guidance on how to deal with the separation of care and support costs from rent will be published this week – to the great relief of the supported housing sector.
The guidance, produced by the Housing Corporation and support specialist the Anchor Trust, will offer advice to providers and councils on the vexed issue of implementing the Supporting People regime, which goes live next April. The guidance will be published at the Chartered Institute of Housing's annual conference in Harrogate this week.

Paul Johnson, director of tenant services at the Anchor Trust, said: "Supporting People is a radical overhaul of housing-related support services. Providers need to be preparing for this now.

"The guidance is based on the practical experiences of the preparatory projects to help people avoid reinventing the wheel."

Since the idea was put forward that councils administer a separate fund for support costs, there has been widespread confusion over how the new regime will work.

Chartered Institute of Housing policy officer Sam Lister said guidance was badly needed: "The whole thing is so complicated that just trying to understand the policy itself is difficult," he said.

"The guidance will be particularly useful for small providers who don't have large teams within their organisation to spend time on planning."

Last month, a survey by the Supporting People Advisory Network found that partners intrinsic to the successful implementation of the system were still unsure of the role they would be expected to play.

Ken Davies, manager of the network, said at the time: "It seems, at best, short-sighted to have staff with this knowledge and experience unsure of their futures. Very few people have detailed knowledge of Supporting People and its administrative systems."

Local Government Association senior project officer Carmel Conefrey said: "Guidance forms an important part in giving authorities and providers help to continue to the next stage of the process.There is still a lot more work to be done. It is important that further guidance from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister keeps to its timetable, so providers and local authorities are kept informed."

support for Supporting People – what the guidance recommends

  • Providers should assess “general counselling and support” in a way that is clear, easy to administer and can be underpinned with evidence
  • List the systems for service-user involvement that exist in your organisation and determine how easily they can be adapted for Supporting People
  • Add a regular feature on the new regime to newsletters
  • Undertake a self-assessment before the formal contract review
  • Conduct benchmarking to work out comparative costs for service provision with similar providers