Homeless Link says impact of vital government funding changes must be monitored carefully to protect vulnerable and homeless people

Yesterday, the Government announced its decision to remove the ring fence around Supporting People (SP) programme via a two-stage process from April 2009. This programme, with funding of £1.54 billion, is the largest single source of income for the third sector in England.

Crucially, it is the single most important source of funding by far for services for homeless people.

Jenny Edwards, Chief Executive of Homeless Link, the national umbrella organisation for frontline homelessness charities, said,

“Despite the recent pilots it is too early to say what the long-term impact of this decision will be. We have been talking to Government throughout the decision making process and have communicated our members’ concerns that funding could flow away from services for homeless people to those with greater statutory protection once the ringfence is taken off.

Homeless Link want to see strengthened monitoring of the impact of the changes over the next three years in local areas on top of the transition package announced today.

There are positive opportunities as well as risks. Having SP within the Area Based Grant should make it easier to fund more joined up services for people who need more holistic support. We have been helping our members prepare for this change and to demonstrate their local strategic value through evidencing the impact of their work on a wide range of local issues. For small organisations, and even for larger ones that operate over a number of authorities, the challenges will be great.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

1. A transitional arrangement will operate in year one, but from 2010 the Supporting People funding from the Government will be included within the Area Based Grant for local authorities.
2. Homeless Link research with its members in early 2008 found that SP is the primary funding stream for more than 84% of accommodation projects for homeless people.
3. Two of the 196 National Indicators which Local Government are required to report on relate to SP, namely NI 141 and 142 which focus on establishing and maintaining independence for vulnerable and older people. Two thirds of the 150 local authorities in the country have included one or other of these indicators, which demonstrate the national importance of housing-related support.
4. Major short-term outcomes for 27,065 single homeless people with support:

· Of those who needed support with maintaining accommodation and avoiding eviction (15,947), 55% achieved a positive outcome

· Of those who needed support to better manage their physical health (9,587), 75% achieved a positive outcome

· Of those requiring support to obtain paid work (8,175), 28% achieved a positive outcome

5. The provisional local government settlement for 2009/10 is published today and can be found at: www.local.communities.gov.uk/finance/0910/grant.htm 6. Provisional Supporting People funding was announced as part of the first-ever three-year funding settlement for councils announced on 6 December 2007. Details can be found at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/576681

7. About Homeless Link Homeless Link is the only national network of homelessness charities in the country. Our 450 member charities do the REAL hard work with the 70,000 or so homeless people who access their services every day.

Homeless Link calls for 10 key challenges to be overcome if we are to end rough sleeping by 2012. We have spokespeople available to speak to these issues. We can also provide facts and figures on homelessness and rough sleeping and case studies from London and across England, drawn from the extensive work of our member charities.