The Strategic Director: Regeneration and Environment reported that in order to assist the Council in meeting its financial requirements, it had been determined that the Supporting People budget for 2014/2015 would be reduced by £2m per annum which, along with changes to the Handy Person Services and decommissioning of the BME Support Services in 2013/2014 meant an overall reduction of 24% to the annual budget. He had negotiated and agreed future funding arrangements for Supporting People contracted services and he provided an update on the programme, which focused on the recent key changes in terms of overall funding, funding for the main client groups and the effect on the design and delivery of housing support services.

Between 2003 and 2010, Supporting People had been a national programme with commissioned housing related support services delivered through a ring fenced budget, but since 2010 decisions and funding had been devolved to the local authority. The Strategic Director was pleased that in Wirral, the Council had taken a decision that Supporting People funding would continue to be used for the purposes it had been intended for. Consequently, the programme had had a positive impact in Wirral and currently supported over 5000 people to live independently and securely in suitable accommodation. However, the Strategic Director commented that it would be a challenge to deliver the scale and quality of provision within the current budgetary and economic environment. Nevertheless, he provided detail of work being undertaken to help ensure that clients continued to receive support, tailored to their specific needs, whilst also achieving the required budget saving by 2014.

He indicated that the achievement of efficiencies as a result of contract negotiation with service providers and remodelling of service activities had negated the requirement to conduct a tendering process, which would have been more costly and may not have realised the same level of efficiency. He confirmed that the process of negotiated contracts was compatible with the Procurement Methodology detailed in the Supported and Special Needs Housing Strategy and continued to be supported by the Council’s legal services and Director of Finance under Contract Procedure Rules 21.1.1 (ii) and (v).

He provided detail of where the £2m saving would be achieved which, in summary was in the following areas –

  £k

·  Services for People with Learning Disabilities  500

Re-Assessment of Process

·  Services for Older People  800

Re-Apportionment of Time

·  Services for Socially Excluded Clients  700

Efficiencies from re-modelling

The Strategic Director assured Members that the situation would be kept under review and a series of further update reports would be presented to future meetings to keep Members informed of developments. In response to concerns raised regarding the implications of cuts to funding for work associated with domestic violence, he proposed that some benchmarking would be undertaken to ascertain the nature of provision in other local authorities.

The Chair commented that Supporting People had been an area of work that had previously been contemplated by Members to form the basis of a scrutiny review. However, Members had considered that, in view of the excellent work being undertaken by officers in the SP team, a scrutiny review was not necessary in this area.

Resolved – That the process to achieve savings of £2m against the Supporting People Budget, be supported.