MRAssociates — Glossary

Supporting People (SP) was a government funding initiative which ran from 2003 until 2011, at which point the funding was subsumed into local authorities’ formula grant. The purpose of SP was to enable local authorities to commission support services that would help vulnerable people to live independently. Some of the services were provided in supported accommodation while others took the form of floating support.

SP funding included a number of smaller predecessor funding schemes but the majority of the funding came out of the Housing Benefit budget: for three years from 2000 to 2003 support services in supported accommodation were eligible for HB and during that time the amount of such services covered by HB was monitored so that it could be ringfenced and separated from the HB budget.

Although the SP funding stream no longer exists, local authorities are still expected to commission support services but without a ringfenced pot of money from central government for that purpose. In Scotland and Wales the national governments provide dedicated funding to local authorities for support services and indeed in Wales the programme is still referred to as Supporting People.