Stonewall Housing’s response to the ODPM’s Consultation on a Strategy for the Supporting People Programme (November 2005)
‘Creating Sustainable Communities: Supporting Independence’
The Government is proposing changes to the Supporting People programme and carried out a consultation process with providers and Local Authorities between November 2005 and February 2006. Here you can read Stonewall Housing’s response to their proposals, either in full or a summary.
Summary
We agree with the comments in the strategy that the Supporting People programme has generally been a success and we believe providers and authorities should be given more time to develop the good practice achieved before initiating further changes.
We appreciate that the strategy identifies that local authorities should improve cross-authority access to services and would recommend more regional funding for services such as Stonewall Housing, which caters for young LGBT people, many of whom are fleeing homophobic and transphobic violence and/or abuse in their borough of origin.
We would prefer the Supporting People grant to remain ring-fenced as this would ensure authorities are accountable for how it is spent and ensure politically less popular groups, such as LGBT young people, continue to receive a service, since the grant would come along with national or regional incentives, so preventing LGBT-specific services such as Stonewall Housing from getting excluded from local or regional priorities.
Further uncertainty about the future of services due to another bout of funding changes should be avoided, rather the issuing of steady state contracts for services should be brought in at the earliest opportunity.
Further consultation with local authorities regarding the Distribution Formula may be needed as the impact it would have on some local authorities as it now stands would be severe, which would then have a severe impact on the services in their area.
We appreciate that the strategy recognises the onerous administrative impact the programme can have on small providers and we hope that any future changes recognise the need to ‘scale back’ on the paperwork.
We believe that outcomes are best agreed and measured on an individual basis, which can then be monitored as part of contract management rather than a nationally imposed table of outcomes which may not appreciate a client’s individual achievements.
To read Stonewall Housing's Full Response Click here
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