PAPER B2

 

Committee:     SOCIAL SERVICES, HOUSING AND BENEFITS SELECT COMMITTEE

 

Date:               6 MARCH 2002

 

Title:                SUPPORTING PEOPLE IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAMME

 

REPORT OF THE STRATEGIC DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL SERVICES AND HOUSING

 

 

1.         SUMMARY

 

            This report provides a background on the Supporting People Programme and will look at the way the Social Services and Housing Directorate intends to implement the Supporting People programme

 

2.         BACKGROUND

 

            The new policy for the funding and provision of housing related support services was launched in 1998 and this programme – The Supporting People Programme – goes live on 1 April 2003.

 

            Under the new arrangements, Supporting People services are to be planned for and commissioned by local authorities in partnership with other local commissioning bodies – such as health authorities and the local probation service.  Funding will be provided from a new single funding stream (The Supporting People Grant) replacing the existing array of different funding sources currently used to finance housing related support services.

 

            The Supporting People Team needs to gather the data on who gets help, who provides it, where it is and what it costs.  The data will form the basis of a “map” of all support services on the Island.  All existing services will be reviewed to determine for money within five years of April 2003.

 

            The National Supporting People Project is made up of five strands each covering a distinct area of activity.

 

 

 

 

The Supporting People Programme intends to provide effective support services for all of the following groups of people:

 

·         Older people

·         People with a mental health problem

·         People with learning difficulties

·         People with physical disabilities

·         Rough sleepers

·         Ex-offenders

·         People with alcohol or drug misuse problems

·         Victims of Domestic Violence

·         People with chronic illness e.g. – HIV/aids

·         Young people leaving care

·         Tenancy support services for people struggling with their current accommodation.

 

The objectives of the Supporting People programme are:

 

Prevention                                        Helping to sustain people in the community and identify potential problems.

 

Promoting Independence               Support to enable people to take their own decisions and live their own lives.

 

Alleviating Crisis                              Support to help people through crises in their lives.

 

Resettlement                                    Support to help people establish themselves in a new home and community.

 

Inclusion                                            Supporting people who may not seek support themselves – who may have difficult behaviour or unconventional lifestyles, have multiple needs or fall outside of tradition the “client group”

 

A Focus on People                           These objectives can only be met through a variety of flexible services moulded around people and the way they choose to live their lives.

 

The Supporting People Programme has linkages with the recent housing statement “The Way Forward for Housing”

 

The Department of Transport, Local government and Regions (DTLR) has laid down clear and concise guidance and requirements for the implementation process of the Programme.  On 31 October 2001 guidance (The definitive Guidance) was published.  (www.spkweb.org.uk).  This was broken down into three parts:

 

Interim – Dealing with the implementation process.  This must be done now, pre 31.3.03 and deals with contracts, payments and the shadow Supporting People Strategy  A small grant is provided to the 150 lead Councils to carry this out.

 

Steady State – This applies once the programme goes live on 1st April 2003.  It contains over 60 pieces of guidance and will be the source of references when the programme is live.

 

Provider Guidance – A shorter piece of guidance aimed at the support provider.

 

Elected members are responsible for approving the Supporting People Strategy and, once it is ready, for the discharge of the Supporting People Programme functions and grants from 1 April 2003 as part of their community leadership role.

 

You will be involved in the following specific ways:

 

·         To take ownership of Supporting People

·         Approval of the Supporting People Strategy

·         Involvement as individual ward members in the consideration of the location of new and continuing schemes.  This can be a sensitive matter where extensive consultation and information flows are essential.

·         For the submission to the DTLR to obtain funding

·         To scrutinise the mechanisms for consultation and ensuring the involvement of service users.

·         To scrutinise the overall arrangements for the administration of Supporting People, including the financial arrangements.

 

3.         STRATEGIC ISSUES

 

Supporting People is not a programme, which demands a new strategy for a new set of needs.  Rather it demands a close look at existing priorities to identify how the Supporting People programme can contribute to delivering them.

 

Joint Strategic Planning of supporting housing services is the key to the Supporting People programme.  These joint strategies will be produced every five years with annual updates and the DTLR will review their adequacy against mandatory criteria.  The Supporting People Strategic Plan (SPSP) must:

 

·         Map user need and supply, including specific reference to minority ethnic needs

·         Review performance of providers

·         Take account of users’ views

·         Link into other strategic plans such as the Health Improvement Plan, Housing Strategy, Community Care Plan and Crime and Disorder Strategy.

·         Set aims and priorities for each client group

·         Define “cross authority arrangements”.  People who need this service don’t always stay in one authority

·         Lay out adequate commissioning, monitoring and review arrangements for each scheme.

 

The Core Strategy Group is responsible for identifying the strategic priorities and commissioning opportunities.  The Group is chaired by the Strategic Director of Social Services and Housing and has representatives from each of the key agencies.  It will prepare and propose the SPSP to the Supporting People Commissioning Body.

 

Appendix 1 shows the consultation and information flow chart for the implementation of the programme on the Island.

 

4.         ISLE OF WIGHT’S PERFORMANCE

 

            The DTLR  is monitoring the performance of all 150 councils in implementing this programme. Each Council is assessed against milestones set by the DTLR every quarter.  In October 2001, the Isle of Wight was assessed as having achieved only 59% of its targets.  By January, however, however this had improved to 75%.

 

            There is still some evidence that we are struggling to maintain the required pace of implementation.  The DTLR has identified our progress on implementing the new I.T. system for Supporting People, which will be needed by April 2003 and in completing the supply mapping of need as being areas of specific concern.

 

            It is proposed to bring a further report to this Committee in April, which sets out our progress in these and other areas so elected members can monitor closely our performance.

 

5.         FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS.

 

            The overall amount of money is still not quantified for each local authority.  The DTLR have recently published a consultation document “Developing an allocations formula”.  This document proposed that the allocation for 2003/2004 will be based on current spend plus an allowance for inflation but that the whole programme will move to a formula based distribution over time.

 

            The formula will be informed by:

 

            Population estimates

            Measure of relative need

            Measure of relative cost

 

            The DTLR have produced a list of 19 objectives for the resource allocation formula.  All 19 objectives are considered important, they are not necessarily considered to be of equal importance, neither are they necessarily consistent with each other.  Consequently the objectives have been grouped into three categories.

 

            Essential

            Highly desirable

            Desirable

 

            The key constituents of the formula will be:

 

            Population estimates – which will be derived from the ONC (Office National Statistics) however, there are concerns expressed by SP teams throughout the country on the accuracy of these statistics.

 

            Needs Indices – the consultation paper lists 13 client groups but recognises that this is not an exhaustive list.

 

            Cost Indices –it is recognised that the cost of delivering services may vary.

 

            The maximisation of Transitional Housing Benefit (THB) by this authority is essential as this will form the basis of the shadow contracts, which in turn determines the “current spend” consequently determining the amount of the SP “pot” in 2003/2004.

 

6.         RECOMMENDATIONS

 

            The Supporting People Project Manager produces a report for Select Committee in April 2002, which details progress against the DTLR milestones and identifies continuing problems in achieving a satisfactory level of performance.

 

 

 

Contact Point:  Charles Waddicor, ' 520600 ext 2225

 

 

 

C WADDICOR

Strategic Director of Social Services and Housing