10. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on the Supporting People programme? OAQ(5)0141(CC)

Thank you. The Supporting People programme helps people avoid or overcome homelessness and live as independently as possible. In recognition of its vital role, we have protected the £124.4 million of funding from cuts since 2015-16.

Can I welcome the Cabinet Secretary’s response and certainly the protection of the money? I would also like to highlight how helpful the programme has been within my own constituency of Swansea East. Can the Cabinet Secretary outline how benefit changes have impacted on the Supporting People programme?

Well, what we do know is that, in Wales, we protected this. In England, they scrapped the Supporting People programme in terms of the ring fencing, which has a massive negative effect on individuals up and down the length of England. I’ve got a very progressive Supporting People sector that’s currently supported by a great leader in Cymorth Cymru’s Katie Dalton, who’s working very hard to ensure that our money invested is delivered on the ground by many of the organisations that the Member alludes to, particularly in Swansea East, as he raised here today.

During the debate on the Supporting People programme last year, you said that it helps to reduce unnecessary demands on the NHS’, particularly speaking about mental health, as you probably remember. I think we all accept that prevention is notoriously difficult to evidence and prove, but do you have any data that may help you promote joint spending across the two portfolios and actually lever some value into that protected budget?

Of course, and I’d be happy to write to the Member with some further details and examples. There are some great operating bodies across Wales that can very clearly show the investment of a small amount of Supporting People funding stream, which has multiple benefits in that way. Of course, that’s how Government and agencies should be thinking in the consideration of the WFG Act, making sure that the implications of one has a positive effect on the other, if we can possibly achieve that. But, I will write to the Member with some more detail.