Change of Funding Arrangements for Supporting People

Supporting People is a programme to deliver housing-related support to vulnerable people, including:

• older people with support needs
• single homeless people
• people with mental health problems
• women at risk of domestic violence
• young people at risk

It is administered through 152 top-tier local authorities and reaches approximately a million people each year. Services are mainly delivered by voluntary and community sector projects and housing associations.1

In 2010 the Labour government removed the ringfence for the Supporting People budget. The coalition has largely maintained levels of funding, announcing over £6 billion for the programme over next four years,2 although there has been no increase for inflation.

However, the coalition government has taken the removal of the ringfence a step further and rolled funding for Supporting People into the general formula settlement for local authorities.

Evidence of the possible benefits

The benefits of Supporting People were evaluated in a report commissioned by the Department of Communities and Local Government that was undertaken by Capgemini.3 It found the benefits to be wide-ranging, including:
• improvements in quality of life: increased independent living, improved involvement with the community
• financial benefits: Supporting People takes a preventative approach and thereby reduces the need for expensive social care delivering intensive care and support, or for increased call on health services e.g A&E, repeat hospital admissions. By estimating alternative costs if the programme was not in place, the evaluation identified that overall, Supporting People delivers a net financial benefit of £2.77 billion against an investment of £1.55 billion per annum.

The decision by the coalition government to maintain funding the programme could therefore be seen as a wish to continue to realise these benefits.

Evidence of the possible risks

The biggest risk to a continued realisation of the benefits delivered by Supporting People lies in the way the funding has been rolled into the general funding settlement for local authorities at a time when they have to make substantial cuts to their budgets.

It is hard to see how cuts of this extent will not put at risk the viability of some service providers, particularly smaller organisations who have less flexibility to balance the impact through other resources. More critically, cuts of this magnitude will mean that the nature and level of support that some vulnerable people will experience will be considerably reduced or removed altogether.4

Supporting People leaders, in response to a questionnaire, are predicting a significant increase in homelessness and in the use of more expensive crisis interventions (e.g. use of residential care, Bed and Breakfast accommodation). Senior level housing managers across the UK estimate cuts ranging from 10 to 50 per cent, with the majority falling between 10 and 30 per cent.5

This same questionnaire highlighted other issues relating to this policy change. A common trend in responses is the expectation of the ongoing replacement of specialist services (and specialist small providers) with more generic support, more targeted on higher needs, and with less flexibility to respond to issues for customers as they arose – i.e. loss of the truly preventative approach that Supporting People services were intended to provide.5

With the expected increase in homelessness it was envisaged there will be a concomitant increase in repeat offending and in the calls on other emergency services. For communities, the questionnaire highlighted concerns of increased neighbourhood ‘churn’, crime and anti-social behaviour, and ultimately higher costs for the taxpayer in the light of more crises.5

Any implications for health and wellbeing

Housing conditions are clearly associated with both physical and mental health.6

Homelessness and living in vulnerable housing are risk factors that are strongly associated with poorer health: death rates for rough sleepers and people living in temporary accommodation (such as those living in bed and breakfast or hotel accommodation) are much higher than those of the housed population.7

If these changes to funding arrangements result in an increase in homelessness or the use of temporary housing, there could be a detrimental impact on the health of those affected.

Authors: Neeraj Malhotra MSc, Public Health Specialty Registrar, West Midlands Deanery; Sarah Davis MA, Senior Policy and Planning Officer, Chartered Institute of Housing

References

1 Department for Communities and Local Government http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingolderpeople/ (accessed 18th March 2011).
2 Comprehensive Spending Review, HM Treasury, October 2010 http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/sr2010_completereport.pdf (accessed 18th March 2011).
3 Research into the financial benefits of the Supporting People programme. Capgemini 2008. http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/pdf/spprogramme.pdf (accessed 18th March 2011).
4 Supporting people: supporting service change in a time of pressure. Chartered institute of Housing and Local Government Association. December 2010. http://www.cih.org/policy/fpp-supportinpeeps-Dec10.pdf (accessed 18th March 2011)
5 Housing Magazine: Issue 44 Chartered Institute of Housing March 2011
6 NICE (2005) Housing and public health: a review of reviews of interventions for improving health. Evidence briefing December 2005
www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/pdf/housing_MAIN%20FINAL.pdf Accessed 02/05/2011
7. Life chances in Britain by housing wealth and for the homeless and vulnerably housed (1999) Shaw, M., Dorling, D. Brimblecome, N. Environment and Planning vol 31 p2239-2248