EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - Draft
Purpose
“The purpose of the five year strategy is to examine critically the services inherited from the previous funding streams, and focus them on local need and strategic priorities”
Focus on the Future (ODPM 2003)
Developing the Strategy
The key elements that have been used to prepare and inform the 5-year SP Strategy in Surrey, as advocated in the Focus on the Future are:
The supply analysis (services inherited in April 2003)
The review process
Strategic relevance
Quality Assessment
Value for Money
Local needs mapping and research
There has been wide consultation in the development of the Supporting People Strategy in Surrey, not only with all our statutory partners but also with service providers and service users. We were particularly keen to receive contributions from those not currently in SP services, to find out the kind of provision we should be looking to provide in the future – for example for the next generation of older people, or for individuals from ethnic minorities who do not feel well served by existing services.
Further information about the building blocks of our strategy can be found in the meat of this document and the complete research projects that have fed into the process can be made available separately on request.
A Supporting People Vision for Surrey
“ Working in partnership to offer vulnerable people the opportunity to improve their quality of life by providing housing related support services, which enable them to have greater independence and control in making choices within their lives.”
Our vision for Supporting People in Surrey has two crucial elements. The first captures the ideal which was cited by the Government when the programme was first conceived:
“The Supporting People programme 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, which are both cost effective, robustly funded and planned using a coordinated approach”. Supporting People: Policy into Practice (Ministerial Foreword, DETR, January 2001)
The second element of our vision is achieving the above is through partnership. In a large 2-tier authority like Surrey with a total of 18 statutory partners, there are huge challenges in terms of managing the market and achieving strategic consensus.
We know from our supply and needs mapping that we have got a long way to go to achieve our vision of increased choice for vulnerable people. There is a need for more services for virtually every client group, if individuals are to have genuine choices in the crucial areas of choosing their accommodation, who they live with and what kind of support they receive. The only exception to under-supply is traditional sheltered housing for older people, where it is recognised that there is a surplus of provision.
Clearly, within the constraints of a cash limited grant, we are not going to be able to help everyone we would like to help immediately – or even within the 5-year timeframe of this strategy. However, our plan for the next 5-years is to map out a process and timetable whereby funds will gradually be re-distributed in order to meet the strategic objectives endorsed by all our statutory partners. This will be through a combination of factors:
· Commissioning new services
· Re-modelling existing services in cooperation with the providers so that they are more effective in meeting our strategic priorities.
· Withdrawing funds from a small number of services which are not strategically relevant.
· Re-negotiating contract prices where value for money is not being achieved
· Working very closely with sheltered housing providers to see if there are ways of re-modelling their services or re-directing funds to other strategic priorities as schemes are run down.
Strategic Priorities in Surrey
We have rigorously tested the strategic priorities that emerged in our Shadow Supporting people Strategy in October 2002. Broadly these strategic priorities have been reinforced by the work we have done. The five priorities were:
· Women at risk of domestic violence
· Young People and care leavers
· People with multiple and complex needs (often people who are homeless/at risk of homelessness with mental health, alcohol and drugs needs, a history of offending and challenging behaviour)
· Frail elderly people (including those with dementia)
· People with learning disabilities
In addition, other priorities have been highlighted to us: floating support services for people with mental health problems; targeted provision for particular client groups (those with brain acquired injuries or people on the autistic spectrum, for example). Efforts have been made to weave these priorities into our strategic planning so that, as we meet some targets early in the programme (for example services for young people) we can look at other groups later in the 5-year strategic programme.
We have also been mindful of regional and cross authority issues, and in particular the challenges of attracting capital funding to areas outside the growth areas. Therefore, we have tested the validity of floating support services through research and we have determined that these services are a key plank in our strategy to provide appropriate support, enabling vulnerable individuals to live independently and preventing them from needing more acute services from the statutory agencies.
These priorities have the broad endorsement of all the Supporting People Statutory partners in Surrey.
