We are delighted to be working on a comprehensive three year UK-wide, cross-sectoral programme of research and capacity building on homelessness prevention. The research seeks to answer the following questions:
- How well are the four UK jurisdictions performing on homelessness prevention at each of the five stages?
- How much ideas mobility is there between them at the legal, policy and practice levels? What barriers/enablers exist to/for ideas mobility and mutual learning?
- How successful has each jurisdiction been in engaging wider partners beyond housing and homelessness services in prevention efforts?
- What impact have new legal developments made/are likely to make to overall prevention performance and to the contribution of wider partners?
- How well are frontline workers in each jurisdiction being supported to contribute to the prevention agenda?
- What can each of the four jurisdictions learn from each other about how to maximise homelessness prevention, effectively engage wider partners, and support frontline workers to deliver successful preventative interventions?
The research in partnership with St Martins in the Field and Professor Peter Mackie, will include one to one interviews with key informants and frontline worker focus groups and surveys. Over the three years we will delve into key issues and target groups.
This research programme seeks to promote policy and practice mobility and learning on homelessness between national and devolved governments, local authorities, combined authorities, other public bodies, and voluntary sector service providers, across the UK.
The programme will also develop a new cohort of early career researchers trained up in comparative, mixed-methods, high-impact research in the homelessness prevention field. We are recruiting for the first of our research interns now – Research Intern – Homelessness Prevention Programme – Heriot-Watt University Careers
For more information contact j.mcintyre@hw.ac.uk