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ITEM SP11(a)

Eligibility Criteria for Supporting People Grant in Oxfordshire

INTRODUCTION

• The purpose of this document is to clarify which services are eligible to receive Supporting People Grant in Oxfordshire.
• The guidelines in this document are intended to be applied flexibly and with common sense – for example, a service user’s needs may fluctuate so they need more support in some weeks than others.
• These Eligibility Criteria will have been reviewed before the end of December 2008.
• The Government has issued Grant Conditions which dictate what Supporting People Grant can and cannot be spent on. Although in some areas these are open to interpretation, there are some clear statements. Where the Government forbids us to use Supporting People Grant to fund certain tasks, it is not an option for us to ignore this.
• Condition 2.1 of the Grant Conditions for 2005/06 states that "each Administering Authority shall use Supporting People programme grant monies only in connection with the provision of welfare services to vulnerable people where each of these services falls within at least one of the categories set out in the Schedule (eligible welfare services)."
• Eligible welfare services categories are defined as Housing-related support services, Transitional support services, Occasional welfare services and Adult Placement Services.

Context in which a welfare service shall be regarded as eligible for Supporting People Grant

"A welfare service (except Transitional support services) shall only be regarded as an eligible welfare service where that service –

(a) is provided to a service recipient who has vulnerabilities (as described in the Supporting People guidance) which render them in need of support services;

(b) is provided to a service recipient as part of a package of support services agreed between the Administering Authority and the service provider; and

(c) is, in the view of the Administering authority, value for money, strategically relevant and good quality." (Schedule - Eligible Welfare Services Para 5)

(d) is provided to people living independently and is principally focused on enabling the service user to secure or maintain their accommodation;

(e) is the subject of a formal support plan.

Who is eligible to receive services funded by Supporting People Grant?

• Only adults (16+) are eligible.
• The Supporting People Grant conditions say that the service user has to have "vulnerabilities which render them in need of support services." (Schedule - Eligible Welfare Services Para 5 a). Earlier Supporting People guidance defined the circumstances that may render a person vulnerable and in need of support, e.g. previous homelessness, mental health problems, vulnerability due to age, teenage pregnancy etc.
• Agreeing the target client-group is therefore vital to assessing the eligibility of any service for Supporting People Grant. It is assumed that there will be a process of assessing the vulnerability of potential service users against the service’s criteria for admission. For instance, not all single homeless people are vulnerable with resulting support needs.

ELIGIBLE SERVICES

Housing-Related Support Services

• Housing-related support services are defined as "Support services which are provided to any person for the purpose of developing that person’s capacity to live independently in accommodation, or sustaining his capacity to do so." (Schedule – Eligible Welfare Services – Para.1 (2) )
• Key words here are developing and sustaining. A short-term service (such as a hostel for the homeless) will develop capacity to live independently and may need to be more intensive to achieve this. A short-term service aims to bring about independent living or to increase the capacity for independent living through a package of time-limited (intended duration of under two years) housing-related support. Other services, such as a sheltered housing scheme for older people, will sustain independent living and are not expected to be time-limited.
• See Appendix 1 for listing of housing-related support tasks.

Transitional Support Services (after April 2006 this category will not exist)

• These are defined as "support services which on the qualifying date were (partially or fully) funded by Supported Housing Management Grant "or by other eligible funding e.g. Transitional Housing Benefit, Probation Accommodation Grant. (Schedule – Eligible Welfare Services Para.1 (3) )
• These Transitional Support Services are only eligible up to the end of the Interim Contract. Following a service review the service may then be considered eligible to receive Supporting People Grant.

Occasional Welfare Services

• Occasional Welfare Services are defined as "other welfare services which are provided by those delivering housing-related support services to a service recipient and which are services ancillary to housing-related support services" (Schedule – Eligible Welfare Services Para. 1 (4) )
• An ancillary service is eligible if the predominant amount of assistance is legitimately housing-related support (i.e. if at least 80% of support is housing-related support and less than 20% is occasional welfare services)
• It is generally agreed that an ancillary service is one that is provided occasionally and for a limited time to maintain independent living (e.g. help with collecting benefits or administering medication during a period of illness)
• The expectation is that the service users will develop or regain the skills to carry out these tasks without supervision after a short period of time
• An ancillary service is eligible if it is not regularly and consistently provided for all service users.
• See Appendix 1 (download as .doc file) for listing of tasks which could be regarded as occasional welfare services.

ADULT PLACEMENT SERVICES

A housing-related support service which is provided by an Adult Placement Scheme (as defined in the Adult Placement Scheme (England) Regulations 2004).

NON-ELIGIBLE SERVICES

The Grant Conditions also define specific services that are not eligible for Supporting People funding. These are:

• Services which are provided in a residential care establishment registered under the Care Standards Act 2000;
• Services provided by a person required to be registered under the Care Standards Act 2000 in his capacity as a registered provider of care;
• Nursing or personal care services;
• Services by the administering authority in satisfaction of a statutory duty placed on that authority;
• Building works ( including any adaptation, improvement or repair in relation to a building) other than advice and assistance in obtaining grants for such works or personal support services during the works;
• Provision of equipment unless the equipment is used to deliver the particular service in question;
• Psychological therapy or programmes of therapeutic counselling;
• Services to enforce specific requirements imposed by a court of law;
• General housing management services.

Exclusion of Statutory duties

• There is a clear requirement that Supporting People funds are not used to discharge statutory duties, particularly under community care and homelessness legislation.
• Statutory sector funding should result from any of the following;

• It is however possible for housing-related support providers to provide services which meet statutory requirements, but this element of the service provided should not be funded by Supporting People Grant.

Exclusion of General Social Care

Social Care is defined as activities that are intended to help people with their day to day lives and are not primarily intended to allow people to gain access to accommodation or to maintain their accommodation. Where a service user requires a high level of supervision, needs support all of the time in day to day living tasks and the help does not reduce, it is an indication that the person needs support in respect of their entire life and not just in respect of accommodation.

Exclusion of Personal Care

Personal Care includes assistance with bodily functions such as feeding, bathing and toileting and other physical care which involves physical and intimate touching, such as helping a person to get dressed. All these activities are excluded.

Exclusion of Health Care

• Most health care is clearly distinct from housing-related support, apart from the provision of specialist counselling and the administration of medication but all health care activities are non-eligible for Supporting People Grant
• Although the administration of medication, including storing and issuing prescribed medication to service users on a regular basis, should be treated as being outside the definition of housing-related support, it may be eligible if it is regarded as an ancillary function.

Exclusion of Housing Management

There needs to be a distinction between housing-related support and the landlord function of housing management (not eligible for Supporting People Grant), although these two functions may be carried out by the same staff.

LEVELS OF HOUSING-RELATED SUPPORT

• Within the Eligibility Criteria it is helpful to develop standard levels of support, in relation to the amount of support (in terms of hours delivered) and the value of funding to meet various service user needs. See Appendix 2 (download as .doc file) for the proposed levels of housing-related support.
• It is usually considered desirable to indicate a maximum level which will generally be used for Supporting People funding. This could be a monetary cap or a maximum number of support hours per week per service user.
• The main table assumes daytime support (up to 10pm) and on call support at night. Services which provide on-site support at night (sleeping or waking staff) need additional weekly support hours and additional funding levels.
• Services will be eligible for Supporting People Grant up to the levels agreed for each type of service. Where there are reasons why a service should be funded outside of these levels (for example specialist skills needed by the staff team) this will need to be agreed by the Supporting People team and endorsed by the Core Strategy Group.
  
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