Ready for a fresh perspective

How long ago was Supporting People published? What has happened since? It has occupied our minds and dominated our workplans. The federation, with great help from members, has lobbied, negotiated, debated and argued our way through the year. The theme of “getting ready for 2003” has given a common cause to gather our work and our thoughts around. But it has been frustrating that so little has emerged from Whitehall.

The transitional scheme has kept civil servants occupied, but it has masked the fact that the government has had virtually nothing new to say on the long-term proposals since the day sometime towards the end of the last century when Supporting People was published.

All that’s about to change, with a new man at the Ministry. Bert Provan has been appointed to lead the DETR team working on implementation. He’s a brave man. His first paper predicts “we need to break the back of this by August” and he really did mean August 2000. He has a risk map of some of the pitfalls to be avoided, and a work plan that requires a suspension of disbelief or a stiff drink. The paper also cheerfully says that they will rely on other people to do most of the work. There are new groups and sub-groups, with places for housing providers, commissioners, service user representatives and government departments.

From a period of inactivity, the work is about to move into overdrive. The practitioners group - one of the key co-ordinating groups - met for the first time on Monday. The federation was there, along with two member representatives, and we came away with a mixture of elation and apprehension. It’s good news that the government places so much store on the need to involve housing providers. It’s a result of the on-going debate, discussion, events, articles and meetings that we have shown ourselves to be a thinking, intelligent sector that is interested in the future of its tenants. In that sense the grind of the last year has paid off. We’ve got our seats at the right tables; the next challenge is to make our voices heard.

Of course the last year hasn’t only been about getting a foot in the door. Although we haven’t resolved issues in our minds, the first year’s talking means we understand the complexity of the questions - we understand far better why it is impossible to say glibly whether Supporting People will “work”. Take the debate on winners and losers. Will local authorities prioritise their own favourites and let the less popular client groups suffer? Or will the less popular in fact be the highest priority, because the local authority realises that the gains won by the Rough Sleepers Unit cannot be tossed aside within a year of disbanding the Unit. People with severe mental health problems living in the community under compulsory care and treatment orders will need to live somewhere. So perhaps it will be the average, not very high need, not very low need community care groups who will be squeezed? We didn’t know a year ago, and we don’t know now. But we certainly know what questions need to be answered in the next six months if the new system is to be a fair one.

Our offering to the “yet more thoughts” list is the question of monitoring. We think monitoring will most certainly become more robust. Who at present is responsible for ensuring that supported and sheltered housing are cost effective and delivering the outcomes they set out to? Or in 2000-speak - that they are delivering Best Value? The corporation makes a stab at some of this through the SHMG review and performance standards. If there’s funding from social services, probation, charitable trusts and the like, they have their own monitoring systems. But largely, it is the providers themselves who judge their own services, with or without the assistance of benchmarking, and with or without the assistance of tenants.

We think we’ll see big changes. Local authorities will be on the spot. If they are funding a short-stay hostel, they’ll want to see that it is short-stay. They will not want to accept silt-up due to a shortage of move-on as an adequate explanation for failure to achieve. Of course they also hold the key to some of the solutions, and the Supporting People commissioning panel will be in a strong position to press for an adequate supply of housing for move-on.

The federation is currently seeking funding for a feasibility study for an independent audit methodology for our Framework for Housing with Support. Regulatory gaps will be far more obvious to a local authority than they are to the current collection of funders. We are keen to work with commissioners to look at the role of self-audit and independent audit in delivering quality services. We are proud of our services, but a lot of our buildings need a good bit of upgrading, and that takes money. A large part of whether the sector is ready for 2003 depends on the Housing Corporation.

Local government in some parts of the country has got itself in gear before the centre. Joined-up worrying is beginning to take root. Local shadow Supporting People groups are beginning to be formed. The new transitional regulations have helped here - they’ve given an example of an enormous challenge to the sector which is made slightly more possible by co-operation and discussion among providers and between providers and local authorities. The areas that see the transition implemented relatively smoothly are the ones to watch for implementing the long-term. The Federation intends to survey the country to see how the transition is progressing.

The federation’s project to look at longer-term implementation issues has just started. We’re going to produce a series of guides covering topics such as commissioning, contracting, and monitoring of services. The LGA and government departments will be on the steering group. The need to build consensus is paramount. The RSL sector can’t draw up the blueprint for Supporting People any more than the DETR can.

There’s no going back. Do you remember at the start of all this we talked fondly of a patchwork quilt of funding? Those days are gone - it’s actually a mishmash, not a patchwork quilt. So we need to come up with something better. The hard work starts now. The good news is that the new team at the DETR have realised they can only pull it off with the help of the sector’s experience, knowledge and initiative. Hold on to your hats.