Present: Councillor Ray Guselli – Cumbria County Council (Chair)
Paul Latimer – Supporting People
Andrea Smith – Supporting People
Ian Fuller – Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Caroline Wagstaff – Barrow Borough Council
Janice Sharp – Barrow Borough Council
Simon Singleton – Barrow Borough Council
Colin Garnett – Barrow Borough Council
Elaine Ward – Barrow Borough Council
Amanda Brierley – Barrow Borough Council
Emma Hayman – Shelter
Dawn Sandham – Stonham
Claire Rowlandson – Stonham
Janice Moore – Carr-Gomm
Chris Graham – Croftlands Trust
Duncan Roebuck – Probation
Tricia Kelly – Probation
Alan Casey – Children’s Services
John Macilwraith – Children’s Services
Anne Taylor – Cumbria Travellers Programme
Hazel Swarbrick – Accent
Maria Kielty – Traveller Project
Angela Robinson – Accent
Nicola Bell – Project John
Councillor Jim Hamezeian - Cumbria County Council
Councillor Karen Johnson – Cumbria County Council
Tina Macur – Cumbria County Council
David Marcus - Cumbria County Council
Jill Heath - Cumbria County Council
Apologies: Julie Batsford – Supporting People
Therese Gill – Advice Access and Safeguarding Team
Maria Hammond – Carr-Gomm
Andrea Astles – Thera North
Introductions
Ray Guselli opened the meeting and introductions were made. Paul Latimer gave a brief overview of the day.
Overview of SP need and supply profiles and funding
Paul Latimer gave a presentation about Performance and Information for Barrow District area. This provided an overview of allocated funding and current supply needs. The presentation showed that:
· The spend for BBC was £1.2 million in 2008/09. A detailed chart shows breakdown of client groups and accommodation and non accommodation based services.
· Work still needs to be done on the data for HGO’s.
· There was an over allocation of money for accommodation based schemes and an under allocation for non-accommodation based schemes.
· National Performance Indicators for last year were NPI 141 – 63% and NPI 142 – 97.83%.
· To get in to the middle quartile, we need to be achieving NPI 141 – 74% and NPI 142 – 98.88%.
· We need to work better with providers on increasing the number of clients who move through schemes.
· In the future we need to evidence that SP can change people’s lives and the Outcomes framework can provide details of the many positive changes that clients can make.
· Providers need to send the Outcomes data to St Andrews in order for the SP team to be able to analyse the results and produce Outcomes reports.
· The Outcomes information will also be made available to the Providers.
Update on commissioning arrangements
· Cumbria allocation of Supporting People Grant is £10.2million up to March 2011.
· It has been confirmed that SP can roll forward the previous years under spend of £1.6million.
· Most of this under spend has already been allocated to different services suggested at the Locality Events last year, however £700k still remains unallocated.
Feedback from Service Users
From the many service users who have expressed an interest in working with us to develop service user involvement further, we have established 3 Community Expert Panels who will advise the SP team, providers and various partners on how best to develop housing related support services in Cumbria. SO far, 150 people have signed up to be involved and 11 of these have already been on a 3 day training course. The Community Expert Panels are as follows:
· Peer Reviewers (South Cumbria) – A 3 day training course has been held to develop a team of peer reviewers who will visit providers alongside SP contract officers to find out what the service users really think of the service being provided. Peer reviewers may be offered a nationally accredited qualification – PEARL in personal and social development.
· Mystery Shopping (North Cumbria) – Intend to train service users to carry out a mystery shopping exercise where they will go and check that the services that SP fund are doing there fund in a professional, friendly and competent manner.
· Communications/Text Surveys (West Cumbria) – We will be working with the County Councils Media Officer to develop the opportunity for service users to participate in surveys via text.
In return for their time and effort, service users attending will be given lunch and rewarded with vouchers for local shops.
Update by SP Partner Agencies
Barrow Borough Council
· High rent deposits in the private sector.
· Referrals are low for sheltered accommodation.
