Different delivery

Over the past few years organisations working with residents in supporting housing have delivered life-changing services to people who, without them, would have suffered all kinds of injustice and hardship.

The recent Communities and Local Government department report on the value of Supporting People simply confirms what we all feel in our gut and know to be true about the great services we deliver; and we would clearly support the retention of public funding for supported housing.

Organisations, my own included, have raised concern about the removal of the Supporting People ring fence, flagged issues on the quality of contracting which has in some areas led to the transfer of risk, increased reporting and monitoring arrangements for providers and compromised the quality of services by spreading funding too thinly.

The effect of commissioning decisions has at times compromised the quality of services by delivering death by a thousand cuts to all services, rather than decisively and radically removing the worst services.

Unfortunately all of this is a reality of the environment we work in, and it is easy to fall into the trap that our attention should be focused in these areas. However, in previous recessions our sector has stepped up to the challenge and developed innovative services, whose legacy remains with us today.

One of my residents told me recently: ‘If you had given me £1,000 to sort myself out with minimal support when I became homeless then I would not have needed to live in homeless services for two years.’

As our operating environment becomes more difficult, the pressure is on us to develop new solutions - not just criticise the funding regimes in which we operate.

Chris Munday is managing director of care and support at Midland Heart