ODPM probes Supporting People as it gives extra £400m

The government has awarded councils £400m extra under the Supporting People care services funding regime, but has launched an investigation into why the costs of some schemes have risen drastically.

The total figure now available for the support schemes that will be run from the 2003/04 funding pot is £1.8bn, £400m more than the estimate announced in February.

Privately, the government suspects that councils have shunted other, ineligible costs, such as expensive projects for people with serious learning disabilities, into Supporting People, which is intended primarily to help those who need support with housing.

The government pointed out in a statement that costs varied by up to 13 times between authorities. The average weekly cost of each unit of support for the lowest-spending council amounted to £7.11, but for the highest spenders this rose to £95.71.

The review will be run by Eugene Sullivan, head of public sector services at consultant RSM Robson Rhodes. It will conclude by Christmas and will determine how much funding is available for the next two years.

Sullivan was contacted by Housing Today but declined to comment on the review.

An ODPM spokesman said the review was a "matter of great urgency" and would need to be completed before any funding could be settled for pipeline or future schemes that councils need to build.

He added: "When the programme was launched [in April 2003] no one thought in their wildest dreams that the cost of housing support could be so high in some instances. The government expects value for money."

David Smith, lead officer for Supporting People at Sunderland council, said: "Obviously something has happened here and I think the government is quite right to investigate this.

"I think they will find large amounts of money have been shifted around by certain authorities. The ODPM would be quite right to claw back this funding from councils that have flouted guidelines. It doesn't reflect well on our sector that chief executives and chief financial officers have taken advantage of the situation. They should investigate on an authority-by-authority basis, and if councils have broken the rules they should be held to account and their names published."

But Chris Hampson, head of policy and strategy at RSL Look Ahead Housing and Care, said: "This review is probably too late now. Grant conditions need to be tightened up. Large parts of the programme seem to have been hijacked by higher-cost care schemes."

The ODPM will shortly begin to brief councils on what the review will require of them and how they should plan for future Supporting People schemes.