Memorandum from Westminster City Council
(SPP 27)
SUMMARY OF
KEY ISSUES
AND RECOMMENDATIONS
— The vision for housing related support
services described in the National Strategy remains comprehensive
and relevant. It is important that this vision is reflected in
complementary strategies within central government, particularly
within Housing, Adult Social Care and Social Inclusion where housing
related support can play a part in delivering key governmental
goals. This will ensure that Supporting People retains a high
profile within central government following the removal of the
ring-fence.
— Service users should remain at the heart
of service commissioning and the focus on this described in the
Audit Commission key lines of inquiry should not be lost.
— Having a strong third sector provider
network is largely dependent upon stability of revenue funding
and having, as in the past, a long term indication of resource
levels enables authorities to provide this security (even when
as is likely total funding available reduces.)
— The role of Supporting People in supporting
Individual Budgets where funding currently delivers services into
accommodation based projects needs to be clarified.
— It is recognised that the different service
profiles within different areas does not allow direct comparison
of National Indicator percentage levels between authorities.
— It will be essential to the future of
the programme that the CLG Supporting People team again makes
the case for the Supporting People programme in the next Comprehensive
Spending Review with vigour and a strong evidence base.
— The profile of Supporting People within
the area based grant settlement is maintained.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Westminster City Council welcomes the
opportunity to provide evidence to this Select Committee Inquiry.
The provision of housing related support plays an important role
in the delivery of the Council's new Living City programme. Our
Buildings Based Services for rough sleepers meet approximately
1,800 verified rough sleepers per year who present with a wide
variety of support need. This level of acute housing related support
need is unique in the country and to meet this need has required
an active partnership between Social Care, Criminal Justice, primary
health, Community Protection, housing and homelessness services
and the voluntary sector. This approach is described in detail
in our housing and support strategies for people with mental health
problems, learning disabilities, older people and rough sleepers,
a health and homeless strategy and two updates to our 5 year homelessness
strategy, together with our updated 5 year Supporting People Strategy.
This demand for supported housing services in an area of acute
housing shortage has required a dynamic approach to service commissioning
and this is reflected in our achievements since 2003 and our ambition
for the future.
1.2 The quality of housing related support service
provision and service commissioning to meet this need in Westminster
was recognised in the Audit Commission inspection report of March
2008 in which Westminster was awarded the highest rating of "excellent
services with excellent prospects for improvement" one of
only seven authorities to have received this rating.
1.3 The Committee's inquiry is to consider
the extent to which the Government has, so far, delivered on the
commitments it made in Independence and Opportunity: Our Strategy
for Supporting People and the implications of the removal of the
ring-fence.
1.4 Westminster City Council welcomed the
launch of the national Strategy in 2007and the subsequent announcement
of a three year allocation of Supporting People Grant following
the last Comprehensive Spending Review. Westminster has met the
challenges of the removal of the ring-fence by retaining the programme's
governance and commissioning structure and has recently agreed
to extend contracts for services for a further three years to
2013, thus providing stability for the programme.
1.5 As a result of the above, through this
submission, Westminster is well placed to highlight some of the
central issues facing the programme following the publication
of the strategy, the removal of the ring-fence and the financial
pressures on the programme in the future.
2. INDEPENDENCE AND
OPPORTUNITY: OUR
STRATEGY FOR
SUPPORTING PEOPLE
2.1 The National Strategy had a vision statement
and was split into four areas. The purpose of this section is
to describe how Westminster's approach in these four areas has
responded to and reflected the objectives of the national strategy.
2.2 Vision
2.3 The vision for supported housing services
set out in the Strategy was one that is clear and appeared to
reflect both the overall vision of CLG as a department and more
specifically the value of housing related support to this vision,
whilst being positive about the achievements of the programme
to date: "It is helping more than a million people each year
to attain or maintain independence, through the provision of housing
related support services. By helping reduce reoffending, reduce
homelessness and rough sleeping and anti-social behaviour amongst
many other issues, Supporting People helps the most vulnerable
and excluded contribute to wider society."
2.4 This vision remains appropriate and
relevant to the programme and reflects Westminster's own vision,
approach and commitment to the programme. Westminster has been
able to maintain the commitment to the programme through ensuring
that these principals are reflected in the annual Housing and
Adult Services' Business plans, together with inclusion within
a range of complementary housing and support strategies for people
with mental health problems, learning disabilities, older people
etc. This clear strategic approach ensures that the provision
of housing related support clearly supports the Council's objectives
and maintains the profile of housing related support services
within the Council.
