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Scottish Government Updates
Guidance On End Of The Supporting People Programme
The Scottish Government has produced Guidance on the End of the Supporitng People Programme. The guidance has information on a number of topics including:
- the value of housing support
- local government settlement
- charging
- cross boundary issues
- single outcome agreement
- service review
New procurement guidance
The Scottish Procurement Directorate issued new guidance on advertising and competition in social care procurement on 22 August. The details are contained in Scottish Procurement Policy Note SPPN 10, which supersedes the Supporting People Procurement Information Sheet issued by the Scottish Government in April 2007.
The new guidance does not mark a change in policy, but formalises previous advice on the requirement to advertise social care contracts and to award such contracts through open and fair competition. It includes advice on circumstances where advertising and competition may not be required.
Progress on Telecare
The national Telecare Development Programme started in 2006 and is making a four year £16.5m investment in telecare services. The programme's evaluators, York University Health Economics Consortium, have found that the programme is helping to improve quality of life for service users and their families. Feedback from Health and Social Care Partnerships shows that by December 2007, the programme had funded an additional 6,000 telecare service users and saved 13,000 hospital bed days and 35,000 care home days. Research into the views of 460 service users' showed that:
- Over 93% feel safer at home;
- Over 87% report that their families are less worried about them;
- Nearly 70% feel more independent; and
- Almost 60% report an improved quality of life.
Telecare has also brought benefits for carers, with nearly 70% of 300 carers surveyed reporting that caring for their relatives is less stressful as a result of telecare. More information on Telecare in Scotland can be found on the Scottish Government Joint Improvement Team's website.
New housing announcements
In the last issue, we reported on the housing statement on 25 June. On 19 August, the First Minister made a number of further announcements during a lecture at the Edinburgh Book Festival. The focus was on action to strengthen the Scottish economy to meet immediate economic challenges and promote growth and built on the measures announced on 25 June. The actions announced by the First Minister included:
- Bringing forward up to £100m of affordable housing investment to be spent this year and next, rather than in 2010-11 as originally planned;
- New criteria for housing associations to purchase unsold stock or land to deliver houses where they are needed at best cost to the public purse; and
- Bringing together the key players, including major mortgage lenders, to examine the scope for easing the supply of credit to households and businesses.
To coincide with the announcements, the Scottish Government published a new housing policy document responding to the changing economic climate