This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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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