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Auditor general questions Welsh Government decision to delay Supporting People guidance
The auditor general for Wales has questioned the Welsh Government’s decision to delay updated guidance for its Supporting People programme.
Huw Vaughan Thomas, who heads the Welsh Audit Office, warned that holding up the guidance “may diminish its value”.
Ministers previously indicated that fresh guidance for the £125m grant scheme would be issued in spring 2018, but it is still yet to appear.
Supporting People sees local authorities given cash to fund housing-related support services for people at risk of homelessness and other vulnerable groups.
The Welsh Government intends to merge the programme with other poverty-preventing schemes to form an ‘Early Intervention, Prevention and Support Grant’ – a move which has been criticised by some service providers.
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A report published in May by the Welsh Assembly’s cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the changes risk “letting down vulnerable and elderly people”.
It recommended that revised guidance for Supporting People be issued “quickly to provide the required clarity overall”.
The Welsh Government’s response to the report accepted the recommendation and said guidance was deliberately delayed “to avoid undue confusion as we moved forward with flexible funding pathfinders”.
In a letter to Nick Ramsay, chair of the PAC, Mr Vaughan Thomas said: “The Welsh Government has put the further delay down to a desire to avoid undue confusion as it moved forward with its flexible funding pathfinders.
“However, I would have expected the guidance to have helped clarify expectations and the point at which the risk of confusion might have been greatest now seems to have passed.
“If the Welsh Government moves forward with its plans to introduce the new integrated grant from April 2019, the delay in the publication of the Supporting People guidance may diminish its value.”
The PAC will discuss the Welsh Government’s response to its report at a private meeting on Tuesday.
Mr Vaughan Thomas also suggested that the committee ask the Welsh Government to “clarify” why it rejected a recommendation to quantify how much money can be saved by integrating Supporting People with other grants.
The Welsh Government has committed to publishing the new guidance “as quickly as possible and no later than the end of August of this year”.
A spokesperson for the Welsh Government said: “The guidance for the Supporting People Programme will be published imminently.”
Update: at 9.00am, 17.07.18 A comment from the Welsh Government was added to the story.
