CIPFA's Supporting People guide provides comprehensive finance coverage of this important and constantly changing programme. Written by independent consultant and former City of Westminster Finance Director, Paul Cook, for CIPFA’s Local Authority Housing Panel, this major revision for 2008 embraces:

• Further steps towards incorporating Supporting People in local area agreements
• CLG's national strategy for Supporting People
• The funding settlement for 2008-09 following Comprehensive Spending Review 2007
• The new Supporting People Distribution Formula analysed in detail
• New chapter on Supporting People services with financial management pointers
• Guidance on the grant conditions for 2008-09
• Working with the Third Sector
• Revised Supporting People key lines of enquiry and the future of inspection arrangements
• Supporting People in Wales.

Expert financial management of this programme is at a premium, as councils use the programme to help vulnerable clients. This new edition of CIPFA's guide is, therefore, required reading on this complex area. It provides a step-by-step guide to the financial elements of Supporting People.

All the financial provisions are explained in clear tables, and there is extensive cross-referencing to legislation, regulations and CLG guidance. Tables also include expert commentary on Supporting People in practice. To improve coverage even further, this year’s edition analyses Supporting People services client group by client group.

Complete with a revised glossary and bibliography, Supporting People: The Essential Guide for Finance Practitioners is aimed at keeping Supporting People managers and finance leads in command of the finances for the programme, whilst enabling them to plan ahead strategically.

Contents include:

Introduction and overview

• A summary of all the financial provisions in a quick, easy-to-use set of tables
• CLG's national strategy for Supporting People
• Results of Comprehensive Spending Review 2007

CLG strategy for Supporting People

• Service priorities
• Working with the Third Sector
• Impact of the new local government landscape
• Improving efficiency

2008-9 Funding Settlement

• National funding trends
• Supporting People Distribution Formula in detail
• Transitional funding arrangements
• Improving efficiency

Supporting People Services

• National spending trends and client numbers
• Short and long term services
• Floating support and efficiency gains
• For the 20 main client groups
• Expenditure patterns
• Typical service costs
• Types of Supporting People service provided
• Financial management issues

Excellent and non-excellent authorities and area-based grant pathfinders

• The key differences in Supporting People arrangements

Supporting People and local area agreements

• Overview of local area agreements
• Area based grant pathfinder programme

Commissioning Bodies and Administering Authorities

• The financial remit for Commissioning Bodies
• Financial requirements for Administering Authorities
• Core strategy groups, accountable officers and lead officers

Supporting People grant conditions

• Full condition-by-condition guidance on 2008-09 grant conditions for Programme Grant
• The different conditions for Supporting People excellent authorities

Supporting People strategies

• Structure of five-year strategies
• Links to financial plans

Contracting

• Commissioning
• Working successfully with the third sector
• Contracting issues from a RSL viewpoint
• Learning disabilities
• Individual budgets
• National Value Improvement Programme

Charging

• Charging regulations
• Top-up fees

Inspection

• Supporting People KLOE 2008
• Supporting People and Comprehensive Area Assessment
• Performance indicators

Supporting People and the Housing Revenue Account

• The interface with rent restructuring

Budgeting, monitoring and accounting for Supporting People

• Accounting for Supporting People under the Best Value Accounting Code of Practice
• Budgeting and monitoring advice

Appendices

• Efficiency gains reported by authorities
• Chronology of finance and policy changes since the start of the programme
• Supporting People in Wales

Glossary

• Explanations of around 100 Supporting People technical terms and jargon

Bibliography

Book £125.00 per copy

CD-ROM £295.00 (+VAT) = £346.63 per copy
To enable maximum benefit to be derived from this electronic title, usual copyright terms are waived subject to the information being made available only to established employees and elected members of a single purchasing local authority, RSL or PCT, and not being used for commercial gain. Terms for other categories of user, which includes those local authorities operating shared service arrangements, are available from CIPFA on request.

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