Service User Groups
Older People with Support Needs
Older people with low to medium support needs.
Older People with Mental Health Problems/Dementia
Older people with mental health problems including dementia.
Frail Elderly
Older people who are physically disabled or frail.
People with Mental Health Problems
People with enduring but relatively low level mental illness or disability, as well as those who have been diagnosed as mentally ill and who have had, or are having, specialist treatment.
People with Learning Disabilities
People with mild to moderate learning disabilities, as well as those with more severe learning disabilities and/or challenging behaviour.
People with a Physical or Sensory Disability
People with mobility difficulties, sensory impairments and debilitating or long-term illness.
Single Homeless with Support Needs
People who have been accepted as homeless and in priority need and also those single homeless people who have been turned down for re-housing or have not approached the Administering Authority, and who have a range of support needs.
People with Alcohol Problems
People with alcohol problems who are homeless or who are having difficulties in relation to sustaining their accommodation or managing to live independently as a result of their alcohol problems.
People with Drug Problems
People with drug problems who are homeless or who are having difficulties in relation to sustaining their accommodation or managing to live independently as a result of their drug problems.
Offenders or People at Risk of Offending
Offenders, or people at risk of offending, who are homeless or who are having difficulties in relation to sustaining their accommodation or managing to live independently as a result of their offending behaviour.
Mentally Disordered Offenders
Accused or convicted persons with- mild to acute mental health needs
- or with learning difficulties
- or people with mental health needs whose behaviour has its roots in a personality disorder
- or people with mental health needs exacerbated by alcohol or substance misuse.
Young People at Risk
Homeless young people (under 21) and those in insecure accommodation.Young People Leaving Care Young people leaving Administering Authority care who need support.(ref. Care Leavers Act and its definition of relevant children)
Women at Risk of Domestic Violence
Women at risk of domestic violence who have left their home or who are having difficulties in keeping their home and establishing their personal safety and security
People with HIV / AIDS
People with HIV / AIDS Homeless Families with Support Needs
Families who have been accepted as statutorily homeless and are placed in temporary accommodation.
This group includes homeless women with children.
Refugees
People who have been officially accepted as refugees, or who have been given indefinite or exception leave to remain, not the wider group of those seeking asylum who do not have access to public resources
Teenage Parents
Young single parents needing support and vulnerable young women in this age group who are pregnant.
Rough Sleepers
A person bedded down for the night on the street.
Travellers
Persons of a nomadic habit of life and persons who wander or travel for the purposes of making or seeking their livelihood.
Generic
This is designed to identify generic services, this may be where people have a need because of a situation rather than because of the client group. If it is not a generic service please specify from the above.
Types of service
Accommodation Based Service
A housing related support service which is specifically linked to identified accommodation, where loss of occupancy means loss of support service.
Accommodation Based Service with Floating / Resettlement / Outreach Support
A housing related support service which is linked to specific accommodation but also offers a floating support service/ resettlement service.
Floating Support Service
A housing related support service which is not tied to any specific accommodation.
Resettlement Service
A housing related support service aimed at resettlement within medium to long-term accommodation.
Home Improvement Agency (HIA) Service
An advice service available to people living in privately rented or owner occupied accommodation designed to maintain occupancy & independent living. Such services may also be known as Care and Repair, Staying Put.
Community or Social Alarm Service
Provides a communication link by which help may be summoned if required.
Quality and Monitoring document terms
Accreditation
A process for assessing the viability and competence of an organisation and formally recognising their ability to provide services.Adult Placement
Adult placements are services provided in short- or long-term accommodation with support provided to a small number of adults (usually less than 4) in a family home. Most adult placements are part of an Adult Placement Scheme with individual service users being placed in the family home of an Adult Placement Carer approved by the Scheme. An Adult Placement Scheme is the body that an Administering Authority would enter into a contract with and hence which would be subject to a Service Review. Schemes are managed by either a local authority or independent (profit making or non-profit making) body and are responsible for recruiting, assessing, training and supporting Adult Placement Carers; for taking referrals, matching and placing service users with Adult Placement Carers; and for supporting and monitoring placements.
Anti-discriminatory practice (ADP)
ADP is complementary to the practice of equal opportunities. It is specific actions which an organisation takes in order to ensure that it is not unwittingly operating in a discriminatory way. Simple examples are attempts to create positive attitudes and behaviour to people and challenging negative attitudes and discrimination.
Advocacy
Literally, “speaking on another person’s behalf”. In the context of social care, advocacy refers to helping somebody to present their views because it is difficult for them to do it themselves, typically because of a communication difficulty or lack of confidence or experience.
Contract monitoring
Contract monitoring is the regular process undertaken by Administering Authorities to ensure that providers comply with the requirements of the contract and are performing effectively. Contract monitoring is an extremely important process as it provides regular information to update authorities’ understanding of the quality and effectiveness of Supporting People services. The service review process happens periodically and cannot provide Administering Authorities with a more immediate understanding about whether services are improving. The contract monitoring process enables Administering Authorities to intervene to improve performance so that less work is required at the service review stage.
Diversity
Diversity refers to the need for services not to exclude particular groups within the community e.g. people of particular gender, ethnic background or age (unless a service is specifically designed to work with service users within a specific age range. Services receiving Supporting People funds should embrace the varied and diverse nature of the populations that they seek to serve and ensure that services enable people to be open about and proud of their own identities.
Empowerment
Empowerment may be defined as “the means by which individuals, groups and/or communities become able to take control of their own circumstances and achieve their own goals, thereby being able to work towards helping themselves and others to maximise the quality of their lives”. Empowerment means having increased control over your own life; having information with which to make choices; being listened to; being responded to based on what has been said; sharing appropriate power. Being empowered leads to the reality of having control – of actually being able to make choices, give instructions, take charge; the sense of being empowered – of feeling competent, confident, and respected; and the image of being empowered – of being seen as someone who has power and control, and is able to use it.
