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Introducing the Single Outcome Agreement

A Concordat has been entered into between the Government and COSLA.

Under this Concordat local authorities will be required to develop and report on a Single Outcome Agreement (SOA). These SOAs will incorporate the set of national outcomes and indicators recently announced as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review. In a letter to local authority Supporting People Lead Officers at the beginning of January 2008, the Government clarified what this means:

' Under the new arrangement each local authority will be expected to submit a single report on the year just finished and plans for the year to come, starting in 2008/09, setting out progress and achievements towards the national outcomes. With the exception of statutory requirements and any agreed transitional arrangements in moving to an outcomes based approach, local authorities will not be asked to submit any other monitoring returns or plans to the Scottish Government, without the prior agreement of COSLA.'

What this means for housing support is that local authorities will no longer be required to report to the Government on the amount it has spent on housing support and what that has purchased in terms of service levels and profile of service users. In future there will be no Supporting People grant and therefore no reporting requirements associated with grant conditions. This does not mean, however, that local authorities will cease to require information from service providers about the service they deliver and who they deliver it to.

The concordat can be viewed at the Scottish Government website.