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HSEU Research into Funding of Housing Support

HSEU Research into Housing Support Funding Levels and Service Volume in Scotland in 2008/09

The Housing Support Enabling Unit undertook research to find out if local authorities in Scotland pay the full cost of the housing support services they commission and to see if the amount of housing support local authorities purchase changed following the removal of the Supporting People ring fence.

In 2007/2008 providers of housing support were asked a series of questions about their funding levels and service volume. In July 2009 this exercise was repeated.

This report seeks to use the findings of both years to identify trends in the funding and service volume of housing support in Scotland.

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Management of Housing Support Funding by Local Authorities: Information Collated in July 2008

The Unit has contacted each local authority in Scotland to find out how they are managing their funding for housing support in 2008/09.

Currently all local authority areas have a main contact who can discuss matters to do with housing support. However, Aberdeenshire, East Ayrshire and Shetland have all set in motion plans to disband their SP teams and other areas such as Fife have different contacts for different types of service. This means that in future housing support may not be seen as a distinct branch of social care and it will be much more difficult to track where the former SP budget has gone.

  • 20 local authority areas have maintained a single budget for housing support in 2008/09. Of these:
  • 6 have their funding for housing support as a single budget within their total social work budget
  • 4 believe that the funding for housing support will be disaggregated in 2009/10
  • 2 mentioned a high degree of uncertainty about what was happening to former SP money in their area.
  • 12 local authority areas have mainstreamed funding for housing support - generally distributing it between housing, homelessness and social work. Of these, 7 had mainstreamed their SP budget before the announcement of the removal of the ring fence which means that there has been no change in their management of their budget in 2008/09.

A table outling Local Authority Management of Housing Support Funding for each local authority area  has been collated.

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Plan to conduct a national survey of housing support services

The Housing Support Enabling Unit is conduction a national survey of housing support services to find out:

  • If individual local authorities in Scotland pay the full cost of the housing support services they commission
  • If the amounts of housing support local authorities purchase changes as the new funding arrangements take effect.
  • If the number of small packages of support lessen as funding is diverted to those with high support needs

Why we want to find this out

Over the last 5 years there has been considerable public spend on housing support under Supporting People - just over £400million in its last year. The programme has achieved a great deal: services have expanded and increasing numbers of service users have had access to them. Most importantly housing support has had a positive impact on people's lives. Housing support has also been shown to save money in other areas of public spend such as health and homelessness.

There is great concern amongst service providers and other stakeholders that housing support should continue and that it should be funded in a sustainable way. In particular there is concern that:

  • the SP ring fence removal will impact negatively on funding levels as local authorities face competing pressures on their budgets
  • less housing support services may be commissioned in future

How we intend to find this out

In 2007/08 providers of housing support were asked a series of questions about their funding levels and service volume and these questions were asked again in 2008/09 so that the findings could be compared.

First Year's Findings

The research report of the first year's findings is called HSEU research into housing support funding levels and service volume in Scotland from 2007/08

More information

Throughout June and July 2009 the HSEU is getting in touch with service managers to find out about their service volume and funding.

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