30 Oct 2026
The Budget recognises that early intervention can improve lives while reducing longer-term costs. At the 2027 Spending Review, government will introduce a new ringfenced Preventative DEL (PDEL) category to help protect programmes that generate benefits over the longer term. Changes to the Green Book will also place greater value on long-term benefits.
We welcome this direction. But prevention must reflect how people actually live. Addiction, homelessness, unemployment, poor health, offending and family difficulties are interconnected, not isolated problems.
That is central to Forward’s whole-system approach: lasting change combines practical support and opportunity with personal development, relationships, belonging and connected services. Preventative funding should therefore encourage integrated, multi-year support and measure sustained changes in people’s lives, with a focus on outcomes that really improve peoples lives.
We welcomed the Prime Minister's additional £432m across 2027–28 and 2028–29 to extend routes away from rough sleeping.
It also confirms that the government’s homelessness Value for Money Review is considering temporary accommodation and supported housing delivery models. However, the funding and commissioning of these services locally must extend beyond emergency accommodation and Christmas. The funding must be about sustaining progress for people facing the most complex barriers so that they can receive personalised day to day support, care and a positive experience so that they can find a home to build their lives from it.
Alongside this, we welcome that £1.5bn will fund around 10,000 additional social and affordable homes in England, prioritising Social Rent, particularly council homes.
More homes matter. But for people facing multiple disadvantage, a home must be connected to recovery, relationships, employment, independent living and a supportive community.
We particularly welcome action to reduce the financial cliff edge (read our blog on this theme) facing people in supported and temporary accommodation so that work pays.
We welcome the Government's commitment to devolution of the Adult Skills budget , The Future of Employment Support (as the replacement to Restart) and programmes such as the Youth Guarantee and Connect to Work based on the principles of supported employment. However, providers in particular charities and social enterprises require a sustainable funding framework with suitable payment by results models that enable better long-term planning that enable stable investment in these programmes.
But success should not simply mean moving someone into the quickest available job. Sustainable employment comes from matching opportunity with people’s strengths, aspirations and circumstances while addressing the barriers that can pull them back out of work. We believe Government and employers need to remain committed to Good Work, that is secure, stable and fairly rewarded. This is why The Forward Trust remains committed to being a Real Living Wage employer.
For Forward’s perspective, prevention, housing, recovery and employment work best when they work together.
The opportunity now is to turn that principle into a different way of commissioning public services: longer-term, connected around people’s lives and focused on change that lasts.
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