Council and democracy

What do providers have to do?

Short term services

Firstly, providers need to be sure that all service users have a clear, well structured support plan in place at the earliest opportunity when service users move into SP projects.

In short term services, outcome forms will have to be completed for all service users when they leave the service.

The form requires providers to set out basic information about the service and the client, and then goes on to ask a series of questions in relation to each domain. If the client did not require support in relation to a particular need set out in the form, providers need to simply answer ‘no’ and move on to the next question.

If the client does have a support need as set out in the question, answer ‘yes’ and then answer subsidiary questions about whether the need was met or not. If the need has been met the answer is simply ‘yes’ – there is no need to explain how. If the need was not met, answer ‘no’ and then select from the options listed on the form the reason(s) why.

Once completed the forms should be returned to the Joint Centre of Scottish Housing Research at St Andrews. A link to their website can be found on the right of this page (Supporting People Client Records).

Long term services

Outcomes forms only need to be completed for 10% of long term service users in Older Peoples Sheltered accomodation and for 50% in all other service provision. Guidance on sampling is available from the Joint Centre of Scottish Housing Research at St Andrews. A link to their website can be found on the right of this page (Supporting People Client Records).


Outcomes forms need to be completed at the time of clients’ annual review, and are based around needs identified in the support plan. The format of the forms is the same as that for short term services.

How is the information submitted?

All data submission are electronic. The electronic forms are available from the Joint Centre of Scottish Housing Research at St Andrews.