Ministers are locked in a wrangle over who should pick up the bill for a scheme caring for tens of thousands of vulnerable people which has run more than £1 billion over budget.

Social care minister Steven Ladyman is demanding that separate funding be found for people with learning disabilities and mental health problems if they are excluded from the Supporting People programme under a current Whitehall review.

Government Response: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

A spokesman for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said: "The Supporting People programme provides housing related support for over one million vulnerable people, including older people, those with learning disabilities, people who are homeless, who have fled domestic violence or who have come out of hospital or prison. It currently provides around 250,000 units of support, compared to around 100,000 four years ago.

 

"The programme went live on April 1, 2003 and brought together nine different funding streams into one single pot. In its first year the pot was £1.8 billion, and the government is sustaining this at £1.8 billion in 2004/05.

 

"The original estimates of the SP pot size in a 1998 White Paper were that it would be around £350-£700 million across Great Britain. However, it was soon recognised that there was far more housing related support than initially realised (as the costs were hidden within other benefit funding streams, such as Housing Benefit), also that housing related support was expanding. December 2002 estimates were that the pot would be £1.4 billion. By April 1, 2003, the Supporting People pot was £1.8 billion.

 

"Due to the late and significant growth in the size of the programme, the government commissioned an Independent Review to look at value for money and the variation in unit costs and services across local authorities. The Review has found that there are wide variations in unit costs between authorities, and that £1.8bn is too much to pay for the legacy services. It recommends that efficiency savings can be made, but that the pace of change needs to be managed to avoid difficulties for service users and small providers.

 

"The Independent Review believes that Supporting People is currently funding some services that are not housing related support (eg. care services), and that there are areas where value for money is not being achieved.  The government has therefore put in place a comprehensive programme of work to inform our understanding of the programme and ensure that it is only paying for housing related support, including asking the Audit Commission to conduct thorough reviews in a number of Local authorities to inform our understanding of the programme. This will enable us to target funding appropriately and ensure that all vulnerable people can access the support that they need.

 

"Departments are working closely together on the Supporting People programme as part of SR04.

 

"As the report shows, Supporting People has been widely welcomed by the sector, is improving people’s lives and has been one of the most imaginative policy innovations for many years."

 

Forum Response: Disabilities Trust

 

Matt Townsend, public affairs officer for the Disabilities Trust, told ePolitix.com: "The Disabilities Trust fully supports health minister Stephen Ladyman's determination that people with disabilities are not neglected in any review of the Supported Living Fund.

 

"The fund has been a real step forward in providing innovative financial support to vulnerable people in our society.  While we recognise (as do others) that it was initially designed to focus on groups such as older people, it has proved a very effective mechanism for enabling people with disabilities to live more independently. For example, some of the clients we at The Disabilities Trust support are people with an acquired brain injury, many of whom are able to regain a degree of independence once their initial rehabilitation programme has been completed. The Trust feels it is crucial that the necessary funding structures are in place to provide people with complex disabilities the opportunity to effectively reintegrate into society and gain increased control of their lives. The Supported Living Fund has helped this  process and has proved to be flexible enough to accommodate the varying degree of individual need such user groups may have.

 

"It is therefore to be regretted that the government have apparantly moved to cap the overall level of the fund and ask for efficiency savings from local authorities. We're not sure that such savings will be easy to find and the consequence may be that local authorities feel under even more financial pressure. While we understand the difficulties that the programmes' take-up may have created, we would urge the Treasury and ODPM to think again as this fund has genuinely 'made a difference' and helped to facilitate a greater degree of independence for people with disabilities."  

 

Forum Response: Depression Alliance

 

Jim Thomson, chief executive of the Depression Alliance, told ePolitix.com: "Supporting People is an innovative project which delivers real benefit to a great many people. It is no wonder that such a programme is over-subscribed when service provision for people affected by mental health problems is, at best, patchy. Once the government begin to realise the real impact of mental illness on society (and realise that depression is also a severe and enduring mental illness) then they will be able to take more realistic steps towards supporting this large group of extremely vulnerable people."