News
Localism Act 2012
The Localism Act received Royal Assent in November 2011.
Sitra's Briefing on its implications for the housing, care and support sector can be found here
Laying the Foundations: A Housing Strategy for England
Laying the Foundations: A Housing Strategy for England was released in November 2011. The strategy covers investment in social housing, the role of the private rented sector and how vulnerable households will be supported. The report can be found here.
New report demonstrates value of Supporting People
A report was released by the LGIU and Circle Housing Group looking at the benefits of providing successful preventative services. The report can be downloaded from the LGIU website here
Best Value Statutory Guidance
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has published new streamlined Best Value Guidance on 2 September to local authorities on how to protect voluntary and community groups from disproportionate cuts to their funding.
In deciding how best to fulfil their Best Value Duty, councils are required to consult those using, or likely to use, a local service. This should include community and voluntary organisations.
This new deal sets out that councils should not pass on larger reductions to their local voluntary and community sectors and small businesses than they take on themselves. In particular:
- Those councils looking to reduce or end funding, or any other support to one of these organisations should give at least three months' notice of the actual reduction to both the organisation involved and the users of the service they provide
- Councils should involve and discuss their plans with the organisation and local service users as early as possible before making any final decisions on the future of the service
- Councils should give organisations, local service users and the wider community the opportunity to offer options for reshaping and reducing the costs of the services provided.
Find out more and download the guidance from the DCLG website.
The Road Ahead: A journey through public service reform for civil society organisations
On 25 July, Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, in an open letter to the sector, outlined Government plans to enable charities, social enterprises and other civil society organisations to play a bigger role in public service delivery.
The letter acknowledges responses to the Modernising Commissioning: Increasing the role of charities, social enterprise, mutuals and cooperatives in public service delivery green paper consultation, which ran between December 2010 and January 2011.
It also refers to the Open Public Services White Paper listening exercise which runs until September 2011 and announces the Investment and Contract Readiness Fund, a £10 million fund available to charities and social enterprises to help them develop the skills and infrastructure to win more capital investment and public service contracts.
You can find out more on the Cabinet office website
Download open letter to the sector (pdf)
Homelessness Transition Fund announced
The Government announced the establishment of a £20m Homelessness Transition Fund, which will be administered by Homeless Link.
At a time when homelessness is rising and many services are facing cuts, the fund will aim to support the ambition to end rough sleeping by:
- Helping to protect key frontline services that work with single homeless adults and supporting them to find a more sustainable future, and
- Supporting the introduction of No Second Night Out and other innovations.
The fund has been established as part of the cross-government strategy to tackle rough sleeping, published on 6 July 2011.
The criteria for the first funding round will be announced before the end of July 2011, with an aim to distribute funding in October 2011.
Find out more on the Homeless Link website.
Dilnot Commission report published
The Commission on Funding of Care and Support, chaired by Andrew Dilnot, has published it's report Fairer Care Funding on 4 July 2011.
Find out more and read the report on the Commission's website.
Report of the Communities and Local Government Select Committe on localism
The Department of Communities and Local Government Select Committee on Localism published a report on 9 June 2011, examining the Government's intention to decentralise power and decision-making to communities and local agencies.
Sitra welcomes this thoughtful report from the Communities and Local Government Select Committee.
Vic Rayner, Chief Executive of Sitra, says: “I’m pleased the committee has called for practical help to enable the voluntary and community sector to scale up its activities, and I am grateful for their support for reform of commissioning processes to ensure that small groups are not habitually at a disadvantage.”
At a time when many housing related support and other low-level preventive and rehabilitative services are suffering funding reductions and closures, Sitra believes it’s important the Committee is clear civic activism cannot be assumed to fill the resulting gap in provision.
Vulnerable people’s lives and wellbeing are at risk unless either central or local government accepts responsibility for funding the support they need to live independent and healthy lives, and contribute positively to their local communities.
Giving White Paper
On the 22 May 2011 the Cabinet Office published the Giving White Paper detailing how it intendeds to improve the amount of time and money individuals give to charities and charitable pursuits referred to in the paper as civil society organisations. The paper sets the Government ambition to stimulate a step change in giving:
- Making it easier to give
- Making it compelling to give
- Better support for those providing and managing opportunities to give.
