General
Supporting People: The Supporting People programme provides high quality, strategically planned needs led housing related support services in order to provide vulnerable people with a greater quality of life through increased independence. The service is delivered through a working partnership of local government (including District / Borough Housing departments), service users, support providers and other key agencies such as Probation and Health services and in Nottinghamshire is known as the Supporting People Partnership in Nottinghamshire.
Housing Related Support: Support specifically aimed at helping people to establish themselves, or stay within, their own homes. Housing related support seeks to differentiate between care services and support services; such support services may include helping people to manage their own money, apply for benefits, maintain the security of their home and access other services.
Administration
Administering Authority: The local Supporting People budget holding authority – in this case Nottinghamshire County Council. The Administering Authority has responsibility for allocation of funding, commissioning, performance monitoring, contract administration etc.
CLG: Communities and Local Government Department. The government department that sets policy on local government, housing, urban regeneration, planning and fire and rescue and oversees the Supporting People programme.
Local Area Agreement: LAAs set out the priorities for a local area as agreed between central government and a local area (the local authority and Local Strategic Partnership). LAAs aim to devolve decision making, simplify some central funding and help to join up local services, effectively allowing greater flexibility to develop local solutions relevant to local circumstances. There are currently 35 locally agreed priorities.
SPLS: Supporting People Local System. The database used by the Supporting People team to track payments, performance and contracting issues in relation to support providers.
Supporting People Partnership Board (SPPB): A partnership of representatives from the Administering Authority, District and Borough Councils, Probation and Health services. The role of the SPPB is to agree future service priorities, allocate funding and oversee the local Supporting People programme.
Supporting People Strategy Group (SPSG): A partnership that holds a responsibility to identify strategic priorities and future commissioning opportunities for the consideration of the Commissioning Body. The SPSG engages in full and effective consultation with key stakeholders in order to ascertain priorities based on strategic need.
Contracting
Block Gross: This a contract type generally used to contract with short term services where a fixed payment is paid for housing related support services provided.
Block Subsidy: This is a contract type generally used to contract with long term services. Payments are made in the form of a “subsidy” for eligible service users and can therefore change on a weekly basis. Payments may only be made up to the maximum number of contracted capacity within the service.
Contract variation: These occur whenever there is an agreed change in any part of the contract between Administering Authority and support provider. Contract variations may occur, for example, when a change in contractual payment is made or if there is change in the number of units within a service.
Management Agreement: A legal agreement between a landlord and a third party (generally known as the Managing Agent) setting out the responsibilities in the delegation of housing management to another agency.
Sole traders: These are individual support providers who are not working for a charity / RSL / limited company but are self employed and often offer housing related support within their own home. Sole traders will generally not employ any other housing related support staff.
Finance Area Based Grant (ABG): This is non-ringfenced grant payment allocated by central government to local authorities in order to achieve LAA priorities and targets.
Chargeable service: These are generally long term services where the tenant has an obligation to pay a charge for housing related support. This would normally be covered by a subsidy payment from Supporting People grant as part of the contracted service.
Direct Payments: These are cash payments made by a local authority to people who require care or support in order to enable them to purchase their own services. Paid to individuals who have ‘eligible needs’ as defined by the Fair Access to Care (FACS) eligibility criteria.
DFG: Disabled Facilities Grant. Often administered by HIA services, this is a means tested grant that enables the homes of disabled homeowners / private tenants to be adapted to meet their needs. The disabled occupant would normally be expected to agree to remain in the property for a fixed time (generally 5 years) after the completion of works, unless health reasons preclude this.
Fairer Charging: The Fairer Charging financial assessment is a locally set means test which assesses how much service users have to pay for their support service if they do not already receive a free service or are in receipt of housing benefit.
Non-chargeable service: These are generally short term services where the tenant does not have an obligation to pay a support charge for housing related support. The service charge is paid to the provider as a fixed sum payment as agreed within the contractual schedule.
Personal Budget: This is an amount of money allocated to an individual for meeting their agreed outcomes in line with their identified needs. In this context, “outcomes” refer to the changes or benefits to a person as a result of the provision of social care or support. A personal budget may be administered on behalf of the individual by a Local Authority, brokered by a provider or maintained by the individual.
Self Directed Support: As part of the “Putting People First” agenda, this allows users to choose, organise and control social care / support that meets their needs in a way which suits them, using resources available to them to achieve their aspirations.
Housing Terminology
Abbeyfield Houses: Small voluntary societies that run supported housing for older people. Although Abbeyfield Societies are general independent local franchises, a number of such societies co-operate within the Abbeyfield UK organisation. More recent Abbeyfield developments are often larger and provide extra care sheltered accommodation.
ALMO: Arms Length Management Organisation. Primarily a local authority means of managing services in a private sector context and allowing sourcing of additional funding, whilst still maintaining a level of influence. Most commonly associated with local authority housing management but also used by local authorities as regeneration and energy management initiatives.
