Adults

One of the government's key objectives for the Supporting People (SP) programme has been to ensure vulnerable people are given appropriate information and provided with the opportunities to be involved at different levels of consultation. Service users and other stakeholders in Medway have been involved throughout the strategy development process.

Methodology

In developing this strategy, various methods of consultation have been used with a wide range of statutory agencies, service providers and service users and these are set out in the table below:

Consulting users

Councils need to find ways of consulting users about the effectiveness of the service.

The Supporting People Team in Medway has concentrated on involving users and linking into forums that already exist.

The approach to canvassing the views of service users focussed on the need to gather basic information on key themes that would inform a longer term Supporting People service user involvement approach as part of the five-year strategy.

To ensure both providers and service users were given the opportunity to provide input, the consultation process providers were consulted in the first instance. Using the SP forum to inform providers of the proposals to consult with service users, providers were invited to contribute to the process by which service users would be consulted, in addition to providing information about existing involvement activities already taking place in schemes.

A summary of the initial provider consultation and the combined information gathered is outlined below:

Which client groups do you work with in SP-funded services in Medway?

• domestic violence;
• young people;
• floating support;
• learning disabilities;
• ex-offenders;
• female ex-offenders;
• mentally disordered offenders;
• over 60s and people with physical disabilities;
• over 60s with support needs.

How many service users do you have in Medway?

10 provider organisations took part in the consultation, representing a total of 1,004 service users, including 796 elderly clients.

Have your service users been given information about SP and how would you describe their general level of understanding?

Providers of elderly services answered no and stated that this was due to there being no need. All other providers said their clients had been given some information on SP, although overall the view was that knowledge of Supporting People is limited.

Does your service have a planned approach to service user involvement?

All providers answered yes to this question with a range of methods and activities involved:

• monthly resident meetings;
• complaints and appeals policy;
• annual service quality questionnaire;
• service user involvement;
• policy·evaluation forms;
• user forum;
• newsletter;
• surveys.

What do you suggest would be the most effective way of ensuring service user views are gathered for inclusion in the five-year strategy?

• user forum;
• feedback from organisations’ own surveys;
• focus meetings;
• participation event;
• open days;
• all providers, with one exception, listed questionnaires in their response to this question.

What do you think are the most important issues to consider in planning service user consultation at this level?

• clear explanation and scope;
• must fit in with levels of understanding;
• simple and short;
• face to face to ensure understanding;
• monitoring and evaluation;
• vulnerability and confidentiality;
• inclusion and understanding;
• differing levels of understanding;
• how to improve services.

Involving vulnerable and hard to reach groups

The next stage of user involvement strategy development was to target some of the groups often considered hard to reach and/or vulnerable. The user consultation gained feedback from the following groups:

• mentally disordered offenders;
• teenage parents;
• clients with learning disabilities;
• floating support clients;
• women fleeing domestic violence;
• elderly people.

Consultation findings

In total, 53 people using SP services during February and March 2004 were consulted on the above themes, which provided a snapshot from which to develop a longer-term framework with some key action points and targeted outcomes for service user involvement in Medway.

Knowledge and understanding of Supporting People

Five out of the 53 participants reported having a good knowledge of the Supporting People programme. The majority had no knowledge or a minimal understanding. Many respondents appeared to understand Supporting People to have a literal meaning rather than being aware that it is a change to housing support services.

Supporting People reviews and monitoring

Service users were asked if they thought it was a good idea for the council to check on how well their support provider was doing with support planning.

11 responded negatively, saying it was not a good idea or they were concerned about confidentiality issues. Two did not provide any answer. 40 people reported that they thought the council checking on the support provider was a good idea.

Access to housing support services

37 respondents reported that they found accessing the service easy, with the remainder finding it more difficult to begin with.

Impact of services and effectiveness of support plans

Only three respondents felt that support plans didn’t make any difference to their lives, with one service user reporting that he hadn’t started working on his yet. 49 respondents’ comments ranged from “OK” to “quite useful” to “very useful”. Every participant indicated that they understood what a support plan was and seemed aware that it was part of the service to have a plan in place.

Consultation methods

Five respondents reported that they did not think it necessary to be consulted, with the majority making positive responses about being asked to provide feedback and attend meetings.

Future changes

12 people suggested changes they would make if they were in charge of supported housing in the future. The majority of respondents stated that they would not make any changes.

Following on from the provider consultation and taking on board some of the recommendations, a range of consultation methods was deployed which aimed to gain feedback on consistent themes.