Social Impact Bond at HMP Peterborough
This report, published on 27 May 2011, is the first output of an independent evaluation of the Social Impact Bond (SIB) at HMP Peterborough, commissioned by the Ministry of Justice.
A SIB is a form of payment by results in which funding is obtained from private investors to pay for interventions to improve social outcomes. The Peterborough SIB, launched in September 2010, aims to reduce reoffending by prisoners who have served short custodial sentences.
Find out more and download the report
Sustaining resettlement
A major report from the University of Sheffield following single homeless people for eighteen months after being resettled into independent accommodation shows housing related support did work for the great majority: 81 percent were still in independent accommodation, 73 percent in their original tenancies.
This report is a rare piece of evidence following housing related support clients after they leave a short-term accommodation-based service and shows clearly they do not just end up on the streets again almost immediately but mostly make a success of their new tenancy.
Equality Act under threat
The Government is using its ‘red tape challenge’ website to encourage people’s thoughts on whether the Equality Act is necessary. The 2010 Act replaces almost all previous anti-discrimination legislation in the UK, meaning a consultation on whether it should be scrapped questions the entire history of the many and various battles to end discrimination.
The consultation is part of a new website to encourage the public to tell the Government where to cut red tape. One of the suggestions requiring comment is to scrap the whole Act to cut unnecessary bureaucracy on business and the public sector. If the Equality Act is no longer in force we would be left with the bare minimum of legal protection against discrimination afforded by the Human Rights Act and EU anti-discrimination legislation, but will have lost the legacy of such pillars of law as the Race Relations Act and the Sex Discrimination Act which were replaced by the Equality Act.
Comments can be brief but we urge you to respond and to encourage others to register their support for the Equality Act.
Register your views and leave a comment
Law Commission publish report on Adult Social Care law
The Law Commission published a report on 11 May which recommends far reaching changes to social care law.
Under their proposals, older people, disabled people, those with mental health problems and carers would, for the first time, be clear about their legal rights to care and support services. And local councils across England and Wales would have clear and concise rules to govern when they must provide services.
Affordable Homes Programme
The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has announced the investment of £4.5 billion for the 2011-15 Affordable Homes Programme (AHP), which aims to increase the supply of new affordable homes in England. It has also published a list of 146 successful providers for the programme.
Find out more at on the HCA website.
Supplementary guidance on Housing for Vulnerable and Older People has also been published (pdf)
Read Sitra's briefing on the Affordable Homes Framework (pdf)
Community Budgets pilots launched
The first of the Community Budgets pilots (as announced in this year's Spending Review) were launched on Friday 1 April.
Sixteen areas covering 28 councils and their partners are charge of 'Community Budgets' that pool various strands of Whitehall funding into a single 'local bank account' for tackling social problems around families with complex needs. These are:
- Birmingham
- Blackburn with Darwen
- Blackpool
- Bradford
- Essex
- Greater Manchester (a group of 10 councils)
- Hull
- Kent
- Leicestershire
- Lincolnshire
- London Borough of Barnet
- London Borough of Croydon
- London Borough of Islington
- London Borough of Lewisham
- The London Boroughs of Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Wandsworth
- Swindon
Find out more on the CLG website
Read Eric Pickles speech on 29 March announcing the launch
Call for entries - Housing Design Awards housing for older people HAPPI category
This year's Housing Design Awards will again honour developments that best respond to the housing our ageing population criteria outlined in the 2009 Housing our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation (HAPPI) report.
The Awards which are a government-industry partnership, use a multidisciplinary panel of judges to select the best schemes. Among the judges will be Homes and Communities Agency's James Berrington, David Birkbeck from Design for Homes, and two of the team behind the HAPPI report. Other judges will represent the sponsor, the Department for Communities and Local Government, NHBC, RICS for surveyors, RTPI for planners, RIBA for architects and the Home Builders Federation.
This year's winners will be filmed and presentations will be led by Housing Minister Grant Shapps MP in a central London location in July.
