Proposals for the future funding of Housing Related Support

The County Council asked for your views on the proposal that “Surrey County Council will no longer provide funding for Housing Related Support.  This may mean your Housing Related Support will cease.  If you have an on-going need for support you will be able to ask Adult Social Care for an assessment of your needs.  If, as a result of this assessment, you qualify for support under the Care Act eligibility criteria, you will receive funding through a personal budget from Surrey County Council”.

The purpose of the consultation was to help the County Council’s Cabinet understand the potential impact of the proposals and to make a decision.

A total of 1,995 responses were received - 1,896 responses from residents and 99 from other interested parties.  You said:

Q1: What really matters to you in relation to helping you meet your Housing Related Support needs?   The most important service for residents was “access to an emergency alarm service to call for help if needed” with 82% of responses (1,554 people), followed by “help to resolve any problems and to access information, advice and support” with 74% of responses (1,400 people). 

Q2: How often do you use these services?  25% of residents stated they use the service daily and 25% use the service weekly; another 32% stated they use it less than once a week.

Q3: To what extent do you agree, or disagree, with the proposal?  62% of residents (1,179 people) disagreed to some extent with the proposal and 20% of residents (377 people) agreed to some extent with the proposal.  For other interested parties, 78 respondents disagreed, while 20 respondents agreed with the proposal.

Q4: If Surrey County Council’s proposal is agreed, and your Housing Related Support ceases, will you ask Adult Social Care for an assessment of your care and support needs?  49% of all responses said they would ask for an assessment and a further 27% said they were not sure.

Q5: If Surrey County Council’s proposal is agreed, how do you think this will impact on you?  72% of residents (1,396 people) thought it would impact them to some extent.

We collated and summarised all the feedback from the consultation into the report for Cabinet.  Cabinet met on the 26 September 2017 to consider the proposal and agreed that:

• Surrey County Council will no longer provide funding for Housing Related Support for people with learning, physical and sensory disabilities and services for older people.

This decision was taken with great reluctance by the Council’s Cabinet.  Continued cuts to funding, rising costs and increasing demand for services mean that the need for Surrey County Council to find savings has reached unprecedented levels.  The Council has to target the funding it has available on those adults with eligible needs.

To see the available information, follow the link: Decision sheet details on public web site