Joint commissioning improves housing support services

Wolverhampton City Council, Birmingham City Council, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council and Walsall Council, have joined together to commission services for adults with complex needs and chaotic lifestyles.

The four authorities have set up the Birmingham and Black Country Cross Authority Project (BBCCAP), and successfully commissioned a cross-authority housing support service for serially excluded adults.

The service aims to help vulnerable adults live independently and:

• acts as a preventative measure by helping service users avoid, for example, homelessness, entry into institutional care or clinical services, and the risk of re-offending


• reconnects service users to their own local authority area, re-establishing and maintaining their social and support networks


• ensures support services are delivered in response to individual needs, working with them to achieve independent living


• helps service users access preventative services and establish social links within the wider community.
  

To ensure the project’s success, the authorities developed a partnership agreement setting out the roles and responsibilities of each of the bodies involved and action to be taken if, for example, one of the authorities pulled out.

Provision of a seamless service is dependent on effective links between mental health, substance misuse and probation services across each of the four areas.