The deadline for 2011 entries is end of April.
Entries can be uploaded online at www.hdawards.org
Housing Benefit briefing
The Government's ongoing reform of the welfare system will have a major impact on people using support and homelessness services and consequently on the organisations providing them.
Furthermore, The Government has announced that they are bringing forward the change from under 25 to under 35 for the shared accommodation rate from April 2012 to January 2012.
This briefing from Cymorth Cymru, representative body for providers of housing-related support, homelessness and supported living services in Wales, outlines some of the most pertinent recent and upcoming changes to housing benefit.
Download Cymorth Cymru briefing (pdf)
You can also download Sitra's Housing Benefits briefing (pdf)
NCVO, ACEVO, and NAVCA challenge local authorities on 'tests of reasonableness'
NCVO, ACEVO, and NAVCA have written to all local authority chief executives, asking them for their views on how local authorities and the voluntary sector can work best together in the current economic climate.
The letter calls on council leaders to share how they are applying the three 'tests of reasonableness' (set out by the Rt Hon Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) in their work with voluntary sector organisations.
Find out more and read the letter on the NCVO website
Budget 2011
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon George Osborne, made his Budget Statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday 23 March 2011.
Can we afford not to? Reconnecting families to prevent youth homelessness
Youth homelessness charity Depaul UK launches a key piece of research today that outlines the huge potential savings local authorities could be making if they invested small amounts of money in homelessness prevention programmes.
Download report from the Depaul UK website
Think Local, Act Personal: Next Steps for Transforming Adult Social Care
Think Local, Act Personal, the sector-wide statement of intent that makes the link between the Government's new vision for social care and Putting People First, has now been finalised as the way forward for personalisation and community-based support. It will come into force on 1 April 2011.
Local authorities sign up to NHF letter on avoid cutting services for the vulnerable
A National Housing Federation letter signed by more than 550 councillors – which urges town halls across the country to avoid making disproportionate cuts to Supported People funded services.
A total of 65 Conservative, 145 Liberal Democrat, 255 Labour, and 86 independent councillors have signed the letter. Among the signatories are three council leaders, 54 leaders of opposition party groupings and 61 members of council cabinets.
The letter and the full list of signatories can be found on the NHF website.
NHF's letter to the Telegraph on Supporting People cuts
The National Housing Federation (NHF) has been lobbying local authorities against making disproportionate cuts to their Supported People services.
In a joint letter, published in the Telegraph on 18 March, David Orr, NHF's chief executive and and the Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP, Housing Minister, along with Women’s Aid chief executive Nicola Harwin – warn that women fleeing domestic violence, homeless people and people with mental health problems could be 'forced to fend for themselves' as a result of cuts to the Supporting People programme.
Commissioning community public health services
Providers in London will be interested to hear that LVSC have been commissioned to develop a database of voluntary sector organisations in London who provide alcohol related public health services.The project has two aims:
- To enable GP and Local Authority commissioners to understand what voluntary organisations provide when commissioning public health services
- To support commissioner better address needs by identifying gaps in current provision and development opportunities for voluntary organisations.
Bradford to maintain Supporting People spending
Bradford has agreed to maintain current spending on housing related support at existing levels in spite of the Local Government Settlement.
Bradford this year had one of the twenty highest Supporting People allocations in England: £19.2m was included in the local authority’s Area Based Grant. The council is continuing to invest at the same level despite the formula bringing less money into the authority – although there will continue to be a drive for efficiencies and changes in the types of services actually commissioned via sectoral and strategic reviews.
Jayne Hellowell, a Service Manager Commissioning in the authority’s Department of Adult and Community Services, said the Prevention and Personalisation regional report which Sitra produced last year was one of the things that helped convince the authority to maintain spending.
Government's new plans for safeguarding
The coalition government halted the Vetting and Barring Scheme in June 2010 and has now announced its plans to overhaul how organisations ensure their staff and volunteers are safe to work with vulnerable people.
The key proposals are:
- Fewer people will have to be vetted: only those working closely and regularly with children and vulnerable adults.
