Supporting People's greatest hits

I can't live, if living is without you. Imagine a world without Supporting People. What would we all have been doing with ourselves over the last few years? Developing new models of service? Improving tenant participation? Upgrading our buildings and providing better facilities? Developing new quality systems?

Many have been doing just that, but it has all been done with the spectre of Supporting People looming over us.

The question is always "is it worth it, given that we don't know what will happen when Supporting People arrives?" The time, money, and brainpower that has gone into Supporting People is phenomenal – if all that had gone into service development, we would have a service beyond compare.

But we can't wish it gone – because without it we'd still have no proper way of funding or coordinating services. I don't wish it gone – I just wish it were finished so we could all get back to our proper jobs...

Hey big spender. Dear Gordon, all that extra money for the health service is excellent news. The sheltered and supported housing sectors are prime locations for preventative and rehabilitative services, and health funding needs to be properly coordinated with Supporting People funding. If there is not enough in the Supporting People pot itself, including a reasonable level of growth, then we will all fail to reap the full benefits of such an enormous amount of work.

Killing me softly. The new arrangements need to be palatable to all partners. If they push registered social landlords into corners where they have no room to manoeuvre, they may simply drift away from involvement in the future of the sector, and that will be everyone's loss.

My way. I once met the man who organised the music for Frank Sinatra's funeral. The family wanted to end the service with My way, but they were persuaded instead to have May the choirs of angels come to meet you because, really, Frank couldn't have his way any more.

Supporting People is a bit like that – no one can have it all their own way. Either it is a supportive, flexible relationship or a legalistic contract-driven one. But if we want the former, all parties have got to play by these rules.

If one partner – local authority, landlord, or support provider – moves into the legalistic arena, the others will have to follow, to defend their own interests. Everyone is going to have to compromise. No one gets to have it "their way".

Sheltered and supported housing has been around a lot longer than Supporting People and it will outlive it

Take a chance on me. Independent living must include taking chances. We all get to skip across the road even though the green man is not lit.

If a tenant gets hurt from dodging the traffic, or gets food poisoning from letting their cat sleep on the kitchen work surface, does that count as healthy risk taking – the same right that we all have – or will it count towards judging the support provider unfit?

Monitoring must get beyond performance indicators: we must understand the purpose of each service, and monitor what matters.

Don't leave me this way. The charging arrangements have proved a far more difficult challenge than anyone expected. But nevertheless, we must have a decision soon. If the current proposals cannot be made to work, then why not go back to a benefits-administered top-up to housing benefit for sheltered housing?

Message in a bottle. A great deal of money has been spent on information technology systems for local authorities.

But what about the providers' systems? How will they communicate with local authorities? Urgent attention (and cash) is needed.

I will survive. Sheltered and supported housing has been around a lot longer than Supporting People, and it will outlive it.