County Council Leader responds to District and Borough Councils letter regarding Housing Related Support

Dear Councillors,

Thank you for your letter dated 12th February regarding the County Council’s budget proposals, specifically in relation to the proposed changes around the funding of Housing Related Support.

Before setting out the reasons behind the difficult decisions the County Council is having to take, I wanted to correct some inaccuracies within your letter.

1. There is a suggestion that these proposals were a complete surprise to District and Borough Councils and that we had agreed with you to maintain HRS services whilst plotting “behind the scenes” to end funding. We have been warning the public, your officers, and councillors since autumn last year of the financial challenges the County Council faces. These conversations have included multiple references to HRS, and the fact that ongoing funding would come under greater pressure as a non-statutory service. Details of budget plans, including HRS, were published on the 3rd of January ahead of the Scrutiny Committee’s budget meeting on the 11th of January 2024. Any suggestion you were unaware of this as a potential outcome is disingenuous in my view.
2. You state that Suffolk County Council is reneging on contracts; this is not the case. All contracts have specific clauses relating to termination. At this stage, no contracts have been ended early, although I accept that this will be the case. We are already working with providers to understand current provision, and in accordance with the published proposals, we are looking to phase these changes out gradually to allow providers more time to discuss with us how to achieve a managed exit from the service.
3. You state that HRS provides over 700 accommodation places; that is not entirely accurate. HRS is the provision of support services, not the accommodation itself. Suffolk County Council does not procure housing for people; any costs in relation to the housing itself are met, in the main, by a person’s housing benefit claim. What we commission is 5 hours of 1 to 1 support per week to people, to help them with maintaining that home. This support varies considerably from person to person and can be as simple as helping someone complete a tenancy agreement or help them get to the local job centre to more intensive support. As we have clearly outlined, we are committed to working with providers and D&BCs to support the retention of accommodation from which HRS is provided from wherever possible. We appreciate that this may not always be feasible, but we will endeavour to work with partners to try to achieve this through phasing changes.
4. You state that over the two years £3 million will be saved; to clarify, as per the published proposals, whilst £3m will be saved through these proposed changes we will be retaining £1.5 million of the overall HRS budget to help mitigate the impact of these changes and this will include ensuring we appropriately support those we have a statutory duty towards.
5. You state the council has “reintroduced” bidding for arts funding – to be clear this decision was not a reintroduction of anything, as the core funding currently provided for non-statutory services such as supporting the arts will end as planned. What we have done is to use government provided funding to support the arts and other heritage organisations with project funding, which will benefit of all of Suffolk, not just nine organisations.

Unprecedented Financial Challenges

In your letter, you state that you all “recognise” the budget pressures that the County Council faces. I’m afraid that just simply recognising those pressures without also accepting what impact those pressures create, is simplistic and meaningless.

The demand for our key services is increasing at such a rate that our funding isn’t keeping pace. Over the last year alone, what we need to spend on children’s services has increased by 28% and on adult care by 14%. The scale of these increases represents an enormous challenge to this authority (and other County Councils nationally) has put considerable pressure on the delivery of the County Council’s statutory services.

In response to these unprecedented increases in demand, we are proposing over the next two years to put £74 million towards caring for adults and families who need support. This is not money we currently have but, due to this being statutory demand, it is money we must find.

To achieve this, the authority must make savings of £65 million and to do this will require us to take some incredibly difficult decisions. Already we are proposing £11 million of staff savings, extensive service transformations, as well as increasing Council Tax (and the Adult Social Care Precept) to the maximum allowed for residents across Suffolk.

Even with the welcome additional monies received from Central Government last month, which I and other County Council Leaders lobbied successfully for, we will still not have the money we need to pay for this increase in care budgets. As a result, Suffolk County Council is going to have to spend £8.7 million from its dwindling reserves to balance its budget this year.

This situation is not sustainable – If the County Council is forced to continue to fund its statutory services from our reserves at the levels experienced currently, then the authority’s reserves will have run out completely by 2026/27. What then for the statutory services residents rely upon, what then for the care and support people need?

I will not allow this to happen.

Suffolk County Council’s renewed focus on statutory services

Due to the financial challenges, Suffolk County Council is prioritising its statutory services over non-statutory services, in the same way that District and Borough Councils already do.

In our proposals, when we talk about rebalancing the roles and responsibilities of HRS, we mean where statutory need is identified, the applicable local authority will meet and fund that need. Where it isn’t met other options will be explored and assistance provided where possible, but for the avoidance of doubt, the status quo cannot continue - that Suffolk County Council will be expected to fund non-statutory services, which are then used by other councils to help them meet their own statutory priorities and needs.