- CRB checks will become portable with continuous online updates.
- Employers will have greater responsibility to decide safer recruitment processes.
- Barring decisions will remain.
- It will still be an offence for a barred person to work in regulated activity and for an organisation knowingly to employ a barred person in a regulated activity.
- Volunteers will not be discouraged from their work because of unnecessary checks.
Briefing: 4 facts, 4 questions about the future of Supporting People
Fourteen organisations come together to make case against cuts.
Sitra and thirteen other organisations have produced a joint briefing aimed at local authorities in this month of February when they will all be setting their budgets.
The briefing has been sent to the Chief Executives and Leaders of all authorities that administer Supporting People funds.
We encourage members to send it on to their local councillors and even MPs.
Proposals for the Reform of Legal Aid in England and Wales
The Ministry of Justice have consulted on radical and wide-ranging proposals for the reform of Legal Aid.
The Law Society believe the most vulnerable members of society will suffer reduced access to justice if the Government goes ahead with its proposals for legal aid reform. It has launched the Sound off for Justice campaign to educate and engage the public in the defence of legal aid.
Justice for All, a coalition of over 2,500 charities, legal and advice agencies, politicians, trade unions, community groups and members of the public, fears many people will be cut off from free legal advice as multiple funding streams are cut at the same time. They have more information about the issues and a number of useful resources on their website.
Grant Shapps letter to LGA
Grant Shapps has written to the Local Government Association (January 2011) regarding the cuts in Supporting People funding.
New report on reconfiguring and decommissioning SP services
The Chartered Institute of Housing and the Local Government Association have published a new report, 'Supporting People: Supporting service change in a time of pressure', that offers lessons to councils for reconfiguring or decommissioning services.
Although the CSR settlement for Supporting People (SP) wasn't as bad as in other areas, councils still have local financial pressures that are already leading to changes to SP services. This report is based on telephone interviews with 20 authorities last November that have already started reconfiguring and decommissioning services. It highlights the key issues and gives guidance on how to maintain a strategic approach to the difficult decisions ahead.
Some key points from the report include:
- Authorities realise it’s better to be strategic about changes, basing them on local priorities and needs, and avoid making blanket cuts to all services.
- Authorities need to have robust evidence of the need for services as well as of the quality and value of services.
- Service users, providers and councillors all need to be involved in this process. This will help to develop market awareness, so understanding what providers can deliver, the impacts of decisions for smaller, specialist providers etc.
- There are many alternatives to decommissioning services, including cost reductions, reconfiguring services, alternative or joint funding, personalisation and using voluntary and community groups.
The report also highlights some recent trends, such as the need to consider older people’s services, generic floating support services and reducing the number of contracts. Future issues include changes to housing benefit and social housing around move-on and health commissioning as a possible new source of funding. The report also provides a list of useful questions for councillors to ask officers when planning changes to SP services.
Download the paper from the CIH website.
Local Housing Allowance
-What to know how much difference there may be in Local Housing Allowance for private sector claimants in your area when the change from the 50th to the 30th percentile starts in April 2011?
This table shows you (pdf)
It’s a reformatted version of the January 2011 Local Housing Allowance figures published on the Valuation Office Agency’s website – they publish a “shadow” 30th percentile comparison each month when they publish the current 50th percentile rates.
Remember the Government is also capping LHA at the following levels, which may be even less than the 30th percentile:
- 1 bedroom - £250
- 2 bedrooms - £290
- 3 bedrooms - £340
- 4 bedrooms - £400
Also remember the single room rate will apply to single claimants under 35, instead of under 25.
Local Government Finance Settlement for 2011/12 announced
The 2011-12 Settlement and Provisional 2012-13 Settlement have been announced.
Government publishes draft Localism Bill
The Localism Bill, which heralds a radical shift in power from central government to local authorities and communities was unveiled today.
The Bill can be downloaded from the DCLG website.
The Government have also published a guide to the Bill.
