St Mungo’s CEO gives evidence to Government Select Committee on Supporting People

16 June 2009

Charles Fraser CBE, Chief Executive of St Mungo's, has praised the Supporting People programme for the way it has placed user involvement much more at its centre and made providers more accountable to vulnerable people and local communities where services have impact.

He highlighted how the Quality Assessment Framework has been an excellent innovation, "promoting progression rather than maintenance", but expressed concern at how the system was used inconsistently across boroughs.

He also warned that the frequency at which providers were required to re-tender for contracts was "dispiriting and wasteful" and suggested a five to seven year tender cycle would be an improvement.

On the move towards personalised budgets, he said that feedback from St Mungo's own client user group was that they find a plethora of choice of services could be "disempowering". "They tell us they would rather have an emphasis on service quality so they don't have to run around trying to decide which service to use," he said.

Charles Fraser was giving evidence to the Communities and Local Government Select Committee inquiry on Supporting People yesterday. The Committee's inquiry is considering the extent to which the government has, so far, delivered on the commitments it made in Independence and Opportunity: Our Strategy for Supporting People.

St Mungo's submitted written evidence to the inquiry, and was then asked to take part in the oral evidence session, alongside agencies including Rethink, Mencap, Age Concern/Help the Aged and Anchor Trust.

The St Mungo's submission highlighted some key points, namely:

  • There is a danger that too strong a focus on local delivery and leadership can bypass the needs of vulnerable groups, like rough sleepers. Their needs are best met, and costs for this shouldered, at a regional level.
  • Government must reaffirm the importance and role of 'partnership' to set the tone for relations between the statutory and voluntary sector.
  • A greater emphasis on national standards should seek to encourage a shared mission across local authority boundaries.
  • The Supporting People system would be improved by measures to reduce bureaucracy and inefficiency which can place undue burdens on providers and divert capacity and resources away from service delivery.
  • There is a fear that local political priorities which drive area-based grants will tend towards prioritising mainstream services accessible to the general population over specialist interventions focused on a minority 'vulnerable groups' population.
  • The removal of the ring-fence could provide an opportunity to reconceptualise how Supporting People can design and deliver effective responses. Rough sleepers by definition are service avoiders and unsettled and we need to be more sophisticated about how to engage them.
  • 'Housing-related support' has been taken too narrowly to apply to housing management, rather than more broadly also offering health and vocational support, which are necessary to truly promote 'independent living'. Primary Care Trusts and the Department of Work and Pensions and the new Department of Business, Innovation and Skills should be required to address the needs of all supported housing tenants.

To watch the Select Committee session, see http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=4308 (St Mungo's evidence from 39 mins to 1hr 13 mins).

To read the full submission at http://www.mungos.org/news/influencing_policy/statements_and_responses/

ENDS

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