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Audit Commission Report on Royal Borough of Kingston Supporting People
Audit Commission Report on Royal Borough of Kingston Supporting People
The £4.4 million Supporting PeoplePprogramme delivered by the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames is ‘fair’ and has ‘promising prospects’ to improve, according to an independent report released on the 29 September 2007 by the Audit Commission.
Supporting People is the government's funding and planning regime for the local delivery of housing-related support services to a wide range of vulnerable people.
On a scale of zero to three stars, the Audit Commission, in partnership with inspectors from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation and Commission for Social Care Inspection, gave the service a one star ‘fair’ rating. This is because the Council has met its statutory obligations to deliver developments for the programme robustly and on time but has delayed in improving the programme in other ways, such as publicity, developing procurement opportunities and updating needs assessments to inform commissioning priorities.
Hugh Boatswain, Lead Housing Inspector at the Audit Commission said:
"The Council is taking steps to improve the delivery of its Supporting People programme by extending opportunities for service users to get involved. Significantly, key partners are better engaged in the programme's governance ensuring that the needs of service users are better understood and responded to. However, weaknesses remain with work planning and with involving voluntary and community sector partners. These need to be addressed to maximise the capacity of the programme to meet the housing-related support needs of vulnerable people. More positively, work is underway, using efficiency savings achieved through robust value for money assessments of existing services, to meet the needs of vulnerable people not currently being met."
The inspectors found:
- the programme increasingly meets the needs of vulnerable people;
- service users receive relevant support to help them live independently and deal with difficult situations;
- action plans are agreed to improve services;
- significant savings allow investment in existing and new services; and
- extensive partnership working allows understanding of the needs of vulnerable people.
To help the service improve further, inspectors made a number of recommendations. These include:
- working with service users, their representatives and providers of services to increase opportunities for their involvement;
- improving publicity;
- working with partners to improve attendance at governance bodies;
- working with diverse communities to ensure their needs are met; and
- agreeing a procurement strategy to maximise value for money when new services are commissioned.
The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames received a Supporting People grant of £4,405,700 for 2007/08 to meet the cost of its housing-related support services. These include supported housing for older people, teenage parents and women fleeing domestic violence. The Council receives and additional £143,100 to pay for the costs of administering its Supporting People Programme.