GOVERNMENT inspectors today handed City of York Council a disappointing one-star rating for a key service for vulnerable people.

The Audit Commission said policies supporting housing needs of some of the city's most at-risk residents were "fair".

Independent inspectors said the £9.2 million Supporting People programme has "uncertain" future prospects.

The multi-agency project finds secure housing for people with learning disabilities, mental health, drug and drink problems, youngsters leaving care, domestic abuse victims, homeless and the elderly.

Roy Irwin, the commission's housing chief, said the switch to funding services through the government-funded Supporting People, set up in April 2003, went "relatively smoothly".

But success depended on the council's ability to "vigorously challenge" costs.

Weaknesses included lack of an overall picture of who needs housing support, and gaps in service delivery.

There was no system measuring how successful council policies in the area were, the report states, and not enough was being doing to ensure value.

High-cost, new or at-risk services were not reviewed early enough, inspectors say, reducing saving opportunities.

However, the report says provision of housing-related support is high and new services have been developed.

Some vulnerable residents are benefiting from better or enhanced services and partnerships are "developing".

On improvements, the report calls for services to be reviewed more thoroughly and says the council should identify gaps in provision for residents.

Supporting People is co-ordinated by York council in partnership with Selby and York Primary Care Trust and North Yorkshire Probation Service.

Bill Hodson, senior assistant director for strategic services at the council, chairs the body with overall responsibility for the programme.

He said: "Our first priority was to ensure we were able to provide continued support to vulnerable people so we concentrated on ensuring all contracts and payments for customers were firmly in place.

"This was a huge piece of work and we're pleased the inspectors commented favourably on it.

"However, this does mean other work assessing needs and service reviews has not moved as quickly as we would have liked. We will be giving priority to this work in the coming year."

Social Services executive member Sue Galloway said nationally the Supporting People programme was running £400 million over budget, so the Government targeted what it saw as high-spending authorities

She said: "All partners will be working together to ensure those in most need are not disadvantaged by these findings."

The commission's findings come in the wake of a poor one-star out of three watchdog report on waste management.

Labour housing spokeswoman Ruth Potter said the latest "worrying" verdict highlighted lack of leadership to improve council services.

She said the Lib Dems could not just blame lack of cash.

Updated: 12:35 Thursday, November 11, 2004