What is it?

Liverpool City Council’s Supporting People programme developed a support charter for a better quality of life for vulnerable people.

Working together with service users, support providers and commissioners, the charter was developed using the basis of good quality, person-centred care and support being a basic right for all vulnerable people that used services in the city.

Providers, commissioning partners and all key stakeholders work towards this by signing up to the charter and adopting its key elements.

What’s involved?

During 2006 and 2007 a series of positive engagement sessions were held, which were creative workshops involving the city council, service users, providers and key partner agencies.

These events focused on shaping Liverpool’s 5-year SP strategy and from them a number of ‘support standards’ were devised. These support standards became the basis of the charter, which was then written into its first draft.

Consultation on the draft took place via the Liverpool Supporting People Forum and Community Experts Group, revisions were made, an accessible version was created and the charter was then given a Service User kite mark.

The charter was announced in November 2007, with providers asked to sign up to it and become ‘Charter Champions’, demonstrating commitment to the principles contained within.

What has it led to?

Validation visits by the Supporting People team and Peer Assessment team are arranged to ensure providers are adopting the Charter’s principles and reports are presented to the Core Strategy Group, management committee and providers themselves.

It is expected that all providers will sign up to the Support Charter, which is now a key element to be considered during the council’s SP service tendering process.