The overall purpose of this exercise was to carry out a present state assessment which would provide meaningful information to build on as Medway’s Supporting People user involvement strategy is developed and implemented. The subsequent themes were chosen to focus on key SP strategic objectives as follows:

• knowledge and understanding of Supporting People;
• Supporting People reviews;
• access to housing support services;
• impact and effectiveness of housing support services;
• consultation methods;
• future changes.

Feedback from service users

The suggestions given below are listed in order of popularity (i.e. questionnaires were the most frequently made suggestion for consultation):

1. questionnaires;
2. interview or ask for information;
3. group meetings;
4. visits;
5. suggestion boxes;
6. information pamphlets.

Suggested changes were as follows:

1. better move-on;
2. information easier to understand;
3. system easier to understand;
4. more welcoming;
5. more meetings;
6. 24 hour suppor;
7. more company.

When asked about future personal aspirations, more than half listed more than one, with the most common aspirations being around housing and independence, followed by career or getting a job or training. The order of preference is listed as follows:

1. independence, safety and security;
2. housing;
3. career or job;
4. getting married and family-related;
5. staying put and being happy;
6. holidays.

The findings of this consultation, in addition to feedback coming out of the service reviews, have been used as a starting point to plan the next stage of Medway Council’s development of an integrated service user involvement framework.

Developing a Supporting People user involvement strategy

The SP Team set an initial target of producing a separate service user involvement strategy document by September 2004. This is an evolving working document that will change and develop as the overall strategy becomes effective.

The development of the strategy will focus on the following key areas:

• assessment of existing provider initiatives, i.e. what’s working well and areas where there are no present consultation processes taking place;
• continuing to focus on gathering feedback via service reviews, with the emphasis on effective ways of including the information into commissioning, planning processes;
• effective ways of feeding back to service users after they have been consulted – via flexible focus groups which could be facilitated according to need;
• developing an information and education role for the SP Team, ensuring service users have the knowledge to enable them to contribute meaningfully;
• researching other models of local authority service user involvement strategy.

Conclusions

The overriding themes to emerge from the structured interviews, questionnaires and the challenge event provided service user based information to feed into the longer term user involvement strategy. This in is addition to the continuing process of gathering feedback during service reviews.

The emerging themes were:

• a positive view of supported housing, with some evidence from those consulted that these services are highly valued by the people who use them;
• some evidence to suggest that many people see supported housing as a means to an end. This supports the need for outcome-focussed services;
• consultation processes do have some support from service users, indicating some potential for effective implementation of a user involvement strategy in Medway;
• move-on is a significant factor in the perception of how well supported housing works. Service users often see this as part of the service and would welcome a seamless transition with some continuing support;
• smaller group events held at a familiar place may be a popular method of encouraging participation in the future;
• awareness and understanding of Supporting People appears to be minimal across different service user groups. There may be a need for the SP Team to develop the role of providing information and education directly to service users.

Stakeholder consultation

This strategy has been developed over a one year period by the following groups:

The Core Strategy Group

Members

Ann Windiate (Director Community Services)
Bill Gilespie
Rob Verity

Invitees

Councillor Howard Doe
Alison Breese (Assistant Director Community Services)
Jerry Hughes (Supporting People Manager)

Other stakeholders consulted:

Early consultation with Support Service providers.

There was wide support for setting up an innovation panel for providers, users and their families.

There was wide support for involving service users in the auditing and monitoring of services. Service providers urge the council to use their existing forums. There are training courses with SITRA (www.sitra.org.uk) for this.

Providers felt that it was important to determine needs levels but that this would require honest and open communication

There was a lot of enthusiasm for the suggestion that payments could be tapered from relatively high at the beginning of a temporary placement to relatively low at the end of the period. In addition, a resettlement allowance would be paid. Providers felt that tapering would need to be flexible and some agreed that providers should think about move-on within their own organisations.

Providers confirmed that move-on is still a huge problem. Clients with learning disability can be ready to move on but find themselves stuck. People with learning disabilities could manage with just floating support in some cases. Buddies, befriending or floating support from the provider could be the solution. The issue is how long will these facilities last and what will the back-up be.

One provider urged the council to consider Revolving Door as a partner in the placement of young offenders. This organisation is already delivering new scheme for young offenders with multiple needs.

There was general enthusiasm for skill-sharing between providers and the provision of training or contacts for business planning.

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