Doncaster Council

Introduction

Supporting People has changed the way housing related support services are paid for and managed. It offers vulnerable people the opportunity to improve their quality of life by providing positive services, which enable them to have greater independence and control in making choices within their lives. It promotes housing related support services that are both cost effective, planned and reliable using a co-coordinated approach. 

Doncaster's vision for the programme sets out how Doncaster's partnership intends to make the best use of opportunities the programme brings locally:

To deliver high quality, diverse housing related support services, which integrate well with related services, in order to enable vulnerable people to achieve their full potential

What are the benefits of the Supporting People Programme?

Supporting People will give vulnerable people the opportunity to improve the quality of their lives by providing a stable supported housing environment. The Supporting People programme will achieve this by:

• Focussing service planning and delivery on the needs of vulnerable individuals;
• Bringing about a flexible and needs-led service provision;
• Improving the standards of supported housing services through a process of contract monitoring service reviews;
• Introducing transparency and accountability into service commissioning and procurement;
• Encouraging joint planning and funding across different statutory organisations, chiefly housing, social services, health and probation;
• Ensuring that Supporting People Strategy will tie in with other local strategies: Local Area Agreement and Borough Strategy.   

Another key benefit of the Supporting People programme is the improvement and promotion in the supported housing sector which offers timely housing support – allowing vulnerable people to avoid long term care.

Under the Supporting People arrangement a wider range of people will have access to community based support services, which could enable people to remain independent in their homes for a longer period.

What do we mean by housing related support services?

Housing related support services are services which:

• Develop an individual’s capacity to live independently or sustain their capacity to do so;
• Help to expand the tenancy choices for people, this includes people who might be in care or in danger of becoming homeless;
• Provide immediate refuge.   

Who Benefits From The Supporting People Programme?

The programme in Doncaster funds support services provided in hostels, women's refuges, supported living schemes, sheltered accommodation and floating support services to over 10,000 vulnerable people in the Borough.

These include:

• People with mental health needs
• People with learning disabilities
• People with a physical or sensory disability
• People who are homeless
• Older people with support needs
• Young people at risk
• Young people leaving care
• Women fleeing domestic violence
• Offenders or people at risk of offending
• Black and minority ethnic groups
• Refugees
• Travellers
• People with drug and/or alcohol problems  

What Does Supporting People Pay For?

The Supporting People Grant can only be used for housing related support services. It cannot be used to pay for care, personal support, housing management or specialist counselling. Schemes that provide these other services must have other funding sources in place for them.