Decision not to make authorities account for spending met with anger
CLG sparks funding row
Sheltered housing providers have rounded on the government after it insisted it will not hold councils responsible for the amount they spend on supported housing.
The Communities and Local Government department response to a select committee report on supported housing funding was dubbed a ‘missed opportunity’ by the National Housing Federation.
The Communities and Local Government select committee had recommended that councils account for how they decided to spend Supporting People cash. Some service providers fear that local authorities will not spend all of the money on supported housing because it is being integrated into the lump sum councils are given by the government to pay for services.
However, the CLG said it would not impose reporting requirements on councils, but would instead monitor the provision of supported housing through national indicators.
Helen Williams, assistant director at the National Housing Federation, said it was worried that ‘without greater accountability of where the money is spent locally, it will be harder to retain funding for these services’.
The committee’s report also said that short contracts and frequent retendering were expensive for small providers and charities.
A survey of 130 housing associations by the NHF earlier this month, revealed that 24 per cent of supported housing providers are considering not bidding to renew their contracts due to stagnant council fees.
Responding to this, the CLG said contract terms were a matter for councils but it ‘recognises the need for the third sector to have continuity of funding’.
The CLG also said it was inappropriate for the ministerial sheltered housing working group to look at whether sheltered housing should be included in Supporting People and whether the split of funding for support services and money for buildings would suppress the amount of new supported housing built.
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Readers' comments (1)
Joe Halewood | 22/01/2010 11:52 am
This article neatly addresses the problem with supported housing.
The largest lobby group is sheltered housing - itself not necessarily (or at all)supported housing - and the 'sub-sector' with typically the lowest level of support delivery. Thats like asking Sinclair C5 owners to lobby on behalf of the needs of petrolheads!
I note there is a Ministerial SHELTERED Housing Working Group but not a Ministerial Supported Housing Working Group. Why? As such those that have been lobbying central government are not reflective of the supported housing sector.
The real supported housing sector has never had a lobby as it is so disparate and diverse and it has never developed a lobby even if that were possible. As a result we see the flawed comments (again) here that '24% of supported housing providers' cant afford to recontract -when in fact its 24% of the 35% of providers that happen to be housing associations. There are just as many charities in number and percentage terms as housing associations delivering housing-related support. So even IH reporters fail to recognise what the supported housing sector providers consist of.
If the largest housing industry magazine fails to recognise that key point is it any wonder that central government fundamentally misunderstands supported housing?
However, even if the real supported housing sector could have bandied together the likely result would have been the same. The attitude and strategy of central government is to pass all blame for this onto local government.
The incredulity of CLG in stating contracts are a matter for councils is one example. If thats so why did ODPM - the CLG forerunner - draft the original contract for all local authorities then?
The CLG also know that it cant (and nobody can) 'monitor the provision of supported housing through national indicators' - it is an impossibility as the national indicators cant give this information.
The message is clear - Supporting People and the Supported Housing sector(s) is dead in the water and is not the responsibility of national government. When it fails, and there is no doubt that it will fail, its local goernments fault is the CLG and central government message! Yet it will fail the most vulnerable members of society and that is unacceptable, totally unacceptable.
Bizarrely, this sector that is bound now to fail, is known to save the public purse massively and heralded as a great success by the same central government! Just as an aside to make that point does anyone here know of another initiiative that saves the public purse about 3 times what it invests?
Yet its also a failure of those who claim to represent supported housing. Those groups including NHF and others were given money by (buy?) central government to promote and champion SP as a success - 30 pieces of silver anyone?
The reality for support housing providers is that even if they prove their service is excellent in quality, badly needed and addresses known need, is wonderful in cost terms, etc - then that service is now competing against road, library, education and social service budgets....or even junkets for councillors
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