National Summit on Severe and Multiple Disadvantage Including Scotland’s Annual Homelessness Conference and AGM

Scotland’s national gathering on transforming outcomes for people facing severe and multiple disadvantage.

People do not live their lives in neat, separate boxes. One day the priority is safe housing, the next mental health, substance use, money pressures or contact with the justice system. Yet services remain organised in silos. Too often people are passed from door to door, forced to relive trauma by retelling their story to disconnected systems – or fall through the gaps entirely.

Harm at the hard edges is deepening. The most severe and costly crises occur when multiple issues overlap. Siloed strategies treat these as separate problems, locking people into repeated crises and driving high human and economic costs.

By breaking down these silos we can prevent crises across the board: fewer homelessness cases, fewer drug deaths, reduced reoffending, better mental health and stronger recovery and stability for individuals, families and communities.

Grounded in the landmark Hard Edges Scotland research (2019), Raising the Level is both a summit and a call to action. At a pivotal moment for public service reform and health and social care renewal, it embraces Scottish Government’s No Wrong Door commitment and defines what this mean for people at the hard edges of reform.