In summer 2010, working in partnership Capita and Inside Housing launched the nationwide Supporting People survey to discover how first round of public sector spending cuts were affecting the social housing and care sectors provision within the Supporting People arena.
The results speak for themselves
According to the Communication and Local Government department Supporting People helps around 1 million people at any one time, so 2010's survey highlighted alarming results including:
- 36% of respondents have experienced a significant reduction in their Supporting People budgets since the removal of ring-fenced funding in April 2009
- 46.6% of respondents were planning to cut certain service provisions during the next 12 months in order to make necessary savings
- 88% of respondents believe the Supporting People agenda will not get more attention nor more funding under the new government.
One year on...
July 2011 saw Inside Housing and Capita publish the result of this year's survey looking at how the implications of funding cuts have panned out one year.
- 54.2% of respondents are planning to cut services in the next 12 months to make further savings
- 89% of respondents say the housing minister should do more to prevent councils from cutting spending on Supporting People
- 55.2% of respondents have seen Supporting People budgets decrease by 0-25%
- 21.6% of respondents have seen Supporting People budgets decrease by 25-50%
- 60.4% have seen the demand for Supporting People services increase by 0-20%, and 17.2% have seen the increase by 20-40%
- 27% of respondents have handled the same number of cases with fewer staff
- 46% of respondents have streamlined services.