12 May 2006
Local authorities are struggling to provide appropriate housing for vulnerable adults because of cuts in the Supporting People grant, the Commission for Social Care Inspection has found.
The CSCI's report, Supporting People — promoting independence, published on May 9, found that many services that help house up to 1.2 million homeless people, older people or people with learning disabilities or mental illnesses, would be 'unsustainable' once the five-year SP grant ends in 2008.
Current levels of funding — reduced from £1.8bn in 2003 to £1.69m in 2006/07 — were also tight, the CSCI found. Uncertainty over how much each council's future allocations would be cut meant that it was not possible to plan ahead.
With regards to services for adults with learning disabilities, the CSCI said: 'It is clear there needs to be a radical review of supported housing… as there are growing concerns as to whether some of the current costs and models of support are sustainable. It is a worrying time for those providers whose funding is largely dependent on the Supporting People grant.'
The CSCI said it had 'particular concerns' about the sustainability of support services for such adults, as their funding was largely dependent on the temporary grant.
Although older people made up the highest number of SP service users, the CSCI's inspection of 40 councils found that they had the least amount of grant targeted towards them. In some cases councils were allocating less than £1 per week for each older person using a community alarm and just £12 for a sheltered housing resident.
The CSCI report follows a critical Audit Commission report last October. It warned that the year-on-year real-term reduction to the grant posed a 'barrier to progress' and threatened services to certain marginalised groups as councils sought to 'ration' their resources.
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