Housing Voluntary Grants Annual Outcomes Return
Housing Voluntary Grant Scheme Annual Outcomes and Performance Return
Organisation Name:
Year: 2016-17 Grant Awarded £120,640
This form must state how the grant awarded in 2016-17 was spent. Targets which were set at the beginning of the year for grant aided activities, and any changes in aims and objectives must be shown. On grants awarded for research, the form should cover not only the results of the research, but information on its dissemination. Measures of performance should cover not only activities carried out, but the results achieved and progress towards outcomes; for example, not just the number of beds or other assistance made available for homeless people, but the progress this has in preventing the recurrence of homelessness.
PLEASE DO NOT USE ANY OTHER FORMAT
Provide quantitative and qualitative measure of performance against agreed targets up to 31 March 2017 noting if any changes have been made to overall aims and objectives.
OVERVIEW:The Supporting People Enabling Unit was established in January 2004 to assist and support voluntary sector and independent service providers across Scotland with the implementation of the Supporting People programme. Following the lifting of the ring-fenced funding for the Supporting People programme in 2008, the Unit changed its name to Housing Support Enabling Unit. The Unit continues to have a role in assisting providers of housing support to understand key issues within the sector, to demonstrate the impact of their work and to raise the profile of housing support and the contribution it makes.
The Housing Support Enabling Unit aims to:
· Raise awareness about the role of housing support
· Act as a central point for enquiries from providers
· Assist housing support providers to have a voice in policy making
· Gather information from providers about trends in funding, costs and capacity
· Organise training and events for housing support providers
The Unit is a joint initiative of the Coalition of Care and Support Providers (CCPS) and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA). The work of the Unit is overseen by an executive committee comprising of representatives from:
· CCPS
· SFHA
· Scottish Women’s Aid
· Homeless Action Scotland
· Private Sector
· COSLA
· Scottish Government
The Unit is funded by the Scottish Government and the current grant runs until March 2018.
In 2016/17 the staff group consisted of a Director, Information and Policy Officer and administrative support through CCPS. A full list of the committee members and staff is attached in Appendix 1.
The Unit is in regular contact with providers of housing support and has over 750 subscribers to its online information service. The Unit participates in various national working groups and forums in order to present providers’ perspectives. A list of these can be found in Appendix 2.
This report documents the activities and achievements of the Unit from April 2016 to March 2017.
AGREED TARGETS for 2016-17 (please list your objectives individually and measure your performance against each objective):
1. The role of housing support will be better understood by health authorities and local authorities (particularly the new health and social care integration authorities) and other public bodies in terms of its contribution to national health and wellbeing outcomes and housing/homelessness outcomes.
Website
Between April 2016 and March 2017, the HSEU website received over 7,300 visits (a 5% increase from last year) from over 4,700 unique users (a 17% increase from last year) with approximately 17,000 page views. About 63% of visitors to the website were new users, with the remaining 37% being return visitors.
The HSEU uses Google Analytics to monitor trends in the usage of its website. From this, we can see which topics and pages are visited most often. This year, there has been increasing interest in Better Futures (moving from second to first position) as well as the annual Photo Competition (which moved from fourth to third position). It is also clear that Welfare Reform and the impact that it has on Supported Housing remain a key area of interest and concern for stakeholders. The top ten most visited pages or topics in 2016/17 were:
1. Better Futures and Better Futures Resources
2. Home Page
3. No Place Like Home Photography Competition
4. Welfare Reform
5. Publications and Resources
6. Events
7. News
8. Contact Us
9. SSSC
10. Information – demonstrating impact
No Place Like Home Photo Competition
This year, 2016/17 year marked the 7th Annual No Place Like Home Photography Competition. The competition aims to raise the profile of housing support and highlight, through personal stories, the difference that housing support can make for individuals and communities. There were three categories this year: Home, Community and Wellbeing. This helped to emphasise the role that having a stable, comfortable and secure home can have on a person’s health, wellbeing and feeling of being part of a community.
This year, we received 47 entries from 25 different services. Over the last seven years, the photo competition has attracted 294 entries in total. Photos from this year and previous years and their accompanying stories are regularly used in publications, on the Unit’s website and in the bi-monthly eForum.
A panel of judges chooses the six winners – a group winner and an individual winner in each of the three categories. The judges work in housing and support organisations from across the UK. This year, this included SFHA, COSLA, SSSC, Scottish Government, Homeless Action Scotland, Cymorth Cymru, Age Scotland, Scotland’s Housing Network, and CIH. All of the winners were invited to the Scottish Housing and Support Conference (SHASC) in October 2016 to accept their awards. This year, three of the six winners were able to attend the conference to accept their prizes in person.
The wining photos and accompanying stories were all included in our annual brochure of winning photos. This brochure is distributed throughout the year at internal and external events and to prominent stakeholders to help to demonstrate the difference that housing support makes to individuals and their communities from personal perspectives.
Housing Partners for Health and Wellbeing (formerly the Housing Coordinating Group)
The HSEU has continued to contribute to the work of the HPHW group over the last year by taking part in bi-monthly meetings and supporting events such as the Hospital to Home event on 22nd March in Glasgow. Over the last year the group has extended its membership to include health representatives and a significant focus of the work of the group has been on promoting a better understanding of the relationship between housing, homelessness and health. Related to the work of this group is the work of the Good Life Group which commissioned research into the situation faced by people with complex needs currently living in hospital. The HSEU is a part of this group also and provides a link to the HPHW.
