Supporting People needs to link to service outcomes

Pressure from politicians is increasing on both sides of the
border to link Supporting People more closely with service
outcomes, Community Care Live Scotland has heard,
writes Simeon Brody from Edinburgh.

Alisdair McIntosh, head of regeneration, fuel poverty and
Supporting People for the Scottish Executive, said Scotland did not
have to follow the programme rethink currently taking place in
England but suggested the programme was at “a
crossroads”.

He told the conference in Edinburgh that outcome agreements for
service providers could be on the cards.

“How that could work for Supporting People is pretty hard
to say but it’s possibly something we will have to come back
to in the very near future,” he added.

McIntosh argued the future of the programme depended on the
ability to demonstrate its impact and said this was the focus of
the department’s current efforts.

“There’s a clear and pressing need for a robust
review and evaluation of the programme before the next spending
review,” he said.

Austen Smyth, chief executive of the Richmond Fellowship
Scotland, said Supporting People needed a national needs assessment
methodology and an agreed way of measuring outcomes.