Supporting People
Birmingham has the largest Supporting People programme in the country. The annual grant of £51.9m funds housing related support for up to 36,000 service users, who are amongst the most vulnerable people in the city. The programme is designed to help people live independently and to improve quality of life for a wide range of groups including older people, people with learning disabilities and mental health problems, people at risk of homelessness and domestic violence and young people.
Supporting People is a partnership programme overseen by a Commissioning Body made up of representatives from the Council, Health and Probation services.
A CLG report, published in 2009, evidenced that the £1.6bn invested in the Supporting People Programme nationally, saves other public services £3.41bn. This is because early intervention and support reduces the need for higher cost interventions such as admission to hospitals, residential care homes and homelessness. Savings are made by local authorities, health services, the Police and Probation. In Birmingham this means an annual investment of £51.9m can deliver savings of up to £108m
The Supporting People programme was introduced in 2003. The City Council has used Audit Commission inspection recommendations to help shape the commissioning programme to procure high quality, cost effective services.
To date half of all the new contracts to provide housing related support, to different groups of vulnerable people, have been awarded and are in place, with services underway.
The new providers have been selected on quality and value for money criteria. Service users have been involved in the design of new services, as well as testing the quality of potential providers.
In excess of 800 service users have been involved throughout the commissioning process and have helped scope, shape and assess services provided. This is to ensure the Birmingham Supporting People programme meets customer needs throughout this process.
Birmingham is nationally recognised for its outstanding work in this area, having won the UK Housing Award 2009 for meeting the need of vulnerable people. The council was commended for involving customers in the assessment of funded services.
The contracts providing support for service users with learning difficulties or mental health problems will be implemented in the next six to twelve months.
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