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Twenty-six-year-old Tina Dennis,* who has learning difficulties, lived with her father in a council flat. When he died, her social worker worried that Tina could not cope on her own and considered placing her in residential care. However, she was put in touch with the council's housing-related support services and was supported to remain in her home.

"It is unusual for people to succeed tenancies anyway, but it was a real achievement for Tina to succeed her father's tenancy," says Supporting People co-ordinator Helen Bedser. "She was supported in learning independent skills and, to this day, continues to receive support, and probably always will. She is doing well and has just started part-time employment."

Tina is but one success story for Hounslow Council's Supporting People programme, which earlier this year was awarded the maximum three stars by the Audit Commission. It was the first London borough to be so recognised and only the second nationally, after Manchester.

Launched in 2003, Supporting People aims to offer vulnerable adults the opportunity to improve their quality of life by providing a stable environment that enables greater independence.

In Hounslow, the council co-ordinated programme provides housing-related support to more than 2,000 vulnerable people. It is delivered by 35 provider organisations through more than 100 services.

Bedser heads a team of just four - including herself, two project officers and a monitoring and review officer. Given that Manchester has a team of 20, it is not surprising that the Audit Commission expressed initial concerns that this "small but committed" team wasn't big enough.

Being a small team has heightened the importance of good partnership working, which has resulted in high levels of satisfaction among providers. For Bedser, bringing together all the individuals and organisations to deliver the programme locally has been central to the team's effectiveness, particularly with social services.

She says: "We were fortunate in having a history of good working partnerships between housing and social services - which hasn't perhaps always been the case for others. So we had a head start there. We're based in housing but we identified important roles within the programme for senior social services officers."

The team is responsible for administering the day-to-day operation of the programme, but is guided by a "core strategy group" comprising partners from health, social services, probation and housing, with the council's commissioning body having overall responsibility.

However, there are also six innovative multi-agency accommodation sub-groups (mental health, learning difficulties, older people, physical disabilities, young people, homelessness), which have enabled people to have a strong input in developing the Supporting People programme. "This has helped us mainstream supporting people and get it fully integrated throughout the council," says Bedser.


For example, the young people group, chaired by the head of youth offending, looks at the needs of 16 to 25 year olds, including teenage parents, young offenders and asylum seekers.

Bedser says: "The group has set up a housing and support panel that meets monthly and acts as a gateway to Supporting People resources for young people. This has helped us target our resources to meet the needs of young people locally."

When Supporting People started, the team inherited what was already available, but Bedser spotted unmet needs. She says: "At first, we only had resources available for one refugee family. And yet when people are granted refugee status they are often at their most vulnerable: they lose support from the National Asylum Support Service and have to tangle with the bureaucracy of benefits, housing, education, employment and so on. But now we have commissioned a floating service that can support up to 15 families. That development just wouldn't have been possible before Supporting People."

*Not her real name

TOP TIPS

• Keep it simple for people
• Keep reminding people what it is you are trying to achieve, selling it as a resource for others.
• Tap into existing networks, identify and address gaps.

RUBBISH TIPS

• Make sure each partner has their own separate goals to keep them interested.
• Only provide partners with support and advice when asked.
• No experience of working in the service provider sector is necessary.

Curriculum Vitae 

Name: Helen Bedser.

Job: Supporting people co-ordinator, Hounslow, west London.

Qualifications: Social  Studies degree.

Last job: Service manager for a supported housing provider.

First job: Bingo caller.