Vulnerable and Older People Advisory Group Annual Report
The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) published the Annual Report for its Vulnerable and Older People Advisory Group (VOPAG) on 7 December. Sitra’s CEO Vic Rayner is a member of the Group, as is our Vice-Chair Andrew van Doorn, from hact (currently on secondment to the National Mental Health Development Unit.
The HCA have also commissioned a report on the Financial benefits of investment in specialist housing for vulnerable and older people.
What the next four years will look like for Supporting People
Read a fascinating presentation given in the West Midlands on 23 November 2010 by Shehla Husain who is Deputy Director, Housing Care and Support at the Department for Communities and Local Government – the senior civil servant responsible for Supporting People. Shehla was addressing the West Midlands Supported Housing Network.
Shehla sets out what the next four years will look like for Supporting People. She says the futures of the New Client Record Form and the Outcomes Framework are under review. And she poses questions including one about “professional volunteering”.
Download presentation (pdf)
Universal Credits
The Universal Credit, was announced on 11 November by Ian Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. The Universal Credit is an overhaul of the current benefit arrangements. The majority of the current welfare benefits will be replaced with the Universal Credit. It will comprise of a basic personal amount (similar to Job Seekers Allowance) with additional amounts for disability, caring responsibilities, housing costs and children.
It will replace:
- Working Tax Credit
- Child Tax Credit
- Housing Benefit
- Income Support
- Income-based Job Seeker’s Allowance
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance.
The Universal Credit will be tapered and linked to earnings, as a persons earnings increases through paid work the Universal Credit will decrease. The White Paper states that the deduction will be tapered to ensure that people will be better off working than not working.
There are also a number of new conditions and sanctions related to the Universal Credit. The White Paper states the importance of those who are claiming the Universal Credit to make a ‘Claimant Commitment’. Claimants will have conditions related to claiming the Universal Credit, these will range from actively seeking a job, being work ready, keeping in touch to no commitment. The only group who will have no commitment, as those with a disability or health condition which prevents them from working, lone parents or lead carers with a child under the age of one. Those who do not fulfil their claimant conditions will face a number of sanctions (these will apply to Job Seekers Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance and Income Support and currently not to Housing Benefit). The sanctions will range from reduction in the Universal Credit from one week to three years.
Further, as announced previously by the Government there will be a cap placed on household benefits so that families do not receive more in welfare than median after-tax earnings for working households. Payments for rents in the private sector will be at the thirtieth percentile of the market rent. Social rented tenants will have their Housing Benefit based on actual rents. Housing benefit may continue to be paid directly to social landlords.
The following welfare benefits will not be included in the Universal Credit:
- Contributory Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Contributory Employment Allowance
- Disability Living Allowance
- Child Benefit
- Bereavement benefits
- Statutory Sick Pay
- Statutory Maternity Pay
- Maternity Allowance
- Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
The Government will introduce the Welfare Reform Bill in January 2011, and the first individuals will enter the system from 2013.
More information is available on the DWP website.
Read the "Universal Credit:Welfare that works" white paper (pdf)
A Vision for Adult Social Care: Capable Communities and Active Citizens
On 16 November, the Care Services Minister Paul Burstow launched "A Vision for Adult Social Care: Capable Communities and Active Citizens ". The Vision sets out how the Government wishes to see services delivered for people; a new direction for adult social care, putting personalised services and outcomes centre stage.
The Spending Review 2010
The outcome of the Coaltion Government's four-year spending review was announced on 20 October 2010.
News flash
Watch Dominic Lodge and Mike Ballard from ROCC being interviewed on their response to the Spending Review on 21 October 2010 at 6.30pm on BBC South Today.
They were interviewed by Peter Henley, BBC South's Political Editor. He would be very interested in examples of where the Supporting People services have had a positive outcome.
Peter can be contacted at peter.henley@bbc.co.uk
Cabinet Office announcement on quangos
The Cabinet Office announced today the list of quangos which are due to be retained, cut or merged. The list contains over 200 organisations and there will be a significant impact on housing and social care quangos.
The Tenant Services Authority is due to be cut and it’s regulatory functions merged with the HCA. All Regional Development Agencies will be cut and the role of the HCA will be changing.
In terms of social care, CQC remains, while the future of the ISA is still uncertain.
