Consultations and responses
Statutory consultation on revisions to the regulatory framework for social housing
The Localism Act and the Government’s recent directions to the regulator mean important changes to the regulatory framework.
The changes are set out in the Statutory consultation on a revised regulatory framework document and its two annexes, Rent standard guidance and Guidance notes on use of powers. These three documents taken together comprise the consultation materials.
For landlords, tenants, lenders and other stakeholders who have an interest in the social housing sector, this consultation is an opportunity to influence how the regulator’s revised powers are implemented from April 2012.
The consultation was launched on 21 November 2011, and all responses must be received by 10 February 2012.
DWP Supported Housing consultation
The Department for Work and Pensions launched its long-awaited consultation “Housing Benefit Reform – Supported Housing” in July 2011. The consultation closed on 9 October 2011.
See the presentation on the proposals which Cathy Payne, Deputy Divisional Head, Housing Policy Division, DWP, gave at a Sitra event on 22 September. Download presentation (pdf)
Sitra gave a presentation on issues involved at the Nottinghamshire Housing and Homelessness Network event on 20 September organised by HLG. Download presentation (pdf)
Read Sitra’s response to the DWP proposals. Download response (pdf)
Caring for our future: Shared ambitions for care and support
On 15 September the Department of Health launched a consultation on the future of care and support services.
The consultation follows on from findings and recommendations of the Dilnot review on the future funding of care and support of July 2011 and the Law Commission report on Adult Social Care of May 2011.
Responses are invited from care and support service users, councils, care providers and the voluntary sector. The consultation questions are divided into six subject areas:
- Increasing quality and supporting the workforce
- Increased personalisation and choice
- Ensuring services are integrated around people’s needs
- Supporting greater prevention and early intervention
- Creating a more diverse and responsive care market
- he role of the financial service sector in supporting users, carers and their families.
The consultation closes on 2 December 2011.
You can find out more about the consultation and how to respond on the DH website.
Open Public Services White Paper
The Open Public Services White Paper intends to improve public services by putting choice and control in the hands of individuals and neighbourhoods, making public services more responsive to peoples’ needs. The White Paper sets out the Government’s approach to public services by applying five key principles:
- Choice – wherever possible we will increase choice
- Decentralisation – Power should be decentralised to the lowest appropriate level
- Diversity – Public services should be open to a range of providers
- Fairness – We will ensure fair access to public services
- Accountability – Public services should be accountable to users and taxpayers.
A listening period took place until September 2011. You can read the White Paper and find out more at Open Public Services website.
Read a copy of Sitra's response here.
Implementing social housing reform: Directions to the Social Housing Regulator
This is a consultation on draft directions proposed to be given by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to the Social Housing Regulator under section 197 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. These directions are needed in order to implement important elements of the Government's planned reforms to social housing.
The consultation closed 29 September 2011.
Find out more about the consultation on the DCLG website.
Read Sitra's response here
Note
Amendment to the consultation
The Government has made a change to their proposed direction to the Social Housing Regulator on tenure. The usual minimum length of short term tenancies should be five years. Only where there are exceptional circumstances, where a shorter period of less than five years is appropriate, a minimum tenancy of two years is available.
A more detailed explanation, is contained in a letter from the Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP to consultees dated 28 July.
Download letter (pdf)
Supporting People Data consultation
Sitra carried out a consultation on the future of Supporting People data, on behalf of the sector, with support from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).
The aim of the consultation was to establish whether, after the DCLG ceases collecting data, there is an appetite for developing an alternative approach to evidence the value of housing support services that authorities and providers can own and use at their discretion.
The consultation was open to commissioners, providers and service users and closed on 11 July 2011.
We will reporting back on the results at the end of August.
Find out more
Sitra's submission to Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Transparency in Outcomes consultation
Sitra have submitted to a response to the Department of Health's consultation on proposals for a Public Health Outcomes Framework
Details of the consultation can be found on the DH website
Sitra's submission to consultation on the modernisation of European Union procurement policy
The European Commission is reviewing its public procurement rules with the aim of changing legislation in 2012. It issued a Green Paper to consult on proposals to simplify and update the current rules. Its objectives were described as making the awarding of public contracts easier, facilitating access to public contracts to businesses across the European Union and enabling public contracts to better support other social policies. Among many other detailed questions, it asked for views on maintaining the current distinction between Part A and Part B services.
As housing support and care services, which are Part B, are increasingly, and unnecessarily, being subjected to the complex procurement procedures required for Part A services, Sitra’s submission called for the maintenance of the current lighter touch requirements for Part B. The consultation closed on 18 April 11.
Sitra's submission can be downloaded here.
The European Union Green Paper is here.
Proposals for the Reform of Legal Aid in England and Wales
The Ministry of Justice have consulted on proposals for radical and wide-ranging reform of Legal Aid. The consultation closed on 14 February.
Details of the consultation and resources such as impact assessments can be found on the Ministry of Justice's website.
The Law Society have produced a response to the consultation and Justice for All have produced a briefing.
Evidence given by Sitra at the Department of Communities and Local Government Select Committee on Localism
Sitra's CEO, Vic Rayner, gave evidence to the Localism and Decentralisation of Public Services Select Committee inquiry on Monday 20 December at 4.20pm. Evidence was also given by Mencap, Age UK and The Runnymede Trust.
This was followed at 5pm by evidence from the Audit Commission, CIPFA and the Centre for Public Scrutiny.