Engagement
A general term that may be translated as “involvement” or “participation”. It is used in the QAF primarily in relation to the aim of enabling, encouraging and supporting service users to live “ordinary” lives and hence participate in the same ranges of activities as the general population e.g. education, employment, using transport, health, sports and leisure services, making and maintaining friendships etc. The opposite of engagement is isolation – living life within the support environment and having very little contact outside of it.
Evidence
Tangible evidence, which must be demonstrated by a provider to justify awarding itself any given performance level. The development of evidence requirements and indeed the QAF objectives themselves, have drawn on a range of other works, which are listed at Appendix 5 of the QAF guidance.
FLAP
The Financial and Legal Advisory Panel that has been convened to examine the relationship between housing associations and managing agents.
Floating support
A housing-related support service that is not tied to any specific accommodation.
HIA
Home Improvement Agency, often also known as “Care and Repair” services. These are floating support services available across different tenures designed to enable people to remain in their own homes for as long as they wish and to promote independent living. HIA services are usually focused around practical support related to the accommodation – e.g. maintenance and adaptations – but often also provide a wider range of services such as advice, advocacy and signposting to other support services. Housing CorporationThe main agency for supporting Registered Social Landlords in England. It makes grants available to housing associations and supervises and regulates their work.
Internal audit
A means by which an organisation examines the extent to which its policies and procedures are implemented. Internal audit does not apply only to financial systems but to the full range of an organisation’s activities.
Management agreement
An agreement between a housing association and another party, which may itself be an association, whereby one party manages some of the other’s properties. Such agreements exist for housing and support where the management of a particular property is given to an agency with more experience of the needs of the residents who will live in the property.
Performance indicators
Specific information used in a planned way to measure and assess performance.
QAF
The Quality Assessment Framework for Supporting People. The QAF defines service objectives (core and supplementary) against which providers can carry out self-assessments.
RSLA
Registered Social Landlord registered with the Housing Corporation as a housing association. Most but not all RSLs are housing associations and not all housing associations are RSLs.
Service objectives
The 17 “headline” statements of good practice contained in the QAF.
Service review
A review of the strategic relevance and the quality, performance and cost-effectiveness of a Supporting People service prior to the expiry of its contract.
Service users
The term “service users” is used throughout to refer also to carers and advocates where applicable. It is important that, in consulting and involving service users, providers also seek the views of carers and advocates where service users may not be able to participate fully.
Social audit
A process designed to assess the social impact of an organisation’s activity on its stakeholders, community and environment. Sole tradersSole traders are individual support providers who are not working for a charity, housing association, limited company or other type of organisation but are working for themselves, often in their own home, and not employing any housing related support staff. Examples of sole traders are supported lodgings or adult placements where there is no overarching organisation.
Staff
The term “staff” refers to all people working to deliver the service, both paid (employees or agency staff) and unpaid (i.e. volunteers and management committee members). In supported lodgings (see below) the term “staff” needs to be considered and interpreted in the context of the particular service. In some cases it will refer only to employees of the placement agency, but in other cases it will refer also to the “host”. The following examples from the QAF are intended to illustrate this point. In objective C1.1 “staff” applies to the placement agency staff: “The needs assessment procedures are covered in staff induction and/or training programmes” In objective S2.1 “staff” refers to both agency staff and the host: “The confidentiality and privacy policies are understood and implemented by staff”. In Objective S4.3 the requirements for job descriptions refers to both agency staff and the host but the word “job” needs to be interpreted differently and instead of a “job description” there should be some other document which sets out the support tasks to be provided by the host.
Standards
The QAF Service Objectives comprise “high level” descriptions of required practice. In the QAF these objectives are broken down into more detailed standards putting the flesh on the bones provided by the Service Objectives.
Supported lodgings
Supported lodgings offer (usually to vulnerable young people) an opportunity to live an ordinary domestic life as part of a host’s own household. Families, couples or individuals who have a spare room offer it for rent, and a placement agency matches them to people who are looking for a place. Some placement agencies have a role in supporting the host and the service user. Supported lodgings are used by people who need some support and who wish to live as independently as possible but are not able or do not wish to live by themselves. Placement agencies may be local authorities, voluntary organisations or privately run.
Supporting People
A programme to deliver housing-related support services to vulnerable people through a single funding stream, administered by local authorities according to the needs of people in their area and in line with local strategic priorities.
Supporting People Grant
The grant provided to local authorities to pay for the costs of support services from April 2003. Strategic Review guidanceThis guidance sets out how authorities should assess whether a service is strategically relevant and whether it meets a demand. This guidance should be used by authorities when carrying out a service review.
Transitional Housing Benefit
The transitional system for the payment of support costs through the housing benefit system. This system ends on the introduction of Supporting People.
Validation visit (QAF validation visit)
A visit by the Administering Authority to check whether the services being provided meet the standards they are required to deliver.
Values
The beliefs which people or organisations subscribe to and which determine the ways in which they behave in general and, in the context of Supporting People, how they deliver services.
Value for Money guidance
Guidance on value for money has been issued with appended cost tables for each type of service. The cost of the service can be benchmarked against these tables taking into account guidance on how to make comparisons.
Very short-term accommodation
Some aspects of the QAF do not apply to very short term accommodation. This applies to accommodation-based services with an intended length of stay of less than one month. Typically this applies to night shelters and some emergency accommodation such as domestic violence refuges.