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The Audit Commission has found "a disturbing level of core services" funded by Supporting People money that are not related to housing support.

The commission's Supporting People inspection coordinator, Domini Gunn, told delegates at a conference in London this week that inspections of councils' Supporting People programmes had uncovered "deregistered" care homes still providing high levels of non housing-related care funded by the Supporting People programme.

These included former care homes for people with learning difficulties or severe mental health problems and frail older people.


According to the Commission for Social Care Inspection, around 800 care homes in England deregistered in order to qualify for Supporting People funding by May 2003. Councils have been urged to help vulnerable people live more independently, including getting them out of residential care.

But Gunn said Supporting People inspections had found that some people in "deregistered homes" were unable to recognise they held a tenancy agreement. She stressed the need to acknowledge that some people would never be able to achieve independent living.

"I know it's blasphemy, but we need an open and honest debate over what's appropriate".

Gunn also warned councils that refugees, travellers and people with HIV/Aids were being excluded by Supporting People teams because they were "rarely on their agendas". She said the teams were concluding that these groups did not need their support without conducting any proper needs analysis.


Gunn warned councils that Supporting People team inspections to date had revealed "poor prospects for improvement, with uncertain promises for the future". Criticisms include excluding external providers from meetings, poor partnerships with health and probation, failing to complete service reviews and failing to pay providers properly.

Office of Deputy Prime Minister's head of housing, care and support, Wendy Jarvis, warned delegates at the conference, supported by Community Care, that councils would not meet their grant conditions unless they worked in partnership with health and probation.