A Parliamentary inquiry now?
Blog entry May 2009
The welcome news that there will be a parliamentary inquiry of the Supporting People programme is to be welcomed. The only question I have about this decision is why now? The decision to unringfence the funding pot has been taken; surely the sensible approach would have been to have had the inquiry before the Secretary of State exercised her right to ignore all of the warnings and misgivings voiced by the sector over the last two years! Not that I am easily surprised anymore.
Porchlight will of course volunteer “evidence” that in our view proves the programmes worth and our hopes that during these difficult and challenging financial times the plight of the vulnerable single homeless and socially excluded will not be trampled by the rush to rescue more banks and large manufacturing companies.
One thought that occurs to me in relation to these rescue packages is, would it not be beyond the bounds of possibility to ensure that these now publicly owned financial institutions develop their corporate social responsibility strategies to ensure that they give something back to the most needy? Or am I being unrealistic and overtly ‘third sectorish’ about all of this?
On a sad and serious note I learnt last week that one of our service users died. Mr Milner passed away only days after moving into his own flat. His courage and determination to overcome his problems serves as a reminder of the fight many of our services users face on a daily basis. We feel privileged as a charity to have known and worked with him. We also hope that he will not be just another statistic of the discriminatory system that allows our fellow human beings to have to spend long period living on the streets or asking friends and families to put them up for one night here and there.
My hope is that the parliamentary inquiry will take notice and give some stability to our sector and thereby our service users.
