Background

Successive UK governments have made a commitment to end rough sleeping across England. But without a clear definition, how will you know you are being successful?

As a first step towards this and to help accelerate progress, measure success and celebrate wins along the way, a clearer definition was adopted by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, as announced by Parliamentary Under-then Secretary of State for Rough Sleeping and Housing Eddie Hughes in March 2022.

The Definition

Ending rough sleeping means preventing it wherever possible and, where it cannot be prevented, making it a rare, brief, and non-recurrent experience.

Core Indicators

The framework is a set of eight core indicators. These are indicators that are relevant to every part of the country and will allow you to capture the prevalence of specific types of experiences of rough sleeping – for example, someone who is experiencing long-term rough sleeping, or repeated rough sleeping.

They can also help shape effective responses to local challenges by highlighting gaps in support provision, identifying the time people are spending on the streets, and showing where people sleeping rough have been supported into accommodation, and how successful this is.

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