From April 2008 the performance of local authorities and their partners will be monitored through the Government’s new 198 National Indicators. Particular attention will be given to achieving targets against 35 of these indicators, which will be selected and agreed locally within Local Area Agreements. In order to attract funding, homelessness agencies will need to demonstrate how their work contributes to as many of their local authority targets as possible. This will become even more vital in April 2009 when it is very likely that the ring-fence will be removed from Supporting People funding. There is no indicator specific to homelessness, so agencies not able to show their cross-cutting contribution to achieving against a wide range of indicators may be more likely to have their funding threatened. Agencies therefore urgently need to consider how they will prove that they make a valuable contribution to achieving the National Indicators (NIs), particularly the 35 NIs in their Local Area Agreement. This paper highlights all the relevant indicators and provides guidance on how to demonstrate the value of your work within this context.
