Communities and Local Government Committee - Thirteenth Report
The Supporting People Programme

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Here you can browse the report together with the Proceedings of the Committee. The published report was ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 13 October 2009.

CONTENTS

Terms of Reference

REPORT

SUMMARY

1  INTRODUCTION

2  KEEPING PEOPLE THAT NEED SERVICES AT THE HEART OF THE PROGRAMME

Can users access the types of services they need?
Generic and specialist support

Short term, critical needs versus long term support: attaining or maintaining independence?

Conclusions: can users get the types of services they need?

Service user involvement

Conclusions: Involvement, communication and consultation with service users

Service user involvement in the new local government landscape

Personalisation

Developing more integrated assessments

3  ENHANCING PARTNERSHIP WITH THE THIRD SECTOR

Introduction

Competitive tendering

Cost versus quality

The real cost of competitive tendering: short-term contract culture

EU procurement rules

Joining up commissioning and procurement across local authority boundaries

The Value Improvement Programme

Capacity building in the Third Sector

The loss of Supporting People teams and Commissioning Bodies in the commissioning and procurement environment

4  DELIVERING IN THE NEW LOCAL GOVERNMENT LANDSCAPE

Local Area Agreements and Local Strategic Partnerships
Ensuring the profile of Supporting People is maintained in LSPs

Reluctance to benefit other agencies' budgets

The case for retaining Supporting People teams and Commissioning Bodies as the delivery arm for housing-related support within LSPs

Two-tier issues

Conclusions - Local Area Agreements and Local Strategic Partnerships

Regional and sub-regional working

Supporting the needs of mobile groups

Identifying need

Conclusions: regional and sub-regional working

Comprehensive Area Assessment

Performance indicators

Keeping users at the heart of CAA

Conclusions

A statutory basis for Supporting People?

5  INCREASING EFFICIENCY AND REDUCING BUREAUCRACY

Regulation of service providers

6  SHELTERED HOUSING

The loss of wardens in favour of floating support
The case for wardens

The local authority view

Keeping users at the heart of sheltered housing

The impact of Supporting People on builders of supported housing

Sheltered housing—where next?

Conclusions: sheltered housing

7  SUPPORTING PEOPLE DISTRIBUTION FORMULA

8  CONCLUSION: THE RINGFENCE

The decision to remove the ringfence

Concerns about the lifting of the ringfence

Pressure on local authority budgets

Performance of individual local authorities

Loss of Supporting People governance and operating structures

Loss of QAF and Outcomes Framework

Loss of profile

Conclusions

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

FORMAL MINUTES

WITNESSES

LIST OF WRITTEN EVIDENCE

LIST OF UNPRINTED EVIDENCE

LIST OF REPORTS FROM THE COMMITTEE DURING THE CURRENT PARLIAMENT




MINUTES OF EVIDENCE - VOLUME II (HC 649-II)

Monday 8 June 2009
Monday 15 June 2009
Monday 29 June 2009
Monday 6 July 2009

WRITTEN EVIDENCE - VOLUME II (HC 649-II)

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Prepared 3 November 2009