Information for providers

Supporting People
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Information for Providers

This page is for organisations who currently hold, or are interested in holding a contract with Staffordshire Supporting People.

What is meant by 'housing-related support' in Staffordshire?

The eligibility criteria explains the kind of housing related support that the Supporting People grant can fund.

Eligibility Criteria (pdf, 332 KB)

Performance Monitoring

The Supporting People Team will send each provider a performance workbook specific to each contracted service. Providers complete these every quarter and email them to spteam@staffordshire.gov.uk||| . The dates for submitting workbooks are given below.

Guidance for PI Workbook (pdf, 170 kb)

Frequently asked questions||| (pdf, 96 kb)

Quarterly Performance Workbook submission dates (pdf, 21 kb)

Home Improvement Agencies (HIA's)

HIA Performance Framework||| (pdf, 97 kb)

Guidance to complete the HIA workbook||| (pdf, 59 kb)

Quality Assessment Framework (QAF)

The Quality Assessment Framework (QAF) is a tool to help measure the quality of services. It measusers six core objectives and grades them A to D. Level A indicates an excellent level of quality. All services are required to maintain level C or above across all 6 core objectives, and we want all services to move towards Level B or above. The core objectives are:

Needs and risk assessment
Support planning
Security, health and safety
Protection from abuse
Fair access, diversity and inclusion
Complaints

Each provider is required to make a self-assessment against the QAF in April of each year, and maintain a port-folio of evidence.

See below for a copy of Staffodshire's QAF self-assessment workbook.

Staffordshire's self assessment QAF workbook||| (Excel, 220 kb)

If you have misplaced a previously submitted workbook, please contact the Supporting People team||| who will be able to forward you a copy.

A separate QAF assessment is used for small providers (QAF Lite) and for Home Improvement Agencies:

QAF LITE||| (pdf, 131 kb)

Using QAF LITE||| (pdf, 61 kb)

Staffordshire's self-assessment HIA QAF workbook | | | (Excel, 165 kb)

Supplementary QAF objectives & guidance

Although supplementary QAF objectives are non-mandatory within Staffordshire Supporting People's contracts, providers may wish to view these objectives when reviewing how their services are delivered.

QAF supplementary final||| (pdf, 244kb)

Contract Compliance Assessments (CCA's)

CCA's are designed to check the services are delivering on their contract, and give an opportunity for the Supporting People Team to invite service user feedback on the support they receive. The timing and frequency of each CCA is based on contract risk. Details can be found in the following document:

Contract Compliance and Monitoring||| (pdf, 2782 kb)

Client Record Forms

"Staffordshire County Council is not responsible for the content of external websites linked from this page."

Client record forms are completed by the provider, with the service user, when he/she joins the service. It provides baseline information on who is accessing services.

All client record forms need to be submitted electronically to the Joint Centre for Scottish Housing Research. Full details, including a copy of the form, are available from https://www.spclientrecord.org.uk/login.cfm

Please note that the following service types are not required to complete client record forms:

Very sheltered housing
Sheltered housing
Peripatetic warden
Home Improvement Agency
Community Alarm

All other SP funded services are contractually obligated to submit client record forms. For more specific details, please go to the https://www.spclientrecord.org.uk/login.cfm

Outcomes Monitoring

Staffordshire Supporting People applies the national framework for measuring outcomes for service users. This reflects five high level outcomes based around:

Achieving economic well being
Enjoying and achieving
Being healthy
Staying safe
Making a positive contribution

There are three ways that providers can submit this information:

Web entry via CROSS system
Free software available on CD like SP Digital
Submission from your own system using data specification

For more details, please see https://www.spclientrecord.org.uk/login.cfmand click on the section for outcomes. Please note there are different forms depending on whether the service is short or long term (i.e. above or below two years planned support duration)

The following services are not required to complete outcome monitoring forms:

Home Improvement Agencies (HIA's)
Community Alarms (alarm only services)
Leasehold Schemes, and
Private Landlords

The development of a framework specifically for HIA's is currently underway with a view to implementation late 2008.

Accreditation The aim of the accreditation process is to ensure provider organisations have robust systems in place and that any risk of contracting with the organisation is managed. It challenges whether organisations:

Are financially viable;
Have competent administrative procedures that are able to properly handle and account for Supporting People grant;
Have effective employment policies to cover staff development, staff supervision and the health and safety of both staff and service users;
Have sufficiently robust management procedures to provide Supporting People services; and
Are able to demonstrate a track record or competence to deliver services.

Staffordshire Supporting People's accreditation policy can be viewed here.

Accreditation Policy||| (pdf, 36 kb)

Payments

Payments to providers are made every four weeks.

The following forms are for use on block subsidy contracts only. If in any doubt over how or when to use each form, please contact the Supporting People Team|||.

Provider Notification Guidance notes (pdf, 26 kb)

Provider Notification Change Form||| (Excel, 1285 kb)

Clarification of HB Award||| (Excel, 963 kb)

SPA Form||| (Excel, 1,587 kb) (This form must only be printed off double sided on A3 yellow paper)

New Client form guidance||| (pdf, 29 kb)

Annual Timetable - arrears (Excel, 43kb)