Housing Related Support Services Consultation

Overview

Warwickshire County Council is holding a public consultation about proposed changes to housing related support services. These services were previously known as Supporting People services.

These services help people to gain or maintain the skills needed to live independently in their own homes and avoid homelessness.

Feedback from the consultation will be reported to the County Council’s Cabinet in February 2015 when a decision will be taken about what services should be provided in the future.  Cabinet will also agree a Plan giving details of what will happen and when.

Why your views matter

What is housing related support?

We pay organisations such as housing associations, district councils, charities and voluntary groups to provide housing related support services across Warwickshire. Housing Related Support services aim to help people stay in their own home or work towards living in their own home by:

• Preventing problems that can cause homelessness, hospitalisation or institutional care
• Supporting people to live as independently as possible
• Delivering high quality, planned and cost effective support services.

Housing Related Support services are currently available to anyone aged 16 years and over across Warwickshire.

To find out what we mean by some of the terms used in this document please see the document below called Meaning of some terms used in the consultation.

What is happening in Warwickshire? 

We face a tough financial challenge and must save around £92m from our budget by 2018. This requires redesign of many services and finding new ways to do things, whilst at the same time ensuring that the most vulnerable residents are supported and that our services are as efficient and effective as possible. We are consulting on re-structuring Housing Related Support services to become more focused on those in the greatest need and those people who need support to prevent them needing care services. 

What does this mean? 

Over the next four years the budget available for housing related support will be reduced from £8.6m to £4.575m. This reduction means we have had to carefully consider how resources can be targeted in future to best support people with the greatest need. To achieve this we are proposing that services should only be available to those people who qualify for adult social care services or who are on the “edge of care”. 

We are proposing changes to services in a number of ways which include stopping some services, keeping some services the same and offering others in a different way. 

The aim of this consultation is to inform you about the proposals and the reasons for them. These proposals can be adjusted depending on what the people of Warwickshire tell us in the course of this consultation. We will wish to offer and deliver as many of the right services to the right people at the right time and your views about how we should do this are important. 

To check whether this includes services you use please see the document called Current List of Housing Related Support services. 

OUR PROPOSALS

The consultation questionnaire asks for your views on the proposals described below.

Section 1: Services we are proposing to offer in a different way.

The services affected would be accommodation based support and floating support services currently provided to:

• Some people with learning disabilities, mental health issues, and also some people with a physical disability and/or sensory impairment
• Some older people
• Single homeless people with a need for accommodation based Housing Related Support
• Young people who are at risk of homelessness, those leaving care and also young parents.

For details of the services that would be affected by this proposal please see the document called Section 1 Services affected.

We are making this proposal because:

• We want to support the most vulnerable people in our community and target services at those people who require the most support to prevent homelessness and maintain their independent living.
• We want to promote and protect the well-being of individuals by recognising the importance of preventing or delaying the development of needs for care and support.

This would also affect the level of support provided and the types of service offered to people in the future. However our intention is to support as many people as we can to meet their aspirations and outcomes more efficiently within the resources available to us.

Section 2: The services we are proposing to stop providing over the next four years

We propose to stop providing services provided exclusively for:

• Homeless families with support needs
• Gypsy & Traveller groups
• People with non-specialist, generic Housing Related Support needs.
• Adult offenders
• Floating support for Single Homeless people.
• Young offenders

For details of the services that would be affected by this proposal please see the document called Section 2 Services affected.

We are making these proposals because

• There would still be other Housing Related Support services that prevent homelessness which people could be signposted to for support in the future. These are the services covered by Section 1 of this document and also others that will remain unchanged as described in Section 3 below.
• Local services such as Citizens Advice Bureau and District & Borough Housing Options both offer advice and signposting. There is also access to the Warwickshire Service Directory (www.directory.warwickshire.gov.uk) an on line information portal which enables people to self-direct to advice and support services.
• We are also looking to develop a service which offers short term support to vulnerable adults who may be at risk of homelessness.
• The council and its partners have a statutory duty to provide services, some of which are currently being duplicated by the current Housing Related Support provision. - We want to focus our resources on protecting well-being and preventing the need for care services.

Section 3 –Services that will stay the same

There are some Housing Related Support services that we are not currently proposing to make any changes to at this time.

These are:

• Independent Living Service for people who misuse drugs and / or alcohol. This is because this service is jointly funded by other partners with a three year contract that began in April 2013.
• Services for people experiencing domestic abuse This is because this service is jointly funded with other partner agencies.

For details of the services covered by this proposal please see the document called Services that will stay the same.

It is intended that all of the above services will be reviewed in the future and your views will help this process.

HAVE YOUR SAY

Why should I get involved?

These proposals for re-structuring services will mean that Housing Related Support services will be very different from what is provided currently. The proposals would have an impact on many people accessing Housing Related Support both now and in the future. If you use these services then your views and ideas on the proposed changes are important so that we can work with you to re-shape Housing Related Support services. Your contribution is important and can make a difference.

How can I get involved?

You can put forward your views either individually or as part of a group in the following ways:

• Complete the questionnaire on line
• Complete a paper copy of the questionnaire and send it to: FREEPOST NO. RRXX-KTSC-XYLA, Housing Related Support Consultation, People Group (Strategic Commissioning Business Unit), Warwickshire County Council, Saltisford Office Park, Building 2, Ansell Way, WARWICK. CV34 4UL
•  EMAIL your views and / or the questionnaire to: spteam@warwickshire.gov.uk

How can you get in involved in helping us develop future Housing Related Support services?

We want to work with you by offering opportunities for you to get involved in redeveloping Housing Related Support services. If you are interested in working with us, please click on the link here.

What happens next

This consultation has now closed.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to give us their views.

We will collate all of the consultation responses and use the information provided to inform the future of Housing Related Support services in Warwickshire. A consultation report will then be published on the County Council’s website in February 2015 

We also expect that the final plan will be submitted to Cabinet for decision-making on 19 February 2015 with the plan being implemented over a three year period starting in April 2015.