Supporting People

Strategy and planning

Structure and functions of the SP Team

With the end of the “ring-fenced” Supporting People grant in 2009 and Supporting People funding becoming part of the Formula Grant for Local Authorities in 20010, we have begun to look at how the Supporting People service clusters are best served within the County Council structures.

Currently, Supporting People is within the Wellbeing and Partnerships Commissioning Team within Adult Services. The focus of this Team is prevention and early intervention and as such it is an appropriate location for SP.

From April 2011 the Supporting People staff have taken on a wider responsibility within the Wellbeing & Partnerships Team and three of the SP Managers are now Prevention and Early Intervention Managers, focusing on older persons’ wellbeing, including commissioning and managing the older persons’ Supporting People function, managing the Community Independence Teams and developing extra care schemes in the county.

The four remaining SP Managers, are responsible for the commissioning and management of SP services in the socially excluded and disabilities clusters.

With the above structures now in place, it makes sense for us to develop separate Strategies for each client cluster and for these Strategies to be set for the duration of the contracts. This is normally three years. To this end, services within the three client clusters are reviewed every three years, prior to contracts ending.

Team Structure

Strategic Reviews of Services

From 2006 a series of Strategic Reviews has been carried out within the three service clusters to cover the three year contracting process:

  • 2006-2007 Homeless/ Socially Excluded services
  • 2007-2008 Disabilities services
  • 2008-2009 Older Persons' services
  • 2009-2010 Socially Excluded services
  • 2010-2011 Disabilities services
  • 2011-2012 Older Persons' services
  • 2012-2013 Socially Excluded Services
The aims of these Reviews are:

  • To ensure provision more closely meets the needs of the local population

  • To ensure services deliver a positive and effective contribution to the prevention and early intervention agenda and to the targets of strategic partners  

  • To ensure a wide range of housing and support options are commissioned within the available Supporting People budget .

Our approach to these reviews is to focus on ensuring services continue to meet the objectives set out from the previous review, take on board new strategic objectives of our key stakeholders, negotiation with providers over what is feasible, ensuring that service users have information and choice and that their preferences are taken into account in the decisions we make. It is our aim to ensure service users have services which meet their needs as far as resources allow.

Where we wish to offer a new contract to a provider to continue a service, we will be clear that we have assessed each service according to the following 5 criteria:

  • Strategic Relevance

  • Demand and Need as evidenced over the life of the contract

  • Quality delivered during the life of the contract

  • Performance as assessed over the life of the contract

  • Value for money

Strategic Review of Services for Socially Excluded Groups

The Strategic Review of socially excluded services took place in 2012, for new contracts to start in April 2013.

The outcome of that Review is summarised below:

Download a summary of the outcome of the Implementation Plan for the Socially Excluded Services Review 2012

Strategic Review of the Disabilities Services

The Strategic Review of disabilities services took place during 2010, for new contracts to start in April 2011.

The outcome of that Review is summarised below:

Download a summary of the outcome of the disabilities services review

Strategic Review of Older Persons’ Services

The Strategic Review of older persons’ services took place during 2011, for new contracts to start in April 2012.

Following the Strategic Review of Older Persons’ services carried out during 2011, a county Plan has been produced which sets out the strategic direction for these services from 2012-2015:

Download the County Plan for older persons’ services from 2012-2015

If you experience difficulties downloading any of the information, please do not hesitate to contact the Supporting People Team on 01962 847982

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