This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
Funding programme for vulnerable Scots
11/03/2003
More than 100,000 of Scotland's most vulnerable people are to benefit from £200 million of funding during the first year of the Supporting People programme announced today.
The programme, which becomes operational on 1 April 2003, is a new integrated funding framework for housing support services. It is based on a transfer of funding from a number of existing streams including elements of transitional housing benefit, currently administered by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) at UK level, Special Needs Allowance Package (SNAP) and the Resettlement Grant.
The money will be divided among local authorities who will run the Supporting People programme through partnerships with local housing associations and other service providers.
It will be be used to help vulnerable people, such as the homeless, older people affected by ill-health and people with learning disabilities, to live independently in the community.
Some examples of how the funding could be used include:
- helping older people remain in their own home longer by funding warden services
- providing community-based housing support for people with learning difficulties moving from institutional care to their own home in the community
- helping vulnerable young people to cope with new responsibilities and to contribute positively to their community
Des McNulty, Deputy Minister for Social Justice said:
"Improving the quality and effectiveness of support services to those who need them most is an integral part of the Scottish Executive's social justice agenda. The Supporting People initiative complements recent achievements such as the passage of the Homelessness (Scotland) Bill, which gave homeless people new rights to housing, and the launch of the European Year of Disabled People in Scotland. It is also further evidence of our support for elderly people and builds on such initiatives as free personal and nursing care, free off-peak local bus travel and our free central heating programme.
"The £200 million announced today will help our most vulnerable people to become and remain independent in the community. For some, it will mean the difference between being able to stay in their own home and having to go into care, or between being homeless and keeping a roof over their heads.
"The Supporting People programme puts individuals and their needs at the heart of service planning and will change the way that local authorities and their partners design and deliver housing support services."
David Orr, Chief Executive of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA), said:
"There has been a great deal of co-operation between the Executive, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) and the SFHA in managing this very complex transition. It is vital that the remaining details are speedily resolved and that Supporting People is successfully introduced to ensure a continuous service for some very vulnerable people. We are happy to play an active role in the implementation forum proposed by the Executive to achieve this."
Adding their support to the initiative, CoSLA spokesperson Alan McKeown said:
"The launch of the Supporting People initiative marks the beginning of a new style of delivery of support services. With anything new, there will be a degree of unfamiliarity. There can be no doubt that there are many difficult issues ahead and it is our collective responsibility to ensure that we focus on the delivery of quality services. Working in partnership is the only sure way to guarantee success and CoSLA and Scottish local government will play its part in ensuring that this Executive initiative is on track for success."
The Supporting People programme was announced in 1998 as a new method of providing housing related support to vulnerable members of society. Since then, Transitional Housing Benefit, administered through the DWP, has been the main source of funding for housing support services.
The Supporting People grant announced today is based on the transfer of funding from a number of existing streams, including Transitional Housing Benefit, Special Needs Allowance Package (SNAP) and the Resettlement Grant.
Housing support services are to be differentiated from care services and housing management services. At one end of the spectrum, housing support services can include low-level support such as assistance with paperwork and payment of bills and at the other can include providing advice to to help with cooking or cleaning if required, where a person has a specific need.
The Executive has worked closely with a range of partners, including CoSLA, local authorities, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and other service providers to develop the new arrangements for Supporting People and to manage the transition from the current arrangements to the new arrangements. The Executive is establishing a forum together with CoSLA and SFHA to manage Supporting People over the transition period to address issues as they arise.
The Homelessness (Scotland) Bill completed stage 3 in the Scottish Parliament on 5 March and will receive Royal Assent shortly.
Annex: Provisional Grant Allocation to Local Authorities under Supporting People funding framework.
Local Authority Provisional Grant 2003-2004 (pounds)
Scotland 207,290,878
Aberdeen City 4,518,339
Aberdeenshire 6,558,079
Angus 2,176,091
Argyll & Bute 9,044,351
Clackmannanshire 2,218,353
Dumfries & Galloway 9,519,414
Dundee 7,054,361
East Ayrshire 2,554,940
East Dunbartonshire 4,286,282
East Lothian 2,432,810
East Renfrewshire 4,186,263
City of Edinburgh 10,875,098
Eilean Siar 222,239
Falkirk 2,357,516
Fife 12,119,800
Glasgow City 26,629,752
Highland 9,456,483
Inverclyde 6,410,330
Midlothian 4,288,337
Moray 2,933,297
North Ayrshire 4,207,475
North Lanarkshire 18,120,451
Orkney 131,933
Perth & Kinross 3,050,442
Renfrewshire 10,309,113
Scottish Borders 1,936,449
Shetland 262,447
South Ayrshire 5,023,771
South Lanarkshire 15,960,248
Stirling 2,197,061
West Dunbartonshire 9,890,224
West Lothian 6,359,129