Almshouses: Independent local charitable trusts that provide affordable housing for older people with a variety of needs. Almshouses were traditionally set up for people living in a specific geographical area or connected with a particular trade. Almshouses are administered by a body of voluntary trustees who are advised by the Almshouse Association.
Choice Based Lettings: Allows applicants for social housing (and tenants who wish to transfer) to apply for vacancies based upon their needs which are widely advertised within the neighbourhood.
Extra Care Housing: Extra Care housing has been developed from sheltered housing and shares many of the same features. However, such schemes (also known as assisted living schemes) will generally cater for frail older people and offer greater accessibility (through the use of adaptations and new build features) for those with limited mobility as well as banded levels of care appropriate to the service user’s needs, including up to 24 hour care when required.
HIA: Home Improvement Agency. These are locally based, not-for-profit organisations. They help older, disabled and vulnerable homeowners or private tenants to repair, improve, maintain or adapt their homes. Some also provide services to council and housing association tenants. Their prime purpose is to help people continue to live in their own homes in comfort, safety, security and independence.
There are approximately 250 Home Improvement Agencies across England, covering 317 local authority areas. 90% of residents in England have access to a Home Improvement Agency. They are sometimes referred to as ‘Care & Repair’ agencies or ‘Staying Put’ schemes.
LSVT: Large Scale Voluntary Transfer. The process by which a council transfers the ownership and management of its housing stock to an RSL. LSVT requires a tenant vote to agree to the transfer in order for it to go ahead.
Move on accommodation: Temporary and interim accommodation provided for people that are ready to live more independently but do not feel that they are able to maintain their own tenancy independently. Such accommodation typically takes the form of shared houses / flats and support is typically at a lower level than first stage hostels. Move on accommodation is particularly used but not limited to Homelessness, Drug and Alcohol and Domestic Violence services.
RSL: Registered Social Landlord. Independent, not for profit private sector housing organisations registered under the Housing Act 1996. RSLs – of which there are over 2000 in England – provide all new social housing and often provide and manage former council housing following stock transfer.
Sheltered Housing: Generally takes the form of a group of flats or bungalows specifically for older people that provide independent, self contained homes with their own front doors. Clustered sheltered housing often contains some common resident’s facilities such as a residents lounge or garden, whilst dispersed sheltered housing generally has no shared areas.
Supported Lodgings: These 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.
TMO: Tenant Management Organisation. A legal entity set up by the resident members of a council or housing association in order to manage the homes that they live in. Many TMOs are involved in wider community activities and assist in neighbourhood regeneration initiatives.
Organisations / Groups
ASCH: Adult Social Care and Health are the County Council department that administer, deliver and commission a range of care and support services for adults within Nottinghamshire.
CHR: Centre for Housing Research. The St Andrews University based team that analyse data submitted by providers in relation to new service users via the Client Record Form. The analysis is shared with CLG and Administering Authorities in order to assist needs led strategic direction.
CMHT: Community Mental Health Teams are made up of professionals and support staff who provide specialist mental health services to people in the community.
Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment (CRHT): CRHTs offer practical advice, support and care to people with mental health issues. CRHTs aim to prevent hospital admissions by providing support within people’s own homes.
EMRIG: East Midlands Regional Implementation Group. Comprising Nottinghamshire, Nottingham City, Derbyshire, Derby City, Leicestershire, Leicester City, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland Councils, this group works together to plan consistent approaches to policy, performance, quality and consultation.
Foundations: The national body for HIA services in England, providing training, advice and support to HIA services, administering the HIA Charter Mark quality assurance mechanism and representing the sector in discussions with the government and other stakeholders.
Housing Corporation: the previous regulator and investor in social housing, providing regulation of and investment in the social housing sector, primarily housing associations. The Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 established two new agencies to undertake the role of the Housing Corporation:
Homes & Communities Agency (HCA): The Investor in Social Housing, providing grant funding for building and refurbishment of social housing.
Tenant Services Authority (TSA): The Regulator of all Social Housing, including Housing Associations, TMOs, ALMOs and Local Authorities.
National Housing Federation: The National Housing Federation represents 1,200 independent, not-for-profit housing associations in England and advertises itself as the voice of affordable housing. Its members, which include local authorities and housing associations, provide two million affordable homes for five million people. The Federation also operates as a consultancy for its members.
PCT: Primary Care Trust. Often referred to simply as “Health”, PCTs are a type of NHS trust that provide some primary and community care services or commission such services from other providers. PCTs are also involved in commissioning secondary care services.
PSA: Public Service Agreements detail the aims and objectives of UK government departments for a three year period. Such agreements also describe how targets will be achieved and how performance against these targets will be measured. Although PSAs are due, in their current format, to be phased out, the one most relevant to Supporting People is PSA 16 - Increase the proportion of socially excluded adults in settled accommodation and employment, education or training.
SITRA: SITRA is a registered charity committed to raising standards in the care, support and housing sector. SITRA offers training and consultancy to support providers and Supporting People teams and acts as a sector “champion” within central government.