The evidence took place in Committee Room 20 at the Palace of Westminster.
The session was open to the public on a first come, first served basis. It was the fourth evidence session in the series.
You can watch the session on Parliament TV.
Consultation on new community rights to challenge and run local services
Decentralisation Minister Greg Clark opened a consultation on 4 February on how new rights for communities should work in practice.
The Community Right to Challenge and Community Right to Buy are two key elements of the Localism Bill, which aim to hand power back to local people. They will enshrine in law the opportunity for community and voluntary groups to have a greater say over what happens in their local area.
Find out more about the consultation and respond
Sitra's response to the Modernising Commissioning Green Paper
The Green Paper, Modernising Commissioning: Increasing the role of charities, social enterprises, mutuals and cooperatives in public service delivery lays out the Government's plans for the modernisation of commissioning. It takes forward commitments made in The Coalition: our programme for government to ‘support the creation and expansion of mutuals, co-operatives, charities and social enterprises, and enable these groups to have a much greater involvement in the running of public services.
Local decisions: a fairer future for social housing
The Government is consulting on its plans for radical reform to the social housing system. It includes changes on tenure; the management of waiting lists; and the homelessness duty. It also covers the introduction of a new 'affordable rent' tenancy and changes to the system of council housing finance. It includes measures to improve mobility, tackle overcrowding and under-occupation. The reforms will ensure that social landlords can make better use of social housing and target support where it is needed most.
The Government has published its plans for radical reform of the social housing system. It includes:
- Changes on tenure
- The management of waiting lists
- The homelessness duty
- The introduction of a new 'affordable rent' tenancy
- Changes to the system of council housing finance
- Measures to improve mobility, tackle overcrowding and under-occupation.
Transparency in outcomes: a framework for adult social care
Alongside the Social Care Vision, the Department of Health has launched Transparency in Outcomes: a framework for adult social care – a consultation on a new strategic approach to quality and outcomes in adult social care.
The consultation envisages an enabling framework which places outcomes at the heart of social care, improves quality in services, and empowers citizens to hold their councils to account for the services they provide.
This consultation closed on 9 February 2011. Find out more on the DH website.
Read Sitra's response to the consultation here.
Sitra's response to the review of the Vetting and Barring Scheme and criminal records regime
Sitra have submitted a response to the Government’s review of the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) and the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB).
Three areas stand out as being particularly useful in the planned VBS:
- Including housing support staff in regulated activity
- Including volunteers. It is important to count staff and volunteers alike in situations where they have the same level of contact, especially sole contact, with vulnerable people.
- Employers having a duty to report concerns.
Proposals for the Reform of Legal Aid in England and Wales
This consultation seeks views on proposals for reform of legal aid in England and Wales. This consultation is aimed at providers of publicly funded legal services and others with an interest in the justice system.
The deadline for responses is 14 February 2011
Read Sitra's response to the consultation here
Sitra’s response to the Government’s consultation on guidance on mainstreaming the commissioning of local services to address violence against women and girls
Sitra welcomed guidance on commissioning services to address violence against women and girls from the Home Office. The five areas and 12 key principles provide a good framework for commissioners.
However we believe that the guidance would benefit from additional focus on: the Supporting People regime, the role of specialist services, how to combat localism in cross-authority provision of services, how services should be monitored, provider involvement in the commissioning process, and the relationship between housing and the provision of services.
CLG Select Committee report on Supporting People
The Communities and Local Government Select Committee has published the report of its recent Inquiry into the Supporting People programme. The report can be found on the Committee's website at www.parliament.uk/clgcom
Sitra has issued a press release in response to the report, and has published a three-page summary of the report. Analysis of the report shows that most of Sitra?s recommendations to the Select Committee were taken on board by the Committee. Together with the NHF we have also produced a joint briefing on the findings of the Select Committee.
Health Committee inquiry into the future of social care
Following the publication of the Green Paper Shaping the Future of Care Together, the Health Committee decided (on 20 July 2009) to undertake an inquiry into the future of social care services. The inquiry will look at options for:
- Future funding of long-term residential and domiciliary care for older people and people with physical or learning disabilities
- Personalisation of social care services
- More effective, consistent and user-friendly social care services.
Oral evidence sessions relating to this Inquiry began on Thursday 29 October 2009. Further information about this inquiry is available here.
Sitra's response: Revision of the Compact on Relations between the Government and the Third Sector in England
Eleven years after its launch, the national Compact for the Voluntary Sector is in the process of being refreshed by the Office of the Third Sector (OTS).
The consultation period finished on the 12 October 2009 and Sitra welcomed the opportunity to contribute.
While we believe that it is difficult for public bodies and third sector providers to disagree with either its values or the commitments our experience is that local implementation has been problematic - and this is where the main interface between these parties occurs.
Read Sitra's response
The consultation paper and more details of the consultation can be downloaded from www.thecompact.org.uk
Sitra's response to "Safeguarding Adults", the Government consultation on the review of the "No Secrets" guidance
The Department of Health and the Home Office issued joint guidance in 2000 on keeping adults safe, called No secrets. The Government recently consulted on how this guidance could be changed and developed, and in particular, it could take account of three sets of wider Government policy goals. These are the vision of increasing:
- independence, choice and control for users of services
- access to meaningful community empowerment and safer housing in wider society
- access to criminal justice for all.
Safeguarding Adults consultation
Download Sitra's response to the consultation
The Government published its report on responses to the consultation on 17 July 2009.