2.5 Whilst having a clear vision for the
national programme it is important that this vision is reflected
in complementary strategies within central government, particularly
within Housing, Adult Social Care and Social Inclusion where housing
related support can play a part in delivering key governmental
goals
2.6 Keeping People that need Services at
the Heart of the Programme;
Service users are at the heart of everything
the Council does. We have put a range of mechanisms in place to
address user needs and ensure that services are designed with
the user in mind. We listen to service users, take action and
feedback and our services are better as a result. The approach
to involving service users was agreed by the Commissioning Body
(CB) and a report on service user activity is presented to each
CB. The profile of Westminster's supported housing services reflects
high levels of service for socially excluded groups, in particular
rough sleepers, people with histories of offending and people
with substance misuse issues. We have successfully engaged with
all of these groups and the summary of activity and outcomes included
in the Service User Involvement Strategy report to the CB.
2.7 Users have been actively involved in strategy
development, assessment of service quality and performance, have
established user led groups, spoken directly with Members and
Chief Officers, have improved service commissioning and the quality
of individual services. There is a clear cycle of consultation
in which users are consulted, action taken and the outcomes fedback.
A wide variety of methods have been employed to engage users of
services and these have included:
— Peer Interviews with hostel residents
— Questionnaires to service users
— Attendance at resident meetings
— Attendance at providers service user
consultation events
— Young Parents Conference in 2007, run
by young parents
— Elected service users on tender panels
and staff interviews
— Consulting with service user groups on
written communication
— Consultation with older people in the
Housing with Care Strategy
— User led mental health and hostel panels,
externally facilitated
— Involvement of service users in the validation
of provider QAF
— Telephone interviews with service users
2.8 The Audit Commission inspections of Supporting
People required a very strong focus on service user involvement
both on a service delivery and commissioning level. The rigour
of the Audit Commission's standards have been maintained in Westminster
through the clear commitment by the Westminster CB to this area
and consideration should be given about how best practice in this
area can be reflected within performance assessments.
2.9 Enhancing partnership with the Third
Sector;
2.10 Westminster's partnership arrangements
with the Third Sector organisations and representative bodies
are strong. All external service providers are RSL or VCS organisations
and a report on voluntary sector commissioning taken to the Health
and Care Network Board describes how we support the sector. For
example as part of the development of the Learning Disability
Housing Strategy, a "thinking about housing" event was
held during which Westminster Carers' Network was actively consulted.
Officers attend Westminster Disability Network meetings, LARP
meetings and other fora such as the Amenity Society's Forum to
ensure widespread promotion of the programme. The Council's Procurement
Code has been used to introduce steady state contracts for three
years across all services. New service providers have been introduced
to the sector and each sector has specialist local providers.
2.11 The stability of the provider sector is
largely dependent upon security of revenue funding. Westminster
has consistently provided a stable contractual framework, within
a clear value for money framework and following the Council's
Procurement Code and this has been greatly assisted by announcement
of three year funding allocations by CLG. As pressures on Area
Based Grants materialise following the current economic downturn
this stability will be threatened and any security of settlement
will be greatly welcomed.
2.12 Delivering in the new local government
landscape;
2.13 The SP programme in Westminster contributes
to LAA targets having aligned SP Domestic Violence monies, set
a homeless prevention stretch target achievement which requires
delivery of effective tenancy sustainment services and agreed
the core principles of Supporting People's entry into the LAA.
This includes maintaining the current CB structure which has been
viewed as effective in managing the partnership both within the
Council and with stakeholders within the PCT, London Probation
and the provider network. As a result the removal of the grant
ring fence has not had a direct adverse impact on the programme
as the benefits of providing high quality housing related support
services within different service areas can be clearly demonstrated.
The Council's commitment to the commissioning structures, placing
service users at the heart of commissioning and robust approach
to securing value for money means that the removal of the ring
fence is not a threat to the programme.
2.14 Westminster is committed to the model
of Individual Budgets and we have trained staff about Individual
Budgets, support planning and being a broker and have produced
an accessible leaflet and a booklet on this. Supporting people
grant has been used in Westminster to support the delivery of
Individual Budgets in new learning disability services. However
the recent report into the pilot of Individual Budgets lacked
clarity about how Supporting People grant paid into existing housing
services can be effectively transferred into an Individual Budget.
2.15 Increasing efficiency and reducing
bureaucracy.