· Homelessness – Young people continue to be a high need.
· 16-17year olds – BBC looking at Children’s Services providing extra funding.
Project John
· Young people and teenage pregnancy – not enough accommodation for young people, there are approximately 30 on the waiting list.
· Working towards Foyer Accreditation.
· Lack of move-on accommodation
· There is need for more move-on and affordable housing.
BBC Generic Floating Support
· High risk tenants require intense support and double ups needed for home visits.
· There is a need to look at how we can streamline paperwork.
Accent – Silverdale Street Hostel
· High utilisation – 21 move-on’s out of 31.
· Lone working means limited opportunities for support work.
· The service is in high demand.
· Staff training is restrictive to just Manchester and London.
Chris Graham – Croftlands Trust
Whilst Croftlands Trust don’t have any service provision in South Cumbria, Chris gave an overview of the current issues across Cumbria in relation to Mental Health Service provision, and the Tribal Report.
Carr Gomm – St Georges House
· Main issues are moving clients on and staffing levels.
· An idea was raised to increase recruitment opportunities by focusing on existing tenants to train up to become support workers and creating an agency to do this.
· Focus on tenants to access range of training opportunities in a non-challenging environment.
Stonham – Brewery Street
· A south Cumbria generic service with a high utilisation and a waiting list of 10 people.
· A high proportion of the service users are people with learning difficulties with a long term need.
· Is there a core need here being missed?
Shelter – SCOS
· Funding has been secured from Staples Trust to support the partner of offenders
· Offenders are finding it difficult to access private accommodation
· Outcomes for offenders can often be difficult to achieve due to their complexities
· There is a need to re-visit the Offender protocol to ensure that all partner are working effectively for the benefit of the client
· There is concern that funding from may be lost for YOT clients.
Furness Homeless Support
· The service is fully utilised however, there are issues with move-on accommodation
· There are concerns in relation to the level of support that some of the clients require, and this service provision is unable to provide support to those with high support needs.
Traveller Project
· The HGO needs analysis doesn’t’ reflect the need of Gypsies and Travellers in the Barrow area
· There is a site in Barrow which has 17 plots
· There is a need to provide support for this client group across the County, as the present service only covers the North Cumbria.
Summary of main issues raised by all providers
· Accessing housing benefits and the timescale for assessing housing benefit claim forms.
· Rent deposit requests by private landlords are excessive and people moving on from supported housing find it difficult to afford this.
· Private landlords will not accept young people into their rented properties.
· Private landlords want cash up front.
· Won’t accept people in receipt of housing benefit in particular as a result of the changes to how housing benefit is now paid direct to the tenant.
· BBC are the key provider in the area for move-on , however, they are now experiencing a change in demand for accommodation and are finding it more difficult to accommodate.
· Homeless stats show a reduction in their reporting. BBC suggest that this is as a result of how CLG now wish LA’s to report their figures which may not reflect to true extent of the homeless problem in Barrow. This is particularly apparent for Domestic Violence clients.
· Increase in the number of buy to let repossessions as a result of the landlord being repossessed.
· Young People Panels – Seeing approximately 8 repeat presentations per month. These are mainly young people with medium/high support needs.
· Providers main concerns are around move-on, but less difficult for teen parents.
· Need to streamline paperwork.
· Risk associated with clients with higher support needs.
· Staff training.
· Concerns from mental health providers regarding rehab closure.
· Should SP fund mental health services and those in secondary care in the future?
· Difficulty accessing mental health services for clients.
· Gap in service provision for 16-17 year olds.
· Concerns mental health services are going to be transferred out of the area.
· Outcomes can often be difficult to achieve with offenders or complex needs clients.
· Offender protocol isn’t working as well as the providers would like it too. Lack of implementation. A link worker is needed.
· Concern that Youth Offending Team client funding may be taken out.
· Needs analysis doesn’t reflect the need in barrow.
· Capacity issues where services are in high demand.
Meeting finished at 13.00