Welfare services
219.The Government’s proposals for a new role for local authorities to take a lead in partnership working to address support needs in the community were set out in the consultation paper Supporting People: a new policy and funding framework for support services(14). The responses to the proposals were published in the paper Summary of analysis of responses to the ‘Supporting People’ consultation document(15).
220.The provisions on welfare services follow the proposals that were put forward in the consultation document. They address a number of issues in the current system of funding:
they respond to the 1997 court ruling on the role of Housing Benefit in funding support services;
they are based on a system of joint commissioning at local level. This will replace current funding arrangements where support is funded through a variety of funding streams;
they allow more transparency about support needs and provision around the country.
221.The new system of funding will clarify what is happening in this area, as well as allowing checks on the quality of support provision.
222.The new powers in Part I facilitate these new arrangements both by ensuring that local authorities have broader powers to provide support services for people who may need them, and by creating a framework for community strategies.
223.The proposals are consistent with the principles of promoting independence, as set out in the White Paper Modernising Social Services(16), and with the proposals for welfare reform set out in the Green Paper New ambitions for our country: a new contract for welfare(17).
Published December 1998, DSS. Also available on the DSS website (www.dss.gov.uk).
Published July 1999, DETR.
Cm 4169, November 1998.
Cm 3805, March 1998.