2.16 Service ambitions and tightening financial
remit have required us to relentlessly drive out efficiencies
in order to meet increasingly high customer expectations. Securing
value for money has been at the heart of Westminster's approach
to service commissioning. This has resulted in savings of £2.5
million of expenditure (over £1 million of which has been
reinvested in new services.) Westminster's approach has developed
over time and has focused on reducing higher cost services, assessing
levels of support provided and the strategic relevance of services.
Value for money has improved across the sector in terms of improved
outcomes for service users (KPI scores and QAF grades improving,
achieving joint targets), reduced unit costs across the sector
by an average of £8 per week, 300 more people supported across
all tenures and eight new services developed all within a SP grant
allocation reduced by £1.5 million.
2.17 Westminster welcomes moves to reduce the
number of returns required by CLG from authorities each quarter.
The focus on positive move-on as a result of the National Indicator
target (whether included within the LAA or not) has been very
beneficial both to improving service quality and performance and
in raising the profile of the programme locally. However the indicator
itself does not specifically capture data about the volume of
positive move-on from services and how different profiles of authorities
reflect this and makes comparisons inappropriate. Thus in Westminster's
case there are a large number of rough sleeper hostels in the
borough and this leads to high numbers of people moving through
services in contrast for example to a rural area in which there
is little movement on a similar scale as the service profile is
very different. However the National Indicator measure does not
capture this difference. Similarly the National Indicator for
long term services does not allow for comparison between authorities
as the nature of the calculation means that the overwhelming majority
of authorities have scores in the high 90%'s.
3. FUTURE GRANT
SETTLEMENT
3.1 The decision to have Supporting People
recognised as "an unringfenced named grant", whilst
not specifically protecting the programme has had the effect of
ensuring that there is a profile within the Area Based Grant for
housing related support services. Along with the security of a
three year funding announcement this has been very helpful in
for example being able to extend contracts into 2013, thus providing
stability to the sector and emphasising commitment to the programme.
Maintaining such a profile and funding certainty in the future
would have a positive impact on authorities commissioning policies.
3.2 Generally it has been the Comprehensive
Spending Reviews (CSR) and the consequent allocations of grant
to authorities that has had the most impact on commissioning policy
and front line service delivery. This is as opposed to any grant
conditions, ring fencing of the programme or deliberate decisions
by authorities to move funding away from "unpopular or mobile
groups." It is recognised that officers within the CLG Supporting
People team did excellently when making the case for the programme
to the Treasury in the previous CSR's, securing the national settlement
of c. £1.7 billion. However the previous CSR's were at a
time of relative economic prosperity whereas the next one will
almost certainly take place at a time of recession and great pressure
on public sector finance. It will be essential to the future of
the programme that the CLG SP team again makes the case for the
Supporting People programme with vigour and a strong evidence
base as this is what will safeguard the programme going forward.
3.3 In Westminster this case for Supporting
People services providing value for money and high quality outcome
for vulnerable people that prevents the use of more expensive
social care or homeless services has been clearly made. For example
since the advent of Supporting People in 2003 we have opened 9
new services providing over 125 new units including homeless young
persons services, self-contained units for people with learning
disabilities, high support homeless mental health schemes and
an extra-care sheltered housing service. Each of these services
has been successful in meeting a new, clearly defined need and
has prevented the use of more expensive alternatives, that are
often unpopular with individuals. This is reflected in high satisfaction
levels amongst clients with in a recent survey 80% of respondents
described the service as good or excellent and 60% of respondents
felt the service had improved from a year ago.
3.4 To provide a specific example in the
summer of 2008 Westminster Council in partnership with PCHA and
Westminster Learning Disability Society opened a new housing scheme
in Shirland Road. It comprises a development of three self contained
flats with a staff resource flat on site providing 24/7 support
and each person has an Individual Budget and choice of who provides
the support. NP, a young man who was living in an out of borough
residential care placement moved in when it opened. He has settled
in very well, his needs are monitored and assessed regularly and
he is accessing training and education opportunities locally.
Moving from an out of borough residential placement into this
new housing development has saved the Council over £1,600
per week. This is the first of several such developments due to
open over the next five years which will give people with learning
disabilities the opportunity to live in their own home and save
the Council money on care and support.
3.5 In conclusion the value of housing related
support services in achieving broader goals and targets is clear;
service quality and performance has improved since the introduction
of Supporting People and the outcomes for clients has been positive.
In Westminster the understanding of the value of services is clear
and a clear joint service commissioning process enables delivery
of a dynamic range of services within the new local government
framework. It will be important that these positive outcomes are
not lost and the SP team at CLG is able to make the case for programme
going forward.
May 2009
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