In your letter you say:

“Our statutory responsibilities as housing authorities is to provide accommodation to eligible people who are homeless. For the avoidance of doubt not everyone who doesn’t have a home is eligible for accommodation under our statutory duties. This means there is a significant possibility of rough sleeping numbers increasing significantly over the next 12 months as a result of your proposal – if you see it through.”

I think this is a remarkable statement to make in a letter admonishing Suffolk County Council for having no choice but to focus its limited resources on providing its statutory core services when you are content to do exactly the same thing in relation to homelessness. Why the double standard? Why is it acceptable for the District and Borough Councils to only provide a statutory minimum with something as important as homelessness, but a “Catastrophe” when the County Council announces it has no choice but to do the same in relation to 5 hours of non-statutory support a week?

I believe the reason for the double standard is that District and Borough Councils have put themselves in the position where they are relying on Suffolk County Council funded services to deliver key elements of both their housing and homelessness strategies, as evidenced where councils like East Suffolk have built a proportion of their Rough Sleeper provision on the back of HRS services commissioned by the County Council and linked premises. I appreciate entirely that those strategies are now at risk if the provision is removed due to SCC having to stop our funding for HRS, but that is not something the County Council is responsible for.

I’m sorry, but Suffolk County Council does not have enough money to fund its own statutory services without using its reserves – so it certainly doesn’t have the funds to help deliver yours too.

We will always prioritise vulnerable people and care leavers.

Looking after the health and wellbeing of the people of Suffolk is a vital role for the County Council – and is at the heart of our ambitions.

As I have already said, if the budget proposals are agreed, Suffolk County Council will be investing an additional £74 million over two years in supporting the statutory care and support needs of people in Suffolk. That will result in a total spend within Adult Social Care of £351.8 million over the upcoming year and £189 million for Children’s services.

That means that should the budget be agreed for next year, £77 out of every £100 spent by the County Council will be used supporting the most vulnerable in our communities. I think that more than demonstrates the level of commitment this authority has towards supporting vulnerable adults, families, and children in our county.

Your letter specifically mentioned Care Leavers, so to avoid any unnecessary scaremongering or misunderstandings, I want to restate that Suffolk County Council takes its statutory responsibilities as a corporate parent incredibly seriously. To clarify, there is specific support we already have in place for care leavers, and this will not change with the ending of HRS. Part of the £1.5m of HRS funding we are holding back will be used for this purpose.

• The leaving care service in Suffolk has a comprehensive offer for care leavers, which includes support to live independently and source accommodation. Each care leaver has an allocated personal advisor whose role it is offer advice, support and information to help young people get ready to leave care and live independently.
• We have a project in place – Skills 4 Life, which is commencing across Suffolk to ensure that, working with partners, we support young people to obtain advice to be tenancy ready and manage their money and wellbeing.
• Young people who leave residential care and supported accommodation as a care leaver also receive support from our Staying Close team, who will continue to work with that young person to ensure they make a successful transition to adulthood.
• The Leaving Care Service also offers homeless prevention advice for young people and is working with colleagues to offer housing surgeries to upskill staff.

Working together

Whilst much may have changed since May 2023, I agree with your comments about working together, and the collective ability we have in Suffolk to tackle difficult issues, I very much hope that this will remain to be the case.

I would stress that should the budget proposal be ratified we will continue to be committed to working closely with partners, including District and Borough Councils, who have statutory responsibilities to provide accommodation to eligible people who are homeless and, providers to help mitigate any increase in homelessness which may occur should demand increase or, there is a reduction in accommodation options.

In the spirit of collaboration, and as HRS is something that helps you to deliver your strategies and priorities around both temporary housing and homelessness, perhaps each of you would agree to contribute £600,000 to the County Council to fund HRS until the end of 2026? I understand that for some of you this would represent a considerable saving when compared to the actual cost of the provision you are using. Your contribution would also give officers the time you feel they need to plan how you are going to provide these services going forward.

In any event, I am more than happy to ask officers here at the County Council to arrange further meetings with District and Borough colleagues, because as you know, these meetings regarding HRS have already been happening.

What will not happen, however, is Suffolk County Council continuing to pay for non-statutory services it can no longer afford to fund.

Yours Sincerely

Cllr. Matthew Hicks

Leader of Suffolk County Council

Cllr. Beccy Hopfensperger

Cabinet Member for Adult Care