Vulnerable being hit by £222,000 Staffordshire funding cut
More than £200,000 of funding for vulnerable people in Cannock Chase is to be withdrawn at the end of the month.
A total of £222,000 funding from the Supporting People grant is being pulled by Staffordshire County Council.
Support for young families and socially excluded groups, among others, will be affected.
The withdrawal of the funding for the Cannock Chase-based services is part of a county council review of services formerly funded via the historic Supporting People grant.
As an outcome of the review, the county council decided to withdraw hundreds of thousands of pounds in two stages.
In 2014/15 it withdrew £300,000 of funding with a further £222,000 now set to be withdrawn this month.
Bromford Housing Association is losing £110,949 of funding – £96,196 of that goes towards 'floating support for socially excluded groups', while the remaining £14,753 is for a 'young families supported housing scheme' in Heath Hayes.
Aelfgar House in Rugeley is also losing a large chunk of its funding, with £110,985 being withdrawn from YMCA Wolverhampton which runs the service.
Councillor Alan White, the cabinet member for health, care and wellbeing at Staffordshire County Council, explained that all providers were made aware of the changes to the Supporting People funding back in June 2014.
He said: "We want Staffordshire to be a place where people are independent, resilient and can fulfil their potential, with the support they need to take control of their lives. That means looking at new ways of working and joint working with partners to protect the most vulnerable members of our society.
"We carried out a review of services two years ago which has seen us prioritise our resources into projects like the Troubled Families programme which prevents people falling into crisis and to intervene early to stop problems becoming worse.
"While the review has been challenging, the county council has managed the process as sensitively as possible and provider organisations were made aware of the decision in June 2014. We've worked closely with providers and partners at the earliest possible opportunity to better understand and where possible to minimise the impact of any proposed changes.
"Those people in substantial and critical need will of course receive the support they need, and we are making extra funding available to help 16 and 17 year olds in crisis."
The overview of the funding withdrawal for Cannock Chase is outlined in a document set to be discussed by Cannock Chase Council's housing scrutiny committee next week.
