News

The Association of Directors of Social Services has written to the government expressing its concern for the future of services funded under Supporting People, amid fears that the programme's budget could be slashed by 15 per cent in the next financial year.

For the past two years, councils have been asked to model budget increases and budget cuts of 15 per cent. The ADSS is concerned that the government could now be planning to make the latter a reality, following its warning earlier this year of "significant reductions" for 2005-6.

In a letter to Terri Alafat, head of the Homelessness Directorate, ADSS Supporting People lead John Nawrockyi warns that any such drastic reduction would have "profound consequences". He wrote: "There would be a major impact on the provision of support services to many vulnerable individuals, and you will appreciate that local authority social services departments are not in a position to pick up any consequent shortfalls."

This view was widely shared by delegates at the Chartered Institute of Housing annual conference last week, who warned that cuts in services would mark the end of new projects.

Wendy Jarvis, divisional manager of housing care and support at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, assured them that her department was lobbying the Treasury hard to ensure that funding remained intact.

But she added that it was up to the local authorities and commissioning bodies to ensure vital services did not fall by the wayside.


Local authorities have already been instructed to make 2.5 per cent savings on this year's Supporting People grants, following publication of the Supporting People review in February .

The review was set up amid allegations of "cost-shunting" on the part of social services departments and other agencies after the ODPM was forced to increase the Supporting People budget for England for 2003-4 from £1.4bn to £1.8bn.

Nawrockyi also raises concerns in his letter about the recent confirmation by Jarvis that all Supporting People funding to registered care homes is to be withdrawn from April 2006.

He warns Alafat that councils will not be in a position to simply pick up the shortfalls to providers arising from such a "shift" in policy. "The majority of support into registered homes took place before the Supporting People programme, and we had anticipated a degree of protection, even if at reduced funding levels," he says.