Sitra have put together list of quangos that affect the housing related support sector - fileadmin/sitra_user/2009/Policy/News/List_applicable_to_Sitra_members_141010.xlsdownload Excel spreadsheet
A full list of all quangos can be found: http://download.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ndpb/public-bodies-list.pdf
Sitra will be providing a more detailed analysis on the impact on the sector shortly.
Making the local case for housing support services
At this time of threatened severe cuts to public spending, many provider organisations want to make the case for the benefits of preventative housing support services. The South West Regional Provider Forum agreed that a template or model document, which local Provider Forums could adapt and supplement with local information to use in local work with MPs, councillors and any other decision makers they can influence, would be a valuable resource. It would be usable first in relation to the Government’s Spending Review, but after that with a more local focus as local authorities decide what to prioritise. Sitra have drafted a template briefing from which providers can select what they think will work best in their area. National sources of information are referenced in the documents. Local sources of information will include the authority’s Supporting People and Sustainable Community Strategies, Local Area Agreement priorities and targets, any local modelling of the Capgemini financial benefits tool and authority level outcomes reports from the Centre for Housing Research at St Andrews.
For guidance on identifying who to brief, see Sitra’s report on local strategic engagement, Navigating the Maze.
Assessing the impact of the Emergency Budget on local authority Supporting People
Sitra are consulting with members to capture any early information on how local authority funding of Supporting People services may be impacted by the Emergency Budget, which was announced on 22 June.
We are drawing this information together to support the sector in gaining a better understanding of how the Emergency Budget announcements are being interpreted and implemented.
We would value feedback from providers. Please fill in the feedback form below and return to us at post@sitra.org
Alternatively fax the form to 020 7793 4715 or send by post to Sitra, 3rd Floor, 55 Bondway, London SW8 1SJ.
Emergency Budget 2010
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, delivered the Coalition Government?s first Budget on Tuesday 22 June. The Budget set out a five year plan to rebuild the British economy and is based on the Government?s values of responsibility, freedom and fairness. Here is the summary of the key points of relevance to the housing with care and support sector:
Reductions in spending
The Budget aims to achieve spending cuts of £32 billion per year by 2014. The Comprehensive Spending Review will be presented on 20 October. An engagement programme will launch on 24 June 2010, giving public sector workers and members of the public an opportunity to feed in their ideas on how to reduce spending while protecting the quality of public services
Spending on health is ring fenced but other Government departments face an average real cut of 25 percent over four years
There will be a two year freeze in public sector pay, except for those earning less than £21,000 a year. People earning less than £21,000 will each receive a flat pay rise of £250 in each of the two years. This may also have an impact for staff outside the public sector but with pay linked to the NJC scale.
Welfare
£11 billion of welfare reform savings will form part of the spending reductions. These will include:
Adopting the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) for the indexation of benefits, tax credits and public service pensions from April 2011. The Government feels that the CPI provides a more appropriate measure of benefit and pension recipients? inflation experiences than Retail Price Index (RPI), because it excludes the majority of housing costs faced by homeowners (many low income households are subsidised separately through Housing Benefit, and the majority of pensioners own their home outright).
Housing benefit:
- Changing the percentile of market rents used to calculate Local Housing Allowance rates, and uprating these rates by CPI from 2013-14
- Capping the maximum Local Housing Allowance payable for each property size
- Time limiting the receipt of full Housing Benefit for claimants who can be expected to look for work
- Restricting Housing Benefit for working age claimants in the social rented sector who are occupying a larger property than their household size warrants.
Disability Living Allowance:
- The Government will introduce the use of objective medical assessments for all DLA claimants from 2013-14.
Tax credits and Child Benefit:
- The Government will reduce tax credit eligibility for families with household income above £40,000 from April 2011 and make further changes to this threshold in 2012-13 to focus tax credits on lower income families. The Government will also increase the rate at which tax credits are withdrawn once household incomes rise.