Business Resilience Survey
The Business Resilience Survey gathers information from providers about their general business situation including financial, workforce and procurement trends. While the survey was completely overhauled in 2015, the themes remained the same as the previous survey, the Provider Optimism Survey which has been running since 2009 (HSEU began contributing to the survey in 2012). This means that the HSEU could continue to gather information and trends about:
· Optimism about the general business situation
· Financial trends, including income, surpluses, deficits, reserves, funding and sustainability
· Procurement Trends, including engagement and withdrawal from procurement exercises
· Workforce trends, including employee numbers, pay and conditions and recruitment
· Partnership and collaboration, including involvement with integration and other service planning
· Housing support and early intervention provision
The annual survey was sent out in the summer of 2016 to all CCPS members as well as to the Criminal Justice Voluntary Sector Forum and HSEU stakeholders. A total of 47 responses were received this year.
Responses to the 2016 survey showed that:
· 65% of respondents said that they were less optimistic about the general business situation than they were last year
· more than 30% said that fewer than half of their services were funded at sustainable levels
· nearly 20% of respondents said that they had withdrawn from current contracts because they were no longer financially viable to run
· 74% of respondents said that they had experienced a lot or some difficulty recruiting staff
Funding and sustainability continue to be of concern for housing support providers. Many respondents also raised particular concern about the effect of Welfare Reform changes such as the LHA cap would have on the sustainability of their services.
Results from the survey are widely circulated by both CCPS and HSEU and have fed into several external reports including the SCVO discussion paper on the future of social care in Scotland.
The Business Resilience Survey will continue to run in 2017/18, building up further information and evidence about the health and sustainability of the sector in Scotland.
2. Housing support providers will be able to demonstrate the impact of their services
Better Futures is an outcomes framework and online monitoring system designed to help housing support providers to record an individual’s support needs over time. Reports from the system also help to show the impact the service and organisation is making for the people they support.
By promoting and supporting Better Futures in addition to other outcomes monitoring frameworks and systems, the Unit is helping housing support providers find ways to demonstrate the impact of their work.
Better Futures
At the beginning of 2016/17, there were 22 organisations using Better Futures. Over the course of the year, 2 organisations decided to stop using the system, while 5 organisations signed up to use the system meaning that by the end of the year in April 2017 there were 25 organisations using Better Futures. Two of the new organisations are based outside of Scotland (in Northern Ireland and England), meaning that use of Better Futures has crossed borders for the first time since its launch. While the Better Futures Framework is available for any organisation to use without charge, there is a license fee to use the online software. These charges for Better Futures raised £20,650 in 2016/17.
The number of client records on Better Futures continues to grow. In March 2016, there were over 13,000 service user records on Better Futures. By March 2017, this had grown to more than 17,000 individual records.
A full training session for staff is offered as part of the set-up for new organisations. Over the course of the year, the Unit ran 7 introductory training sessions with a total of 42 individuals for new organisations, 8 training sessions with a total of 36 individuals focussing on reports or refresher training sessions for organisations who were existing users of Better Futures and 11 demonstrations of the system. For every training session, we ask participants to evaluate the organisation and the content of the course. 99% of participants rated the training sessions as “Good” for both content and organisation (this is the most positive option available on the evaluation forms).
As part of the administration of the system, the Unit continues to provide ongoing support and advice to organisations using Better Futures and their staff.
Evaluation of Better Futures
The Unit commissioned an independent evaluation of Better Futures. Craigforth and Newhaven were appointed to examine the extent to which Better Futures has achieved its objectives. A survey of staff across organisations using Better Futures was conducted and stakeholder interviews were carried out to find out what commissioners, academics and regulators think of the system. Visits were carried out with 5 organisations to form case studies and provided an opportunity to meet with those using services. Initial findings were presented to the Better Futures Super User Group in February 2017. The evaluation was very positive overall with very high ratings being given by staff using the system and evidence through the case studies that the framework helps to underpin a personalised approach to delivering housing support. Recommendations flowing from the findings which will be considered and acted upon in 2017/18.
Promoting Better Futures
In November 2016, the Unit organised an event to promote Better Futures to organisations looking for outcomes monitoring systems. The event was attended by 66 people and evaluated positively. Organisations using Better Futures were involved in planning and promoting the event as well as delivering workshops and presentations.
At the event we featured a video case study about a service user using Better Futures in their support. This video, along with several other videos about Better Futures are available to view on the HSEU website and have been viewed over 600 times since they were uploaded in late 2016.
The Unit commissioned a re-design of the framework scoring guide in 2015/16 and this work was completed in 2016/17. The redesigned, spiral bound, colourful booklets have been very well received. Support workers have told us that the new booklets are more visually appealing and help to make it easier to engage service users in the assessment and support planning process.
The HSEU also had stands at the Homeless Action Scotland Conference and the Scottish Housing and Support Conference to promote Better Futures and raise awareness of the Housing Support Enabling Unit more generally.
Personal Outcomes Network
The Unit is a member of the Personal Outcomes Network, organised by HIS and SSSC, which met three times during the year. The group consists of members from SSSC, Care Inspectorate, Healthcare Improvement Scotland, voluntary sector, health, Local Authorities and Scottish Government. The network focuses on promoting and encouraging the use of a personal outcomes approach in health and social care services.
The HSEU was also involved in the planning for the Personal Outcomes Person-centred Approach (POPA) Open Day: Making Your Contribution event on 28th February 2017.
3. Housing support providers will be better able to understand, negotiate and influence the complex and changing environment within which they operate
eForum
The bi-monthly eForum goes out to over 750 subscribers from across the housing support sector. The eForum focuses on current news, including regular space for news from the Scottish Government, consultations, new resources, events and good practice examples relevant to housing support providers. The eForum was sent out in March 2016, May 2016, July 2016, September 2016, December 2016, and February 2017. Readers interact well with the newsletter – both the open rate and the click rate are above industry average for similar newsletters.