Three ideas to make the most of the Government’s Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness

Dee O'Connell, Director of Policy and Programmes at Pathway

07.11.2024

Dee O'Connell, Director of Policy and Programmes at Pathway, shares three ideas to make the most of the Government's Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness...

The new Government has set us a riddle. When is a cross-Government unit not a unit? The answer appears to be, when it’s a meeting. The much-trailed plans to establish a cross-Government unit to end homelessness have quietly morphed into a commitment to set up an Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness, charged with developing a new cross-Government homelessness strategy. As a former civil servant (who once had responsibility for such a Group), my heart sank a little when I heard this; inter-Ministerial groups are not usually famed for their ability to make progress on difficult issues. With the right leadership, however, and genuine cross-Departmental working to establish the evidence, there is a real opportunity to bring urgency and commitment to the new strategy.

At their worst, Inter-Ministerial Groups can be a painful exercise in inter-Departmental buck-passing. Usually chaired by the Minister formally responsible for the issue, the risk is that every other Minister comes to the meeting briefed by their Departmental officials on the policy concessions they absolutely must not make. In the meeting itself, the Chair typically outlines the issue, and goes around the table, asking Ministers from other Departments what they can contribute to solving the problem at hand.

The clock ticks. Papers are shuffled. Platitudes about the importance of taking action are muttered. Officials in the lead department get an uncomfortable feeling in their armpits.  Finally, everyone leaves, glad to have escaped without having committed to do much of anything at all. The lead Minister is left holding the baby, and will probably get his or her revenge in a colleague’s Inter-Ministerial meeting on another issue before too long.

I asked a number of experienced current and former civil servants to share examples of good Inter-Ministerial Groups that had achieved something and didn’t fall into these traps. People struggled to come up with examples, which is illuminating, but a couple stood out. One bright spot was the Olympics. Our international reputation hinged on the delivery of safe and successful Games which was impetus enough for Ministers to put aside their usual concerns and pull together in the relevant meetings. (Sadly, this spirit left the country with the Olympic flame).

The cross-Government architecture around the London riots in 2011 was another. The threat to safety and public order created a sense of urgency and shared mission, which meant that cross-Departmental meetings quickly led to different ways of doing things, such as weekend courts (as well as other, more questionable policy directions). Emergencies like this and reputational risk management can unlock other helpful things across Government, like money, and a system-wide willingness to do things differently.  Homelessness is no less dangerous than a breakdown in public order (with 1,474 people dying homeless in 2023[1]), and should be something on which our international reputation hinges. Why not bring the same urgency to these deliberations?

Whether effective or not, Inter-Ministerial Group meetings can be seen as a bit of theatre, the performance of decision making, with the officials carrying out the rehearsals through their policy work and advance negotiations. In that respect, they are an important test of official competence and effectiveness, and a major responsibility.

Here are three things the Government could do to make a success of the Inter-Ministerial Group on homelessness.

First, it needs to be chaired by someone with authority. Angela Rayner’s status as Deputy Prime Minister (including her recent permanent appointment to the National Security Council), and her level of heft that reaches beyond her homelessness brief will be critical here. The DPM should not delegate this meeting, ever.

Second, the meeting should be supported by officials working like a unit . They should produce joint papers, set out joint analysis, make joint asks and surface the issues on which Ministers should collectively focus. Making sure that all Ministers have the same understanding of the shape, size and nature of a problem can be a valuable thing in itself, and a good starting point for problem solving. The work of the Social Exclusion Unit under the previous Labour Government is a good template for this.

Third, connect the Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness to the Mission Boards. The new Mission Boards are built to drive genuine cross-Government progress and unblock problems; anything this IMG can’t solve or agree on should be escalated to the relevant Mission Board for resolution and decision.

Above all, everyone involved will need to approach this with a spirit of courage, candour and collective responsibility, determined to end homelessness for the thousands of people living through its nightmare today, and the thousands more who will experience it over the life of this Parliament if nothing changes. They expect and deserve nothing less from the people they have entrusted to run the country.

[1] Museum of Homelessness, 2024. About the Dying Homeless Project — Museum of Homelessness