Who can Supporting People Help?
What type of support is available and how do I get support?
How do I access a support service?
Who can Supporting People help?
Supporting People is a Government programme aimed at supporting vulnerable people aged 16 and above who need support to live more independently. We currently fund services for:
- People with Learning Disabilities
- People with Mental Health Problems
- Young People
- Vulnerable Adults
- Teenage Parents
- Gypsies and Travellers
- People who are Homeless
- Older People and the Frail Elderly
- People with Physical Disabilities
- People at risk of Offending
- People with Drug or Alcohol Problems
- Women Escaping Domestic Violence
Supporting People services are provided by housing and or support providers who hold contracts with the County Council. Support workers will work with you to manage your tenancy; help reduce debt and rent arrears and help you to develop life skills such as cooking, budgeting, and paying bills.
They can help you to manage your health, and improve your safety and security. They will also help you to access other services such as education, training and leisure facilities and help you feel part of the community and reduce feelings of isolation. A range of services are provided by different organisations.
Types of services include:
- Floating Support Services: Clients will be supported in their own home.
- Lifeline /Community Alarm Services: Alarms are fitted in a person’s home allowing them to live independently and safely for as long as they feel possible.
- Accommodation based services – There are a number of different types of accommodation based support services:-
- Sheltered Accommodation Services: These are flats or bungalows specifically for older people where there may be a warden or scheme manager on site. If not a support worker will visit you.
- 24hr staffed services: Staff are on site 24 hours a day 7 days a week to monitor client safety due to their level of support need.
- Move on accommodation: Short term services offering up to 2 years support. The support worker is not based at the service but will visit to provide support
- Direct Access & Night Shelters: Very short term accommodation for up to 28 days.
- Refuges: Short term accommodation for women escaping domestic violence
Supporting People services do not help with personal care such as washing and helping you to get dressed.
How do I access a support service?
There are a number of ways to do this:
- If you have a worker to help you they can refer you to the best service for your needs. In a few cases the referral must come from a particular agency such as the mental health services or social services (referral routes are listed on our directory of services). If you don’t have a worker you can contact any agency who might help you such as your local council, housing association, social services, probation service, health visitor/doctor/ CPN or voluntary agency and ask them to refer you to an appropriate service.
- In most cases anyone can make the referral so either you, a friend, family member or a worker from another agency can refer you.
- Use this website - Click on the directory of services link on the top menu and then choose from the drop down boxes which service best describes the one you want and where you want the service to be.
This will give you a list of services which match your choices. It will tell you if it is an accommodation based service - that is accommodation linked to the support service, or a floating support service - that is where the support can be delivered into your own home or given to you to help find the right accommodation.
There will be a telephone number for you to contact them and make an enquiry. Each service will have its own Referral Policy, which is a description of the type of people it can offer a service to.
For instance the service may be designed to work only with young people or older people or single people or those with a specific support need.
You can phone, e-mail or write to the provider of the service to ask if there is a space available and what the referral criteria are. Usually if there is a space and you fit the main criteria you will be asked to complete an Application Form and come to visit the service to discuss your application. Help should always be available to complete the form if you need it and you should also be able to take someone to the Interview with you.
In some cases e.g. often for floating support services you will be visited at home to discuss your application. In some cases you can enter a service directly in an emergency such as women’s refuges or local authority homeless hostels but for others you will usually be told the outcome of the application at or shortly after the interview. Even if your application is successful you may have to wait for a space to come free before you can be offered support.
- You can expect to have a support plan (with the exception of alarm only services) and to meet with a support worker at a time that is suitable to you.
- To be treated with dignity and respect
- To have your views and opinions heard
- To feel safe and secure
- To be empowered
All services funded by Supporting People have to meet a set of standards called the Quality Assessment Framework. Someone from our team will visit the service to check they are meeting these standards. Part of this process involves speaking to staff and service users. We will look at how the service keeps records, and what policies they work to.
For more information about the Quality Assessment Framework click here
What can you do to make your service better for you? And what’s in it for you?
Travel expenses, FREE food and gift vouchers and a recognised qualification with a certificate, whilst you are helping to make your services better.
At Supporting People, involving service users in deciding what kind of services there should be, how these should be run, and what it is like for you as a service user is really important to us. That’s because the services we fund work better if the service users who need the services get what they need.
Here’s the top ten ways to get involved in Supporting People
- Mystery Shopping – you phone services and tell us how they responded to your questions
- Peer Reviewing – instead of us asking service users what they think about their services, you can!
- Reviewing Tenders – tell us what answers you’d like a service to come up with if they were applying to manage a service, and read and score there application
- Strategic Reviews – tell us what you think about your service, or about the service you need
- Contribute to the Strategy Group – be part of a group of service users that gives information to the body that makes the decisions about what services we fund, and what we do
- Website design and content – tell us what you’d like to see on the part of our website that is for service users, add your own story or help write what is said on there
- Sit on interview panels when we interview for new providers, or new staff
- Be trained with us for free to be help you do some of the above, and get a certificate saying you have a recognised qualification
- Be part of the Service User Involvement Forums
- Case Studies – tell us about your life, about how your service has helped you. Let other service users know what you have to say.