Supporting People - two years on

The government's main aims for the Supporting People programme were to provide a better quality of life for vulnerable people to enable them to live more independently by providing housing related support to prevent problems that can lead to hospitalisation, institutional care or homelessness.

This would be achieved through by

• Providing high quality, cost effective, needs led services which had been strategically planned;
• Improved working partnership of local government, health, voluntary sector organisations, housing associations, support agencies and service users; and
• Housing related support costs being funded separately under control of local councils.

So, two years on where are we! From a providers' perspective there are concerns about the:

• Consistency and quality of reviews by SP teams
• Programme backlog of service reviews
• Bureaucracy and the administrative burden
• Cuts to the programme
• End of ring fencing
• Impact of allocation formula
• Impact of strategic reviews

The government wants to see existing service provision re-modelled, and we are likely to see significant proposals for change as local commissioning bodies begin to publish their local supporting people strategies. The future size and shape of the market will depend on the outcomes of these local strategic reviews and the emphasis of the programme seems now to be on refocusing and re-configuration of existing services, rather than developing new services.

Some services will be retained; others will be re-modelled or de-commissioned because of a lack of demand, or because they are not considered to be strategically relevant, or because they do not offer value for money.

It is likely that we will see a move to housing provided separately from support by support providers who will move away from accommodation based services. Support will be provided by floating teams who will carry out a variety of tasks covering schemes and the community nearby; and support providers will need to be able to vary service input according to needs and based on individually focussed support plans.

Commissioners will want to be able to fluctuate funding levels according to individual needs, based on support plans and define unit costs as costs per hour. Support services are likely to be put out for tender as care contracts have been for some years leading to a reduction in the number of organisations providing services, with only high quality providers who can offer value for money only surviving.

It is an exciting, as well as a challenging time for supported housing.