Guidance

Long-Term Rough Sleeping Partnership Plan guidance

Published 20 May 2026

Applies to England

1. Context

As set out in the National Plan to End Homelessness, this government has committed to a national target to halve long-term rough sleeping by the end of this Parliament. The baseline for this target is the November 2025 Rough Sleeping Framework data which is the available data that is closest to publication of the strategy. Overall long term rough sleeping numbers were 3,427 over the month. This guidance is for local authorities and their partners to help them work together to develop a local Long-Term Rough Sleeping Partnership Plan that contributes to the national target.

2. Why is this guidance needed?

The guidance is intended to support areas to develop a practical, collectively owned Long-Term Rough Sleeping Partnership Plan. These plans must go beyond incremental improvements and identify ambitious improvements to the way that the systems supporting individuals with complex needs are working. This may include testing and embedding new and innovative ways of working, strengthening partnership delivery, and generating models of best practice that can be scaled and applied more widely. The Partnership Plan should align with and complement local homelessness strategies and form part of a wider action plan to improve performance against the Local Outcomes Framework (LOF) metrics relating to homelessness and rough sleeping.

3. Purpose of the plans

We recognise that local authorities and their partners are best placed to assess local needs and determine how funding can be used most effectively to reduce long-term rough sleeping. Plans should therefore set out how local authorities and their partners will work together to deliver meaningful system change and improve the maturity of the systems in place to manage long-term rough sleeping. This includes providing enhanced, tailored and integrated support for individuals with complex needs, the embedding of effective prevention approaches, and new and deeper partnership approaches to achieve better outcomes for people at risk of, or experiencing, long-term rough sleeping. To assist with work to change local systems and processes, areas will be asked to complete a systems maturity audit. A template for this will be available shortly, and MHCLG’s adviser team will provide support during its completion.

Partnership Plans are expected to be collaborative and place-based, involving a wide range of partners, including commissioned and non-commissioned support providers, and partners from health, social care, housing and community safety. Plans should be co-produced and co-signed by at least one Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector (VCFS) partner. Plans should also be signed off by the Health and Wellbeing Board and by a named senior lead from the Safeguarding Adults Board. Areas will receive support from MHCLG’s adviser team throughout co-design, development and agreement.

4. Which areas are required to complete a Long-Term Rough Sleeping Partnership Plan

All local authorities are required to publish action plans on progress against the targets set out in the National Plan to End Homelessness, including on long-term rough sleeping. Some areas will also be required to develop a Long-Term Rough Sleeping Partnership Plan. Areas required to complete a Partnership Plan include:

• areas awarded funding through the Long‑Term Rough Sleeping Innovation Programme,
• other areas identified by their MHCLG adviser due to high levels of long-term rough sleeping, identified either through:
  • absolute numbers of people experiencing long-term rough sleeping, and/or
  • the proportion of all people sleeping rough.

Guidance on how to develop this plan is provided below.

5. What should be included in the plan

The Long-Term Rough Sleeping Partnership Plan should focus collective local efforts to reduce current long term rough sleeping and prevent new long term rough sleeping through system change, with a focus on the work areas outlined below. These plans should be kept under review and reflect local circumstances.

a. Partnerships – shared vision and outcomes: a collective local vision for reducing long-term rough sleeping, establishing a local target

Set out the commitments your area will make to support the delivery of the national target on reducing long-term rough sleeping by 50% by the end of the Parliament. Local authorities and partners must set a local target for long-term rough sleeping levels in your area by the end of this Parliament as part of this plan. This will be measured through the long-term rough sleeping metric and in the Outcomes Framework for local government.

b. Agreeing local needs: a partnership approach to prioritisation and targeting of resources

Describe how partners will work together to use intelligence and data from a range of sources to identify the individuals who will be targeted for support and interventions in order to deliver your local target.

c. Working together - delivering sustainable impacts: an approach that co-ordinates the delivery of interventions

Plans should set out how partners will work together to deliver co-ordinated, personalised support for people experiencing long-term rough sleeping, through agreed and regularly reviewed multiagency case plans. These should reflect what we know works, including person-centred approaches, sustained engagement, and the integration of housing, health, social care, substance misuse and community safety services around the individual.

Areas should also describe how they will align and maximise different sources of support and funding to deliver joined up, effective interventions with the greatest possible impact for this cohort.

d. Ownership - governance and partnerships: an approach to collective monitoring of progress, governance and continuous learning

Describe how partners will work together to agree, report on and learn from the progress being made towards meeting your local target at a working and senior level, with a particular focus on developing and overseeing case level data for the identified cohort. Local areas are also encouraged to consider the appropriate governance structures to oversee progress and take the necessary escalation routes.

e. Collaboration between local authority and health partners

Long-term rough sleeping cannot be resolved without consistent access to health services, particularly primary care (e.g. GPs), substance use and mental health support. Local authorities should play a clear leadership role in convening and working with NHS partners to address systemic barriers to access for people experiencing long-term rough sleeping.

Partnership Plans should therefore set out how the local authority will work with NHS partners, adult social care and commissioned providers to embed shared ownership of outcomes for people sleeping rough long-term. This includes using existing partnership structures to prioritise interventions and support for this group and resolve delivery issues collaboratively rather than in isolation.

Plans should describe how the local authority will use its convening role to:

• bring health partners into shared problem-solving around small cohorts of individuals experiencing long-term rough sleeping
• ensure senior health leaders are sighted on local long-term rough sleeping pressures and outcomes
• align housing, health and social care commissioning where needed to deliver integrated responses

f. Collaboration with prisons and probation services

Partnership Plans should set out how housing, health, prison and probation services will work together to prevent releases from custody directly into rough sleeping, particularly for individuals already known to be at risk of repeat or long-term rough sleeping.

Local authorities can support this by:

• working with prisons and probation to identify individuals at highest risk of repeated rough sleeping
• ensuring engagement in pre-release planning well in advance of release, with accommodation and support pathways agreed and owned across partners
• explore opportunities for tenancy retention when people are in prison or held on remand
• consider specialist navigator roles to support those leaving prison identified at risk of repeated rough sleeping

g. Approval and sign-off

Set out who has agreed and signed off the plan locally in line with the guidance above. Across these key sections, you may want to consider reflecting on where the system is now, where it needs to be and what is required to get there. In doing so, you may want to engage with frontline workforce and those with lived experience of long-term rough sleeping.

6. The Target Priority Group (TPG)

The work to resolve long-term rough sleeping will focus resources on those individuals furthest from services, who are least likely to ask for, expect, be offered, receive or accept the support they need. Identification of this cohort should be based on an assessment of the individual’s needs rather than their immediate rough sleeping or housing status.

The TPG approach provides a practical way to support this by helping partnerships identify named individuals of greatest concern, deliver integrated and personalised support, and track progress collaboratively. Partnership Plans should consider how the approach taken to supporting the wider TPG work can support reduction in long-term rough sleeping, including how partners will work together to identify this cohort, deliver integrated, personalised support, and track and report on progress. We will be sending areas further guidance on refreshing their TPG for 2026/27 in due course.

7. Timeline and next steps

Areas in receipt of funding through the Long-Term Rough Sleeping Innovation Programme will be paid from May 2026.

Long-Term Rough Sleeping Partnership Plans must be agreed and signed off by the 1 December 2026, aligned with the timetable for the overarching action plans as part of local homelessness strategies.

Note: For those areas receiving funding via the Long-Term Rough Sleeping Innovation Programme, any Year 2 and Year 3 payments may be at risk unless an agreed Partnership Plan is in place by the timeline set out above.