Quality / Monitoring
Accreditation: A process undertaken by the Supporting People team for assessing the financial viability and competence of an organisation and formally recognising their ability to provide quality services. It should be noted that Accreditation does not validate individual services (see Validation Visit) but assesses the organisation as a whole.
Anti-discriminatory practice: 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.
Client record form: Forms completed by service providers to record new service users. The collected data is analysed by CHR and helps map service usage. Services for older people (including Community Alarms and HIA) are not required to complete Client Record Forms.
Contract monitoring: This 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 contract monitoring process enables Administering Authorities to intervene to improve performance and outcomes.
Diversity: This 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: This 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”.
Engagement: A general term that may be defined 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.
Independent Living: This is defined as someone living in and receiving support in their home or long stay accommodation. A care home (both residential and nursing care), a hospice, long stay hospital or prison, are not defined as independent living.
NI 141: This is one of the 188 ‘National Indicators’ though which performance of public services is measured. This indicator measures the percentage of supported vulnerable people achieving independent living. i.e. People who are in receipt of a Supporting People service that have moved on from supported accommodation in a planned way as a percentage of service users who have left the service.
NI 142: Another of the national indicators, this measures the percentage of vulnerable people who are supported to maintain independent living rather than move into institutional care. i.e. People who are in receipt of a Supporting People service that have established or are maintaining independent living, as a percentage of the total number of service users during the period.
Performance workbook: An electronic return submitted by providers on a quarterly basis outlining individual service performance against the contractual performance indicators outlined below.
Performance indicators: A combination of locally agreed and nationally collected service performance information collected from providers on a quarterly basis and monitored against agreed targets. The following data is collected: SPI 1: Service availability (accommodation based services)SPI 2: Service utilisation SPI 4: ThroughputKPI 1 : Service users who are supported to establish and maintain independent living (long term services) also reported as NI142KPI2: Service users who have moved on in a planned way from temporary living arrangements (short term services) also reported as NI141
QAF: Quality Assessment Framework for Supporting People. The covers 5 core objectives Assessment and Support PlanningSecurity, Health and SafetySafeguarding and Protection from abuseFair access, diversity and inclusionClient involvement and empowerment Each QAF objective is scored at level A, B or C based on assessed evidence and providers are required to attain at least a level C in each objective. In the event that this is not achieved, the SP team will require an action plan to be developed in order to bring the service quality up to the appropriate level.
QAF Lite: This is a “light touch” version of the Quality Assessment Framework and is used to assess community alarm services (particularly where there is no provision for visiting support), sole traders and services delivered by small providers that employ no more than one full-time equivalent member of support staff, and/or have a contract value of less than £5,000 per year.
Safeguarding: In the context of adults, this refers to any work that enables a vulnerable person (ie. one who is or may be eligible for community care or support services) to retain independence, wellbeing and choice and access their human right to live a life that is free from abuse and neglect. In the case of children, this is often referred to as “Child Protection”.
Self Assessment: Providers are asked to self assess individual service delivery against the QAF core objectives on an annual basis, highlighting evidence and reasoning for their assessment.
Service User Involvement: The means by which a service user may engage with a service. This may be considered from the point of view of “management centred user involvement” – where users take part in existing structures defined by the organisation and “user centred user involvement” – where service users priorities and objectives become those of the organisation. Higher QAF levels require evidence of service user involvement helping to shape the policies and procedures of organisations.
Validation Visit: A visit undertaken by the Supporting People team in order to validate the QAF self assessment scores submitted by providers. The Officer undertaking the visit will examine paper based evidence as well as interviewing staff and service users and provide a report outlining the validated assessment score. Such reports may also provide recommendations for service development.
Service Types
Accommodation based service: A housing related support service which is specifically linked to identified accommodation, where loss of tenancy leads to loss of service – ie. support is a condition of the tenancy.
Floating support service: A housing related support service which is not linked to specific accommodation. Typically floating support offers low level short term support.
Long term: Support services that provide housing related support to service users for in excess of 2 years. Examples of long term services would typically include sheltered housing and learning disability services.
Short Term: Support services that would usually provide housing related support to service users for a period of less than two years. Examples of short term services would typically include domestic violence refuges and homelessness hostels.
Other
Assistive technology: This promotes greater independence for people with disabilities by enabling, through the use of adaptations or technology, to undertake tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish. Examples of assistive technology may include text based telephones.
Continuing Care: This is professional care given to meet the physical or mental health needs of adults with a disability, injury or illness over an extended period of time.
JSNA: Joint Strategic Needs Assessment is a process that identifies the “big picture” in terms of the current and future health and wellbeing needs of a local population and helps to inform future planning.
Personalisation: Personalisation ensures that people who need social care have more choice and control over their support, in the most appropriate setting for them.
Putting People First: This is the government’s vision for the future of social care and was launched as “A shared vision and commitment to the transformation of Adult Social Care, the Ministerial Concordat” in December 2007.
Telecare: This is a particular type of assistive technology that uses electronic sensors connected to an alarm system, enabling support providers to manage risk and assist vulnerable people in maintaining independence at home.