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Supported housing organisations need to be aware of the changes being introduced by the Supporting People programme, says the Housing Corporation's Nick Sweet.

Most people in the supported housing sector are conscious that their world is about to be turned upside down by the Supporting People programme, but they usually focus on procedural changes or funding issues. However, for support providers to be successful in making the changes, adjustments to procedures and financing must be accompanied by corresponding changes in culture and attitudes. It will be those organisations with an eye to the future that will thrive in this new and unfamiliar landscape.

The introduction of Supporting People on 1 April 2003 means that from that date ownership of support services in the community will be handed over to local administering authorities. Previously, in most of the sector, the service provider had ownership. This will undergo a radical reform as from that date local commissioning groups, consisting of representatives from housing, social services, probation and health, will commission and monitor support services provided. Although, of course, landlords will still own the physical buildings and the landlord services provided to tenants of those buildings.

Until now providers have tended to view each individual scheme as a stand-alone service, and examine the operation of each service at the "micro" level. But with this change in ownership it will be vital for providers to take a strategic view of support services, and to view their services in the wider strategic context.

Under the Housing Corporation-funded regime, allowable support services were very narrowly specified as a form of intensive housing management, with the clear purpose of sustaining someone in their tenancy. While this tenancy sustainment will still be a major part of the Supporting People programme, it may not be the primary objective in any support contract offered. The Supporting People initiative is being promoted on the basis of a raft of preventive programmes, the prevention of homelessness being just one among many. For example, the Safer Cities programme aims to support people who offend or who are at risk of offending, and the primary purpose of services commissioned through this strategy may well be to prevent people entering or re-entering the criminal justice system. The challenge for providers - many of whom are also landlords - is to ensure that the primary purpose of the service is maintained and that their landlord interests do not dominate.

In recent years, registered social landlords and voluntary agencies have become comfortable with the notion of tenants being customers, and have put great effort into developing this relationship. They have informed tenants of the levels of service they can expect, told them how to complain and many have gone as far as introducing compensation policies for those times of service failure.

However, for supported housing services this has usually been confined to landlords' side of the equation. Support services are difficult to define, which has not helped in specifying standards. Consequently, customers have had less information on the type and level of service, and monitoring and evaluation of effectiveness have suffered accordingly. There has not been the same level of consumer relationship in these services as in landlord services.

The introduction of Supporting People and the splitting of support from landlord services will for the first time put the spotlight on those support services. Providers will be held accountable to service users in a new way. Support services will need to be provided to specified, acceptable standards, and all of this communicated to the service recipient. For support service providers to thrive in the new Supporting People system there will need to be a clear separation between those accountabilities they have as landlords, and those they have as support providers.

The changes that Supporting People will bring to the supported housing sector are fundamental. They herald a significant cultural change, with which the sector has to engage urgently and with commitment. The policy holds out the real promise of producing the strategic support services that should exist for vulnerable people. It is those providers who recognise and adapt to these changes who will be able to move towards the Supporting People future with confidence.

Nick Sweet is national co-ordinator for the Housing Corporation's Supporting People work.