Supporting People

Click here for information on the Mental Health Act
Click here for useful up to date information at http://www.direct.gov.uk/Homepage/fs/en

Click here for information on the The Disability Equality Duty for the Public Sector

What is Supporting People?
Supporting People is a government programme that aims to improve the type and quality of support services provided to vulnerable people. Where you receive a Supporting People service they pay your service provider to provide you with housing-related support to enable you to live independently in the community.

Who can access SP services?

Services are available for:

• Older people with support needs

• People with learning disabilities

• People with mental health problems

• Homeless people

• Offenders

• Young people at risk or leaving care

Who funds Supporting People services?
If you are receiving housing benefit then the SP team will cover the costs of the support for you. If you are not receiving housing benefit you may have to cover the cost yourself, but you can apply for a Fairer charging Assessment, which may mean you are still eligible. For more information on charges please

What is housing-related support?

This is the service that your landlord,orsomebody who works for them,such as awarden,a support worker or a floatingsupport provider provides for you to helpyou to remain independent.If you are vulnerable you may be living in aplace where accommodation and supportare part of the overall service — such as asheltered housing scheme,a hostel or arefuge. Alternatively you may be living inyour own home and receive support from anoutside agency.Typical housing-related support servicesinclude:

•Help with budgeting and managing a tenancy

•Help filling in benefit claim forms orarranging for professionals to call

•Help with accessing education or work

•Help or training to help you move on to lesssupported accommodation

•Help maintaining the safety and security ofyour home

•An emergency alarm

All of the services above help you to do thingsyourself rather than have them done for you.Supporting People does not pay for personalcare services such as bathing,laundry orhaving meals prepared.

Does my Supporting People Service have to meet certain standards?

Under the Supporting People programme, service providers need to make sure that their service meets standards laid down by central government. In order to check these standards are being met, the Supporting

People Team reviews services regularly. We will contact you when your service is due to be reviewed, and welcome your involvement in the review. You will be given a leaflet about the reviews which will explain how they work and how you can help.

What if I want to make a complaint about my Supporting People Service?

If you are unhappy with the service being provided to you, you have a right to complain. In many cases the best person to complain to will be your service provider —they should give you information on how to do this.

If you would rather not complain directly to them, you can contact the Supporting People Team.

How do we involve people?

It is important to us that people who useSupporting People services are given theopportunity to give feedback on servicesand pass on ideas for improvement to us.There are several service user groups

that meet to discuss services in Bournemouth,as well as a regular Newsletterproduced by the Team to keep peopleupdated on what ’s happening.We also encourage service users to helpus to review services.To get involvedplease contact the team.

Bournemouth Supporting People Team

Room 106/ 107

Third Floor

To wn H a l l

Bourne Avenue

Bournemouth

BH2 6DY

Telephone 01202 458929

Email: supporting.people@bournemouth.gov.uk

The Disability Equality Duty for the Public Sector

What is it?

From December 2006 The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 will be amended to place a duty on all public bodies to promote disability equality. This will affect all public bodies - from local councils to government departments, from universities to hospitals.

The Disability Equality Duty will require the public sector to actively promote disability equality, and is similar to the duty to promote race equality under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act.

This is a positive duty which builds in disability equality at the beginning of the process, rather than make adjustments at the end. It will bring about a shift from a legal framework which relies on individual disabled people complaining about discrimination to one in which the public sector becomes a proactive agent of change.

How will it operate?

The Act sets out what is known as the General Duty. This means they will all have to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination and promote equal opportunities for disabled people. They will also need to consider the elimination of harassment of disabled people, promotion of positive attitudes and the need to encourage the participation of disabled people in public life.

The Regulations will give key public bodies a Specific Duty which will define for them a framework to use to meet the General Duty. The main element of this will be the requirement to produce a Disability Equality Scheme. There will be a full list of bodies who will have the specific duty and will be required to produce a Disability Equality Scheme. This list will be produced by Government but a draft version is in the DRC consultation document and it includes Government Departments, many Local Authorities, Universities, Colleges, Regional Development Agencies, and many Health and Regulatory Bodies.

In the process of producing this Disability Equality Scheme these key bodies must:

Involve disabled people in producing the scheme and developing the action plan.

Identify how they will gather and analyse evidence to inform their actions and track progress.

Set out how they will assess the impact of their existing and proposed activities on disabled people.

Produce an action plan for the next three years.

Report on their progress every year and review and make appropriate revisions to this scheme at least every three years.

These key bodies must demonstrate that they have taken the actions they have committed themselves to, and achieved appropriate outcomes.

How will it be enforced?

In relation to the Specific Duty and those bodies who will have to produce a Disability Equality Scheme, the DRC will have the power to issue compliance notices where it is satisfied that a public authority has failed to comply with its specific duties under the regulations, and can enforce the notices in the county or sheriff court.