What is Supporting People?
Supporting People is a Government initiative that provides extra finances for people who need extra support to live in their own homes (or supported accommodation like our hostel) but don’t need either residential or hospital care.
It is administered by local authorities and unlike residential care (where the authority where the person originates from funds the placement), the authority where the accommodation is situated funds the placement. This for us is Kent County Council irrespective of where the resident comes from although in reality, virtually all our residents have either come from Kent or have lived and made their home in Kent.
How is it monitored?
So as to satisfy Kent County Council that we are operating a safe, effective and appropriate service, we must meet a series of assessments. Each one looks at a different area of either the hostel, Culverdale or Crossways Community as a whole.
Quality Assessment Framework (QAF)
How we operate our hostel is of primary importance. So that people can be protected, there are a set of national objectives which all services which receive Supporting People finance must comply with. This is part of the Quality Assessment Framework (QAF) and is assessed on a regular basis.
6 Core Objectives:
· Needs and Risk Assessments
· Support Planning
· Security, Health and Safety
· Protection from Abuse
· Fair Access, Diversity and Inclusion
· Complaints
and 4 groups of Supplementary Objectives:
· Empowerment
· Rights and Responsibilities
· The Service
· Organisation & Management
Each Objective is splint into several sub-requirements. An “A” grade is only given if every aspect of the requirements are met (i.e. those for “B”, “C” and “D” are all met in their entirety). Similarly a “B” grade means that every aspect of “B” requirements are met as well as those for “C” and “D”. Hence if all the “A” and “B” requirements are achieved but one of the “C” requirements is not, then the score is automatically a “D” which signifies a fail. It is felt that only larger organisations will be able to achieve “A”s as they have the resources to ensure total compliance.
How did we do?
Given the punitive scoring system, we achieved some of the “A” and “B” requirements but got a “C” grade for all Core and Supplementary Objectives. We are currently waiting to have these scores re-evaluated to achieve “B” grades.
Strategic Relevance Questionnaire (SRQ)
We also must prove that we are a relevant service (i.e. is there a need for our service in the area where it is based.). This exercise requires a completion of a 30 or so page Strategic Relevance Questionnaire (SRQ) to see whether our hostel Culverdale is necessary (does it help towards meeting local or national targets in respect of mental health accommodation needs). It also checks that the amount of money we are spending of staff costs and overheads are in keeping with national guidelines on costs. It is currently unclear how often if this is performed and therefore could be repeated as part of any revised contract renewal.
How did we do?
We are pleased to say that we have successfully completed the SRQ and were found to be both relevant and our costs were within the national guidelines.
Accreditation
Once the service is thought to be operating well, and is strategically relevant, the organisation itself must be assessed to see whether it is a fit and proper organisation to receive government finance. Although we have been operating for nearly 40 years and the hostel itself for over 10 without any complaint, much of this was not taken into consideration and we had to show that we will spend the money appropriately. This required completing a long survey questionnaire and show several documents, policies and procedures as evidence. As this was a verification of the organisation not the service, there was no checking of residents’ views. Similar to the SRQ above, this exercise may required to repeated as part of any contact renewal.
How did we do?
We are pleased to say that we have successfully completed the Accreditation. This was thanks to having policies and procedures in place and the ongoing work of Judith whom we employed to help us to ensure that we could comply with the Supporting People requirements.
Contract
The last aspect that we need to achieve is a “steady-state” contract. Our current interim-contract ended on 31st March 2007 and we have now received a steady-state contract.
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