Agenda item

Hugh Wagstaff, Head of Housing Operations, to provide a verbal update on Surrey County Council’s proposals to decommission all Housing Related Support funding, including funding for services for older people, in order to achieve savings in the Adult Social Care budget.

Following an 8-week consultation with providers (June-August 2017) the Surrey County Council Cabinet will be considering recommendations on the proposals at its meeting on 26 September 2017.

The Surrey County Council Adults and Health Select Committee reviewed the proposals on 14 July 2017, and expressed concern in respect of the long term impact of the proposals. The attached response to the Select Committee’s detailed recommendations was provided at their recent meeting (on 4 September) by SCC officers, and may be helpful to inform the Housing Overview & Scrutiny Committee’s consideration of a response by Waverley Borough Council.

Andrew Smith, Head of Strategic Housing and Delivery, provided a verbal update to the Committee on the Surrey County Council’s (SCC) proposals to decommission Housing Related Support funding, including funding for services to older people, in order to achieve savings in the Adult Social Care budget, and the implications for Waverley services.

The Committee noted that following an 8-week consultation with providers (June-August 2017) the SCC Cabinet would be considering recommendations on the proposals at its meeting on 26 September 2017. The agenda for this meeting had just been published, which set out the detail of the final recommendations:

1.         SCC to no longer provide funding for Housing Related Support for people with learning, physical and sensory disabilities and services for older people; and

2.         SCC to continue to fund Housing Related Support for the socially excluded – those with mental health issues, those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, ex-offenders and the gypsy and traveller community.

Assuming that the recommendations were agreed by the SCC Cabinet on 26 September, Andrew Smith explained the implications for Waverley services:

·        Housing Related Support provided funding for Waverley to employ  a manager at each of the 8 Sheltered Housing schemes. The managers supported tenants by ensuring a safe and secure environment including estate management, offering advice and information, and helping to access community services such as day and health care.

·        It was not permitted to use the Housing Revenue Account (rents) to pay for this service.

·        Residents would be able to request an assessment from Adult Social Care of their care and support needs to see if they qualify for support under the Care Act eligibility criteria. It was not expected that many Waverley tenants would qualify for this.

·        Work was underway to model the finances of the sheltered housing schemes and develop options to secure a sustainable service going forward. However, there was a likelihood of redundancies arising from the reduction in funding.

Waverley also received Housing Related Support in relation to provision of homelessness services to social excluded residents. Whilst the funding for this service would be significantly reduced, it would not be cut entirely. The funding was for accommodation-based support and floating support. Funding for accommodation-based support helped to fund 2 beds in the Woking night-shelter for Waverley clients with complex needs. Floating support was currently provided through the Riverside (a ‘third sector’ organisation) in Guildford, but consideration was being given to other ways of providing a service for Waverley residents.

The Chairman invited Adrian Waller and Brenda Greenslade from the Tenants’ Panel to brief the Committee on the work that they had done to support sheltered housing tenants during the consultation.

Adrian advised that the Tenants’ Panel had attended the SCC consultation event at each of the sheltered housing schemes, and had produced a comprehensive report (attached to these minutes) that highlighted the concerns of tenants and their families. The managers provided an important service to vulnerable older tenants who, with that low level of support, were able to maintain a level of independent living that would otherwise be at risk and could lead to more residents requiring intervention from Adult Social Care. The uncertainty around the future of the of the sheltered service was causing a great deal of worry for residents, which extended to other services such as Careline.

The Tenants’ Panel had issued a press release about the impact of the cuts in funding which had received good coverage, and Brenda had submitted a public question to the SCC Cabinet and would be attending the Cabinet meeting. It had been disappointing that no Surrey County Councillors had attended any of the consultation events in Waverley, and they had been very grateful to Cllr King for her presence which had meant a lot to tenants.

The Committee commended the Tenants’ Panel for their work in supporting tenants, and the excellent report that summarised the concerns. Tenants had been very grateful to the Tenants’ Panel and Cllr King for taking up their cause. The Committee agreed that the cuts to funding for services to older people was short-sighted and was likely to result in a poorer quality of life for older people in sheltered housing schemes. It was very sad, however, that this might not make them sufficiently vulnerable to meet the criteria for individual support from Adult Social Care.

Damian Roberts echoed the concerns of the Committee and Tenants’ Panel: sheltered housing schemes provided an important half-way house between an older person living fully independently in their own home and having to move to a care home. They addressed the key issue of social isolation, and the knowledge that a manager was available to provide support if necessary increased self-confidence. It was hugely disappointing that the decision had been financially driven, and whilst there was a collective will in Waverley to continue to offer the option of sheltered accommodation, there would have to be changes.

Cllr Frost asked that all tenants be given reassurance that Waverley’s Careline service was not affected by these funding cuts. She also pointed out that the staffing of Sheltered Housing Schemes had already been reduced over the years in order to cut costs, and the managers were the last remaining on-site support. Cllr Frost agreed with the suggestion from Cllr Le Gal, that Waverley should engage with Surrey MPs to ensure that impact of the funding cuts was raised at the highest level of the Government.

Andrew Smith pointed out that the Government had been due to publish a green paper on the future funding of supported housing in the spring, and this was still awaited. If the Council was to write to MPs it would be a useful opportunity to lobby for some positive policy statements from the government on housing.

The Committee agreed to recommend to the Executive that:

·        Waverley thanks the Tenants’ Panel for their work in supporting tenants in Sheltered Schemes during the SCC consultation;

·        reassures tenants in the Sheltered Housing schemes that Careline is not affected and will continue; and,

·        the Leader writes to all Surrey MPs, and the Prime Minister, and Minister for DCLG (Sajid Javid) to express grave concerns about the impact of cuts by Surrey County Council  in Housing Related Support funding, especially for older people, and to press the government to bring forward the long-awaited  Green Paper on the future funding of supported housing. The Committee recommended that the Leader include her letter to Surrey County Council, and the Tenants’ Panel excellent report on the impact of the withdrawal of HRS for older people.