A 10 year action plan is needed to address homelessness and crisis housing in Scotland, according to a charity.

Shelter has called on the Scottish Government to set up an expert group tasked with producing a plan for the delivery of homelessness and housing advice services over the next decade.

The charity said such a plan should be designed around people and include the integration of housing with other areas, such as health and education.

It should also include tailored support for at-risk groups, such as young people leaving care, and a pathway for people to get out of crisis housing services.

The call for the action plan comes ahead of the charity's annual conference in Edinburgh which will see experts focus on the impact of bad housing on health inequalities in Scotland, and other key priorities for the sector.

The Scottish Government has already achieved its commitment to give everybody assessed as unintentionally homeless by a local authority the legal right to a settled home.

Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, said: "Scotland has the most progressive homelessness legislation in the world but that doesn't mean that homelessness has gone away.

"It still exists in all its various forms. Meeting the 2012 commitment was an important landmark but we now need to look forward to the next ten years to ensure that progress continues and we don't take any backward steps.

"We now need to work in partnership and build a homelessness service that has the person at its heart and enables homeless people to make choices that are right for them. This is about people, not processes.

"We expect the coming years to be extremely challenging as a result of welfare reforms and the introduction of Universal Credit - which is set to bring even more disruption to people's lives.

"While we hope there isn't a rise in homelessness, we must be prepared for the challenges that undoubtedly lie ahead. A ten-year action plan would be the best place to start."

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) welcomed the call for an action plan.

SFHA policy manager David Ogilvie said: "We welcome the fact that Shelter Scotland is calling for a long-term strategy to deal with not just homelessness, but also housing services in Scotland.

"Providing proper quality affordable housing is one of the major challenges which Scotland faces."

He added: "A safe, secure affordable home is the foundation for so much else - not least good health, wellbeing and strong communities.

"That's why it's important that delivering sustainable housing services, responsible to the needs of communities, is given the political attention and resources it deserves."