North Wales Regional Supporting People Planning Group Options Appraisal

Descriptions

A North Wales Regional Supporting People Planning Group (RSPPG) was established in 2009 to support, oversee and advise on the regional and cross boundary work of the SP programme and to evaluate the suitability of regional and cross boundary service provision. The RSPPG commissioned a report which concluded that additional resources would be needed to deliver and support regional projects and processes, which resulted in the appointment of a Regional Development Officer in June 2010.The RSPPG has had preliminary discussions with the North Wales Procurement Partnership (NWPP) about potential efficiency savings through joint procurement. The NWPP suggest that savings of about 2% in contracting costs could be made. One complication is that a significant proportion of the SP programme is used to fund core services in social services and housing. There are also some barriers to regional commissioning such as different contracting procedures, ways of working, contracting timescales, and local differences in needs. A regional approach to strategic commissioning would need to identify genuine differences and address these, ensuring that local delivery continues to meet local need. In 2009, the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) commissioned a review of the Supporting People (SP) Programme in Wales and received the conclusions and recommendations in November 2010.The recommendations included the following:The Supporting People Grant (SPG) and the Supporting People Revenue Grant (SPRG) should be brought together to constitute a single, unified Supporting People Programme Grant (SPPG). (3.1)The SPPG is allocated to Local Authorities outside the Revenue Support Grant (RSG), ring-fenced and used solely to fund support-services, projects and programmes to meet the needs of disadvantaged and vulnerable people within the context of the Supporting People Programme for whom that programme is intended to support. (3.2)Administration of the allocated portion of the SPPG to each Local Authority should be undertaken by a collaborative, multisectorial committee. (3.3)Local Collaborative Committees lodged in Local Service Boards are an interim measure towards the aim of developing further arrangements to set up across Local Authority boundaries single geographically determined collaborative committees. These would subsume the administration roles of the constituent Local Authority collaborative committees. (3.6)That the Welsh Assembly Government supports the cross boundary working that already exists in Wales and encourages the development of further cross boundary working throughout Wales. (3.7)The current formula for distribution of the Supporting People Grant to Local Authorities is in need of urgent adjustment. The existing distribution is very largely provision-based and should move to a distribution based on needs which is more equitable at a local population level. (3.8)WAG have confirmed that they are committed to taking forward the recommendations in a timely, considered and informed manner with the needs of service users central to the process.These recommendations have the following impacts on the 6 North Wales councils and the RSPPG:Councils will assume responsibility for administering the SPRG element of the programme, so will manage a wider range of services.Councils will need to revamp the membership and function of their local planning groups and the RSPPG and consider how best to develop further cross boundary working.Prepare for national redistribution of SP funding - all the formulae suggested to date would disadvantage the North Wales region. The RSPPG has identified a number of options to further regional working which would reduce duplication, share best practice, improve the quality of service delivery, give a more consistent approach to service providers and generate efficiency savings. The RSPPG now wishes to commission an independent appraisal of these options.The scope of the work is all SP teams and SPG and SPRG funded services in the counties of Wrexham, Flintshire, Denbighshire, Conwy, Gwynedd and Ynys Mon. Expressions of Interest are invited from organisations that are capable of evaluating various approaches to regional partnership working within the Supporting People programme in North Wales