Supporting People Evaluation Update
Scottish Executive Officers are regularly told by providers and commissioners how 'fantastic' and 'amazing' Supporting People has been, what 'wonderful opportunities' it provided, and how services to people have been 'transformed' as a result. We know from the life stories we hear that this is the case. However in order to put forward arguments to Scottish Ministers to sustain funding levels the Scottish Executive needs measurable, robust, reliable evidence.
Impact monitoring research evaluated by GEN consultants is looking at the level of efficiency improvements made to the programme and the impact of the budget changes made in the last Spending Review. In addition, the Scottish Executive has commissioned three independent pieces of research in order to evaluate the programme in Scotland.
Cost Benefits Research
Tribal were successful in tendering for this work, back in 2006, and at the time of writing this article the report was being finalised.
The original piece of work looked at the costs of the programme in Scotland and the financial benefits identified as savings to other services, such as care home admissions, homelessness, hospitalisation, etc. Tribal evaluated £402m (95% of the £422m budget for 2004-5) and identified 90% in financial benefits or avoided costs elsewhere in the system.
However Tribal were also careful to emphasise that there are considerable quality of life benefits, which can't be quantified in monitory terms but which are still crucial in any assessment of the programme's worth. This has been demonstrated in the report through the use of anonymised real life stories, and we are grateful to those concerned for sharing their experiences. Tribal concluded that when these quality of life benefits were also taken into account the programme provided value for money. This is obviously reassuring, although this year's Spending Review is still expected to be extremely tight, with many competing pressures, leaving an uncertain outlook for the programme at present.
Frankie benefiting from the Supporting Living Initiative
Once finalised, the report and a summary will be available on the SP website.
Unit Costs
The need for this research became apparent when it was shown that the average spend per client was twice as expensive in Scotland than in England. Costs in Scotland vary from local authority to local authority.
This research is still underway. However the findings to date appear to show that:
1. The costs in Scotland are greater because we spend more on older people and adults with learning disabilities
2. In Scotland the average amount spent on an older person is in the region of £1,400/year compared to £300 per person in England. The reasons for this are:
- the scale of provision is much larger in England; less staff support many more people
- the support arrangements are different (less on site provision and more on call arrangements)
3. In Scotland we spend more on people with learning disabilities and support people who have significant care needs but still wish to occupy their own tenancy. The research suggests that in England the policy on use of Supporting People was different and people with high needs were not eligible.
4. Similarly the policy of capping the number of Housing Support hours funded by SP is a feature in England and whilst it is used by a few Scottish councils this has not been an approach adopted in Scotland.
Again, once this work is finalised the report will be available on the SP website.
Outcomes
DTZ Pieda was commissioned to look at a means of evaluating how people benefit from Supporting People services. The Scottish Executive collects lots of statistics and data about the numbers of people helped, hours of support, type of service offered, but nothing that evidences how well the service has supported the person, the benefits, the changes to people's lives - in other words, the outcomes.
The outcomes research was concluded in March 2007 and the report and proposed model is available on the SP website.
The next stage of this work is to pilot the model and associated recording system to see if:
- it offers a useful framework that should be rolled out
- it is suitable to a range of client groups and all services
- it should be introduced for all service users or only for samples
- the information generated about the benefits to individuals can produce valuable 'hard' national outcomes
- What practical issues need to be addressed if implementation proceeds around IT, training, etc.
The pilot should be underway from June to November 2007 across the spectrum of Supporting People-funded services, and the evaluation of the pilot will draw on feedback from people who experienced the model: the service users, providers and commissioning staff.
More information on the pilot is available on the SP website at: www.scotland.gov.uk/topics/housing/supportingpeople/dtzpiedareport