Watch again as Dr David Christie presents the findings of his recent PhD
New Labour and Street Homelessness 1997- 2010 A successful social policy initiative: Lessons to be learned.
Between 1997 and 2010 New Labour enacted a series of policy interventions in street homeless that were highly successful in dramatically reducing the number of people sleeping rough and helping people permanently resettle away from the street. This success stems primarily from aspects of New Labour’s approach to governance – a commitment to address issues of social exclusion, joined-up government, modernisation, and the empowerment of the third sector. Most significant of all, rough sleeping was given a high priority with strong support from the very centre of government. Two new bodies performed crucial roles in reducing rough sleeping: The Social Exclusion Unit (SEU), and the Homeless Persons Unit (HPU). Both bodies were recipients of significant prime ministerial patronage which gave them the necessary leverage to ensure cross-departmental cooperation. The make-up of both bodies was also crucial. The HPU drove through significant changes in working practice that energised the voluntary sector and directly led to a dramatic reduction in rough sleeping. In its second and third terms, New Labour focused on long term support, individual empowerment and homelessness prevention. Key were the Homelessness Act 2002, which transformed local authorities’ approach to single homeless people, and the Supporting People programme that provided a proper funding base to the homelessness sector enabling the development of long-term, holistic support.
Labour’s modernisation programme left a legacy of a much more professionalised homeless sector, both organisationally and managerially, and whose staff’s skill-set was vastly improved with significant advances in trauma-informed care and the mainstreaming of user empowerment. Although much has been lost in subsequent cuts, New Labour developed a successful model for addressing street homelessness that could easily be resuscitated.