Supporting People has helped people like Brenda Malcolm, right, get out of secure accommodation. But the regime's first two months haven't all been plain sailing.
Brenda Malcolm spent the best part of two decades in a secure hospital. Locked in a gloomy ward with 11 other people, she had little freedom or privacy. This was supposedly for her own good, because she has learning difficulties. "I was in a locked ward and put under section so wasn't allowed to go out," she says, grimacing at the memory. "I was happy to leave."

Her life today could not be more different. Supporting People pays for a support worker from Hillstream Care to visit Malcolm in the cosy flat she moved into last month. But you are more likely to find her in the bingo hall than at home. "I have much more freedom now. I go out most of the time," she says with a broad grin. As Sophia Matthews, service manager for independent living schemes at Hillstream Care, says: "We looked at how we can offer more of an independent living service. Most people want to be independent, it's much more user-led."

Brenda Malcolm is one of the success stories of the government's £1.4bn funding regime for vulnerable tenants. Launched on 1 April, Supporting People was the biggest shake-up in supported housing since the 1990 Community Care Act. Until two months ago, support – such as visiting help for elderly people or advice for tenants with learning difficulties who have left special housing – was hampered by overlapping and complex funding streams, with landlords including the cost of the support in rent charges.

Under the new regime, housing providers must split the support costs from the rent and charge for each separately. Councils have to calculate specific costs for support services and bid for a share of the government cash. But the system's introduction has been an administrative nightmare, not least because the Treasury funding pot was smaller than expected. Landlords fear that there won't be enough money to provide support and, in some cases, tenants could face rent increases to plug the gap.

I was in a locked ward and put under section so wasn’t allowed to go out. I have much more freedom now. I go out most of the time 

Brenda Malcolm

One tenant of a North-eastern housing scheme for people with disabilities has seen her rent spiral from £82.40 a week to an unaffordable £321.50. Even if she were able to claim housing benefit, she would be more than £100 a week out of pocket. The council has tried to find her new accommodation but cannot find anywhere with adaptations to suit her disability. She believes her landlord was relying on Supporting People funds to fill the gap, even though she does not receive any support services.

Others have lost out when housing benefit has been reduced too much. A 73-year-old sheltered housing tenant on the south coast is receiving £6 less a month than she should – a big difference for a person living on a state pension. The former Wren is confused by the system and worried that there may be other mistakes. "It was always so straightforward. The rent just went up a couple of pounds a year," she says. "So why should it be so different this year? Am I being stupid?" She is now worried about being evicted, although her housing association has assured her that it will help her sort out the problem. But a backlog of claims in the housing benefit office will leave her out of pocket for even longer and her association, which only has four staff, is struggling to cope with the administrative burden.

Falling funding
Councils are trying to save money because there is £29m less of Supporting People funding than was expected. It is widely believed that the Treasury, having stumped up £1.4bn, refused to give the full amount.

It’s easier being here. I get much more freedom and I’ve made new friends 

Kenneth Dennis

The funding change, while not insurmountable, made life harder, says Chris Smith, head of Supporting People at Camden council in north London: "It was a surprise and people don't like surprises. But given a bit of time, there is scope to find a way through it." Camden has already started to find ways of saving cash without making cuts. For the first six days of the regime, service providers received money from the old payment system – transitional housing benefit – and the new one. "We think this could offset most of the savings requirements," sayd Smith. "There are ways of dealing with it painlessly but that wasn't the case everywhere."

Other local authorities are dealing with it by sending out contracts to support service providers with three-month notice periods for service closures instead of the 12 months recommended in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's model contract.

It has not been a popular tactic. "How can you wind up a scheme in three months? Where would the tenants go?" says Diane Henderson, head of care and support at the National Housing Federation.

I can now pay my rent when I want rather than waiting for someone else to collect it. Before, I didn’t have any choice about whether or not to do it 

David Smith

Some councils decided to hold service reviews – which could lead to cutbacks – in the first six months of the programme instead of further down the line. And a few local authorities included clawback clauses allowing them to cut funding to schemes if government funding was reduced.

Funding for future schemes is also a headache. It is unlikely that the already large Supporting People pot will be expanded in the next comprehensive spending review, so any new schemes will have to be financed by cutting back on old ones. Schemes that will be up and running by March 2006 were able to bid for money known as "pipeline" funding. However, delays in the funding announcement meant housing associations had to go ahead with building plans without knowing whether they had the money to run the schemes once they were built.

Over the coming months there will be announcements on value-for-money surveys, funding for people from one authority who are housed by another, and funding authorities by the number of people in need in the area rather than the number of schemes. All bring with them worries about cuts: will value-for-money surveys emphasise money or value? Will boroughs be reluctant or unable to house people from other areas, such as rough sleepers? Will capital funding from regional housing boards marry up with revenue funding provided locally?

What’s it all about?

What is it?
Supporting People is a new funding and regulation regime for supported housing. Under the scheme, support costs are separated from rent. For those eligible, Supporting People pays support costs while housing benefit covers rent. When did it start?
It came into force on 1 April this year, but has been under discussion since December 1998. Along the way, housing providers and councils have looked at what tenants need and adjusted services accordingly. Councils submitted the costs for supported housing in their areas in December 2002. What does it cost?
There is £1.4bn funding for 2003/4. In September, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will look at the real costs of schemes and announce funds for 2004/5 and 2005/6. What effect will it have?
Tenants will have a greater impact on how services are developed and their view will feed into quality assessments of schemes.

The provider’s view: ‘The challenges are balanced by the opportunities’

Supporting People’s impact on the culture, strategies and operation of each provider really depends on their starting point. The larger regional and national providers have generally been better able to cope than the smaller providers. They have more resources and most importantly, the capacity to prepare for the change. However, this has come at a continuing cost. Some of these costs will be easy to measure, such as staff resources, but others will be more difficult to quantify, such as the lost opportunities to put those resources towards different uses. Many small providers do not have the capacity to keep in touch with the broader local agendas, never mind the national ones. They have struggled with the implementation process and many have sought help from their local Supporting People teams or the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Other small providers have decided that it was not worth contracting for Supporting People funding and are probably meeting the costs themselves. The challenges are being balanced by the opportunities that emerged to develop new services, improve quality and review the focus of the service. There are also changes taking place in organisational culture as contracting, quality assessment and the scheme review processes are beginning to have an affect. However, the continuing concerns about the funding arrangements inevitably ensure a high level of anxiety about their real impact. So, will Supporting People help providers to deliver a better range of services? I hope so. Ken Davies is manager of the Supporting People Advisory Network

For Supporting People recipients Kenneth Dennis and David Smith, who live in a supported housing development a short distance from Brenda Malcolm, the funding regime has meant new powers and freedoms. As he cooks a fry-up at 11.30am – something he could not have done in a residential care home – Smith explains that lobbying of his council’s learning disability forum has resulted in more dial-a-ride buses. Dennis adds that residents now take part in the selection of new support staff.

Source

Housing Today