The future for Dover District Council Sheltered Housing

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(No Transcript)
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The latest guidanceAssessing value for money
Strategic relevance and demand

• Mark Reeves
• Starfish Consulting

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Context

• Platinum cut / increasing budget
• Political pressure to justify current spending
  levels
• Cuts imposed on AAs by ODPM
• AAs required to carry out robust reviews
• Crucial for services to demonstrate effectiveness
  and demand
• Contribute to local, regional and corporate
  agendas
• Demonstrate value for money
• LA 5-year strategies to be complete by February
  to inform next govt CSR

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Value for money in support services

• What does the guidance say?
• Shortcomings of the guidance
• Implications for providers
• Preparing for VFM assessments

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What does the guidance say?

• Not a once-and-for all solution to the thorny
  problem!
• Will you buy my car for 5,000?
• Do
• aim to identify and investigate services at
  extremes of cost bands
• expect providers to justify (with evidence)
  claims that their services are justifiably more
  expensive
• be wary of focussing on outcome measures that
  will deter work with people with more complex
  needs

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What does the guidance say?

• Dont
• focus on minor cost differences
• use VFM comparisons to drive prices down to the
  lowest
• be concerned only about high cost services (low
  cost services may be at risk through
  under-resourcing)
• Comparisons must take account of staff service
  user ratios

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Comparing costs in an ideal world
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Comparing costs in the real world
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What is VFM really about?

• Value
• desirable outcomes
• service quality
• satisfied users and stakeholders
• Money
• cost of the service
• divided by
• volume of service delivered

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So what should providers do?

• Be able to demonstrate high value
• desirable outcomes PIs other evidence
• high quality QAF
• satisfied users and stakeholders feedback
• high levels of utilisation

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So what should providers do?

• Be able to justify cost
• exactly what is SP grant is paying for?
• is it needed?
• are the staffing levels justified?
• are the costs reasonable?

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Latest ODPM Guidance on strategic relevance

• Written guidance
• Key requirements for assessing strategic
  relevance and demand of SP services
• Provider questionnaire
• Example of the type of questionnaire to be used
  by AAs to gather information to inform the above

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Key test 1 provision of housing- related support

• Service statements
• Is the primary purpose of the service to offer
  housing related support?
• Destination of service users
• Is the service contributing to one of the 2 new
  Key Performance Indicators?
• Numbers supported to establish and maintain
  independent living OR
• Numbers who have moved on in a planned way from
  temporary accommodation
• Other evidence of service outcomes

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Key test 1 provision of housing-related support

• Eligibility for SP funding
• Is service offering personal care and/or general
  social care and/or housing related support
  think about how to demonstrate this
• Total staffing input
• Are staffing levels reasonable for service?
• Best practice/benchmarking
• How much time is apportioned to support?
• High staffing hours may trigger detailed
  investigations

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Key test 2 no intention to provide a statutory
duty

• SP funding ineligible if used to discharge a
  statutory duty under community care legislation
• Service must not be used to discharge statutory
  duty to provide after care to people discharged
  from hospital (Section 117 of Mental Health Act)

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Key test 3 SP only funding housing-related
support activities

• If SP has replaced funding from social
  services/health need to demonstrate that SP
  funding no longer covering general social care or
  health services
• Level of SP grant must reflect level of housing
  related support provided

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Key issue 4 the service meets key strategic SP
objectives

• Contributes to wider government prevention agenda
• Meets priorities in local SP strategy

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Demand

• Evidence of demand for type of service from
  target client group
• Evidence of demand for the specific service being
  reviewed

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Summarised on the back of a fag packet