TAKEN FROM THE AUDIT REPORT ON NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY COUNCIL

1Northumberland County Council is providing a poor no-star Supporting People
programme that has uncertain prospects for improvement.

2 The Council has demonstrated a lack leadership of and responsibility for the
programme. The programme itself has lacked a purposeful drive in its delivery.
As a result progress towards an improving provision of support for vulnerable
people within the county has been slow and unambitious.

3 Governance arrangements are not functioning effectively. There is a lack of
clarity in the structures, limited membership, variable engagement and poor
monitoring of both the programme and changes and outcomes from it.

4 Whilst there is a strategy for the general direction of the provision of services
there is a lack of detail about how this will be achieved, due in part to the lack of a
robust determination of housing and support needs and the need to further review
services for older people and those with learning disabilities. Partnership working
is underdeveloped.

5 There are no opportunities for service users to become involved in shaping and
tailoring the strategic aims and arrangements for the programme to meet their
needs and not enough attention has been given to diversity issues to ensure that
services are available to the whole community.

6 Positively the review process and a robust contract monitoring system delivered
by a committed and enthusiastic Supporting People team has delivered
improvements in services that will have impacted on users.

7 Also, positively, there are good working relationships with probation, the drugs
action team and MAPPA arrangements are in place and working well.

8 The prospects for improvement to the service have been judged as uncertain.
There are several barriers in meeting the aims and addressing the priorities of the
programme. The record of delivering improvements is mixed. Whilst there have
been improvements in individual services, low levels of service
re-commissioning has not altered the provision of support across the county. This
means there has been limited progress in addressing service provision gaps and
priorities.
9 Performance management arrangements are weak and do not drive
improvement.

10 There is a very recent impetus at all levels to rapidly progress the programme.
This is in part driven by the increased profile of Supporting People within
Northumberland County Council and other partner agencies. There is improving
awareness among stakeholders and partnership working is strengthening. This
has resulted in three recent activities being instigated to take the programme
forward including a review of governance, robust needs information gathering and
the development of a service user involvement strategy.