Information Bulletin
10 June 2004
Shetland Islands Council Develops Supporting People Training and Links with other Island Authorities
Shetland Islands Council recently welcomed delegates from Orkney Islands Council and Western Isles Council to training sessions with local staff on issues around the Supporting People funding initiative.
Training sessions were delivered by local independent trainer Sue Horne, and by Senior Supporting People Officer from East Ayrshire Council, Geoff Crow. Yvette Burgess from the Supporting People Enabling Unit, based in Edinburgh, also attended the event to give a presentation on the unit. Sessions were held over three days from 18th to 20th May 2004.
The Supporting People funding stream was launched in April 2003 and Shetland is one of the first local authorities in Scotland to arrange cross authority training on this subject.
Local Supporting People Officer, Emma Miller, said "The cross authority training is a really good way of our staff getting an idea of how things are done in the other island authorities. We have a lot of issues in common, being smaller and more remote than the mainland authorities. Supporting People is a complex funding stream and events like this raise awareness for staff within the council and other local and national organisations."
Elma Groat, Supporting People Officer for Orkney Islands Council added "Our staff who came up for the training found it to be a really useful opportunity to find out how supporting People has been developed, and also to develop links with their counterparts in Shetland Islands Council. We are hoping to run a similar event as a follow up in Orkney later in the summer."
Housing Spokesperson, Councillor Gordon Mitchell commented: "Supporting People is an important new strategy being introduced by the Scottish Parliament: aimed at helping the most vulnerable groups in our area. Training on how the strategy will work is vital to those whose task is to ensure that vulnerable people get maximum benefit from it. The recent training sessions have been invaluable in equipping all concerned for the tasks ahead."
End
Further Information
Supporting People is an integrated policy and funding framework introduced in April 2003 to provide good quality housing support services. Under section 91 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 local authorities are granted funds to provide, or contribute to the provision of, housing support services as specified in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 (Housing Support Services) Regulations 2002.
Scottish local authorities were awarded more than £408 million for 2004/2005, of which Shetland will receive £788,470. This will be used to provide housing support services to over 90 people throughout the isles.
Report on Supporting People Training in Shetland
Shetland Islands Council recently organised training sessions for all staff involved in Supporting People.
There were three levels of training which were offered to anyone in the public, private or voluntary sector who had an interest in Supporting People, or who just wanted to know a bit more about what it was and how it has developed.
There was a very good turn out over the three days. 48 people from a wide range of agencies attended the sessions. Departments/agencies represented were:
- Shetland Islands Council - Housing Department
- Shetland Islands Council - Social Work Department
- Shetland Islands Council - Planning Department
- Shetland Islands Council - Education Department
- Shetland Islands Council - Elected Members
- Orkney Islands Council
- Eilean Siar
- East Ayrshire Council
- The Care Commission
- Supporting People Enabling Unit
- Advocacy Shetland
- Northern Constabulary
- Shetland Welfare Trust
- Shetland Council of Social Services
- Shetland Women's Aid
- The Lochbank Trust
Session One
The first session was run by local independent trainer, Sue Horne, and was a short half day session, run twice as an introduction for those who wanted a general overview of Supporting People to enable them to understand the main issues and answer questions from colleagues and service users.
The main issues of concern raised at these sessions were:
- Direct Payments
- The role of agencies i.e. CAB and Advocacy to assist with administration
- Unmet Need
- Additional funding to meet current unmet need
- Potential cuts in current budget will increase unmet need
- Future Services
- No provision in grant to develop current or future services
Session Two
The second session was specifically aimed at provider staff and covered issues such as the background to the grant, the role of the strategic plan, monitoring issues, and also gave those attending a chance to raise their concerns and questions about the implementation and administration of Supporting People.
This session was run by Geoff Crow of East Ayrshire Council, and included a presentation from Yvette Burgess from eh Supporting People Enabling Unit. Representatives from the Care Commission were also present for a time to answer questions.
The main issues raised during the provider session were:
- Monitoring
-Volume of monitoring may begin to edge out service delivery
-Level of duplication in monitoring from SP team / Care Commission and other regulatory bodies
- Finance
-Care Commission Registration Costs unrealistic for smaller providers
-Cost of training for staff to provide high quality services
-No inflationary increase - current grant does not cover services, how will services continue to run at a loss
- Client Confidentiality
-Care Commission and monitoring - particular issue for Women's Aid
- Focus on Inputs, should be outcomes
-Original financial assessment seems to have been done backwards, looking at the inputs, not the long term outcome
- Training
- Growth to meet need
-How will future costs be met when current costs are not?
-How will services grow to meet need?
- Administration
Session Three
The third session, also run by Geoff Crow, was aimed at Steering Group members and senior service managers. In addition to providing a background to Supporting People funding, and the purpose of the Strategic Plan, this session was used to discuss the issues which other staff had raised and to look at the implications on services in the future.
The group also looked at the statistics showing the split of funding currently across the country, and where the island authorities were in relation to mainland authorities. It was made clear that little can be done to move forward with Supporting People services until the results of the current Expenditure Review are know, and how much money might be available from 2005/06.
In addition to discussing issues from the other sessions, this group praised the following concerns:
- Supporting People seems very complex and disjointed. A lot of the issues don't make practical sense.
- Many of the services provided as Supporting People overlap with other services provided by the Social Work department and other external agencies.
- Why were local authorities nut just given funds to spend on services in the best way possible - why are there additional administration problems with reviews and monitoring?
- Direct Payments - People providing services through Direct Payments do not have to be registered with the Care Commission. If there is a problem with Service provision, it is likely to be the local authority who get the blame for not monitoring fully.
- Future funding difficulties and the lack of scope to develop services has been increased by the 31st March 2003 cut off point from anyone to identify a current or future support need.
- We need to start using current and projected statistics to lobby politicians to illustrate the need for the continued development of housing support services.
For further information please contact Chris Medley, Head of Housing Service, or Vaila Simpson, Senior Housing Officer - Policy and Strategy, on 01595 744360
A copy of the Supporting People Strategy can be requested from the Supporting People team on 01595 744397 or 744383.