across all groups; and increase joint work with local landlords and Registered Providers to promote access to housing and support for a range of different groups.							No evidence was available on the religion of victims.
15. Pregnancy and maternity equality	Y ü	N	Positive. The strategy identifies recommendations to deliver positive outcomes for all, including pregnant women: e.g. strengthen data recording in order to improve our understanding and analysis of homelessness including repeat homelessness; review and improve information provided through the Council website and other media to promote available advice and support and self-serve help; deliver a programme of briefings and training to other agencies on homelessness and services in Bracknell Forest; establish a new Homelessness Forum to increase partnership working across all groups; and increase joint work with local landlords and Registered Providers to promote access to housing and support for a range of different groups. The strategy identifies that supported accommodation for young mothers and pregnant women is available in the local area.							No data is collected on the number of homelessness cases that involve pregnant women
16. Marriage and civil partnership equality	Y ü	N	Positive. The strategy identifies recommendations to deliver positive outcomes for all, including people in marriage and civil partnerships: e.g. strengthen data recording in order to improve our understanding and analysis of homelessness including repeat homelessness; review and improve information provided through the Council website and other media to promote available advice and support and self-serve help; deliver a programme of briefings and training to other agencies on homelessness and services in Bracknell Forest; establish a new Homelessness Forum to increase partnership working across all groups; and increase joint work with local landlords and Registered Providers to promote access to housing and support for a range of different groups.							The review of homelessness indicates applicants’ household type, e.g. single, couple with no children, couple with children, lone parent, etc. But no data is collected specifically on marriage or civil partnership. Of those owed a prevention or relief duty 50% were single, 40% were households with children, and 10% were couple without children.
17. Please give details of any other potential impacts on any other group (e.g. those on lower incomes/carers/ex-offenders, armed forces communities) and on promoting good community relations.	The strategy brings forward recommendations that seek to improve homelessness prevention for all groups. These include developing intelligence on and target those most at risk, addressing welfare and hardship issues, providing support to enable people to access, manage and sustain accommodation and improving access to different types of accommodation.  The recommendations in the strategy also seek to promote better outcomes for the following groups: people with mental health issues and substance misuse; ex-offenders, care leavers, victims of domestic abuse.
18. If an adverse/negative impact has been identified can it be justified on grounds of promoting equality of opportunity for one group or for any other reason?	No negative impacts of the strategy have been identified.
19. If there is any difference in the impact of the activity when considered for each of the equality groups listed in 8 – 14 above; how significant is the difference in terms of its nature and the number of people likely to be affected?	As above, the impact of the strategy is considered to be beneficial for all of the equality groups above.
20. Could the impact constitute unlawful discrimination in relation to any of the Equality Duties?	Y			N ü
21.  What further information or data is required to better understand the impact? Where and how can that information be obtained?	No further information is needed to determine whether the strategy will have a negative impact on particular groups of victims. Ongoing engagement with a wide range of organisations through the proposed establishment of a Homelessness Forum, which will help improve understanding of different equalities groups and other groups.
22.  On the basis of sections 7 – 17 above is a full impact assessment required?	Y			N ü		No. A full impact assessment is not required. If you think you may need to produce a full equality impact assessment, please contact Abby Thomas.
23. If a full impact assessment is not required; what actions will you take to reduce or remove any potential differential/adverse impact, to further promote equality of opportunity through this activity or to obtain further information or data?  Please complete the action plan in full, adding more rows as needed.
Action					Timescale		Person Responsible	Milestone/Success Criteria
24.  Which service, business or work plan will these actions be included in?					A full homelessness strategy action plan will be agreed with partners and stakeholders setting out in greater detail how the recommendations in the strategy will be delivered and will ensuring continued monitoring of outcomes for different groups.
25. Please list the current actions undertaken to advance equality or examples of good practice identified as part of the screening?					The strategy identifies strong working relationships between the housing service and Children’s Social Care for young people/care leavers and a good level of commissioned supported bedspaces for young people. There have been significant achievements and learning in supporting rough sleepers off the streets and into accommodation, many of whom have a range of support needs. Good practice in delivering solutions to prevent or avert homelessness for a range of groups, due to a strong welfare and hardship focus, landlord incentives, early help support and working relationships with critical partners.
26. Assistant director’s signature.					Signature:                       Date: