At the Centre for Homelessness Impact (CHI), collaboration is central to how we work. That's why we've been delighted to partner with the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) to deliver a series of workshops with local authorities across Wales, exploring how evidence can strengthen efforts to prevent homelessness.

These "sprint" sessions are designed to help teams move quickly from identifying challenges to implementing practical, evidence-informed solutions. By combining local expertise with research and structured problem-solving, the sessions create space for rapid learning and action.

Why now?

Across Wales, as elsewhere in the UK, local authorities are facing growing pressure. Rising demand for temporary accommodation has increased both financial costs and operational strain for housing and homelessness services. At the same time, the passing of the Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Act offers a major opportunity to shift the system from crisis management to prevention. The legislation extends the prevention period from 56 days to six months, removes thresholds of “priority need”, “unintentional homelessness,” and “local connection” as well as introducing a legal duty on public services to “ask and act” on an individual’s housing status placing greater emphasis on identifying and responding to the early signs of housing insecurity. Together, these developments create an important opportunity to think strategically about how to prevent homelessness before people reach crisis point.

Turning evidence into action

Working alongside WCPP and colleagues from Ynys Môn and Flintshire Councils, we developed a programme of three focused workshops. Together, they helped participants to:

• understand how their local prevention systems currently operate and identify where challenges arise;
• explore the evidence on what works—and where promising approaches are emerging; and
• develop practical plans for embedding these approaches into local systems in preparation for the new duties.

The aim was not simply to share evidence, but to support local teams in applying it within their own contexts as well as having the opportunity to embed learning between sessions. 

What we heard

The workshops highlighted challenges that will be familiar to many working in homelessness prevention.

Participants consistently described the importance of effective partnership working, while recognising that collaboration across organisations is often inconsistent. 

Although there was strong commitment to preventing homelessness, local authorities noted that they found it difficult to assess whether existing activities were delivering the outcomes they hoped to achieve.

Participants also identified a need to better understand where risks emerge upstream of homelessness itself. This means looking beyond homelessness services to consider how public systems—including hospitals, social care, prisons and family support services—can identify and respond to risks earlier.

Alongside these challenges, the workshops also highlighted opportunities.

WCPP shared findings from its research on effective multi-agency working, and CHI shared a range of promising interventions and ways of working, including examples of how linked public data—including information on social care involvement and council tax debt—is being explored to help identify households who may benefit from earlier support. 

There was also a strong willingness among participants to learn from one another and to consider how prevention opportunities could be embedded in a wide range of community settings. Sharing experience across local authorities and organisations remains one of the most effective ways to spread promising practice, particularly where formal evidence is still emerging.

From ideas to implementation

The final workshop focused on how local authorities can prioritise interventions and build evaluation into delivery from the outset. Using CHI's delivery toolkit and evidence-informed frameworks, participants considered how to move beyond implementing new approaches to understanding whether they are making a meaningful difference.

Across the UK, innovative work to prevent homelessness is taking place every day. Yet too often, opportunities to evaluate that work are limited. Strengthening evaluation helps us understand not only whether interventions are effective, but also how preventing homelessness benefits other public services, including health, education and criminal justice.

Looking ahead

One message emerged consistently throughout the workshops: local government is rich in expertise, commitment and innovation. What practitioners often need is the time, tools and evidence to understand which approaches are having the greatest impact and where resources can be used most effectively.

As Wales prepares for a new legislative framework, creating opportunities to combine evidence with local knowledge will be increasingly important. Supporting local authorities to learn, test, evaluate and scale approaches is essential if we are to shift from responding to homelessness in crisis towards preventing it earlier—and improving outcomes for people at risk.