- Child Benefit will be frozen for three years to help fund significant increases in the Child Tax Credit
Other benefits:
- Those with their youngest child over five will be moved onto Jobseekers Allowance rather than Income Support from 2011-12
- From April 2011 the Government will restrict eligibility to the Sure Start Maternity Grant to the first child only and abolish the Health in Pregnancy Grant from January 2011.
Savings
Government contributions to Child Trust Funds will be reduced and then stopped.
Tax
The rate of VAT will increase to 20 percent in January 2011
The Government will work in partnership with local authorities in England to freeze council tax in 2011-12
Basic rate limit for income tax will be frozen in 2013-14
The personal allowance for under 65s will be increased by £1,000 in April 2011, with the gains limited to basic rate taxpayers.
The Queen's Speech - 25 May 2010
The Queen's Speech has shown the key priorities for the Coalition Government, the laws they plan to pass over the next year. Here are the ones relevant to housing, care and support:
Decentralism and Localism Bill
This will give councils more powers over housing and planning decisions, away from regional bodies, and will begin a review of local government finance.
Welfare Reform Bill
This will create a single welfare-to-work programme, so cutting down the existing ones, and make benefit payments more conditional on claimants' willingness to accept work.
Public Bodies Bill
This will abolish or limit a number of quangos, though the exact list is still to be decided.
Health Bill
This will aim to give health professionals and patients more say over local health decisions, increase the focus on health inequalities, cut health quangos - again not yet listed and cut some central targets.
Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill
This will give better protection around the use of CCTV cameras.
Commision on social care
It was also announced that a Commission would be appointed to consider the long-term structure of social care, mainly the funding options, and report within a year.
Reducing the Government deficit
The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws, today announced £6.2bn of savings in 2010-1.
Find out more at the HM Treasury website.
Programme for government
The Coalition Government has set out its plans for the next five years.
New ministers announced
CLG ministers have been announced:
The Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
Grant Shapps MP, Minister for Housing and Local Government
Bob Neill MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Greg Clark MP, Minister for Decentralisation
Andrew Stunell OBE MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Baroness Hanham CBE, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State.
Other ministerial posts include:
Nick Hurd MP, Minister for Civil Society, Cabinet Office
Andrew Lansley MP, Secretary of State for Health, Department of Health
Paul Burstow MP, Minister of State for Care Services, Department of Health
Maria Miller MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Disabled People, Department for Work and Pensions
A full list of Government ministers and their areas of responsibility can be found on the Cabinet office website
Launch of the National Care Service
The White Paper Building the National Care Service was published on March 30th 2010. Information on the launch of the paper can be found on the following website.
TSA new regulatory framework for social housing
The Tenant Services Authority TSA has now published its new regulatory framework that social housing providers in England have to meet from 1 April 2010. The six ?national standards? form the core of the framework and these headlines have not changed from the original document offered for consultation in November last year. The national standards are:
- Tenant involvement and empowerment
- Home
- Tenancy
- Neighbourhood and community
- Value for money
- Governance and financial viability.
Landlords are required to meet outcomes against each of the standards with specific expectations for each. The TSA has deliberately focused on outcomes and has not prescribed process in an attempt to allow flexibility for providers. ?Local offers?, previously local standards, have been included so that landlords? can provide services to meet local priorities; the definition of ?local? is to be defined by providers with their tenants. As with the draft framework co-regulation between landlords, tenants and the TSA ?backbone? is key to the framework; this has now been listed as the first of ten principles underpinning the TSA approach to regulation.
The deadline for annual reports has moved from 1 July to 1 October, the first being due this year. To view the new TSA standards, visit their website at www.tenantservicesauthority.org
CQC standards of care
From April 2010 new essential standards of quality and safety are being introduced gradually across all health and adult social care services in England. The Care Quality Commission (CQC), the new independent regulator of health and adult social care, will license providers if they meet essential standards and constantly monitor them as part of a new, more dynamic system of regulation which places the views and experiences of people who use services at its centre.
NHS trusts are the first to come into the new system starting 1 April this year. they will be followed in October by all providers of social care for people over 18 years of age and by providers of independent healthcare. Over the coming two years the system will include all primary care and dentists too.
For more information go to www.cqc.org.uk
