CUTS to help for homeless people are to be changed after concerns were raised about their impact.

Oxfordshire County Council has outlined changes to how it will axe £1.5m from domestic abuse services, substance misuse services and hostels.

Initial plans involved losing support attached to 23 beds at two Oxford hostels and buying support services for them at a lower cost of £18 an hour – down from as much as £25. Now it is planned to keep half-an-hour’s worth of support per bed.

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But some fear the amended plans do not go far enough to soften the blow on the homeless and vulnerable in the county.

Ed Turner, deputy leader of Oxford City Council and a member of the health improvement board, said: “We are gravely concerned at this level of funding being cut by 38 per cent. The changes being proposed are in the margins and don’t change the overall financial envelope, which is the problem.

“We will work as constructively as we can to minimise the impact of these cuts on vulnerable people.”

As part of the changes the county council will also reconsider the length of time housing-related support needs to be provided.

No changes are proposed to the cuts in substance misuse services, which will see all its £214,000 funding lost, although the service will be taken on by the public health department of the county council.

Nor have changes been proposed to the £390,000 cut to “floating support” aimed at preventing people from becoming homeless, or to the £132,000 cut to the domestic abuse service – but the latter will be subject to a review over the next year.

Floating support involves someone coming to a person’s home to work with them to prevent them from becoming homeless. It varies in intensity depending on someone’s need.

Lesley Dewhurst, chief executive of Oxford Homeless Pathways, said: “Obviously we still regret the decision to make the cut in the first place but they have listened and they are responding. I am pleased they have changed it to low support rather than no support.

“We work very closely with floating support providers and it certainly concerns me that it will be cut. As a long-term plan we should be aspiring to have fewer people homeless.”

County councillor Judith Heathcoat, cabinet member for adult social care, said: “I am listening to the concerns and a lot of time has been spent talking to stakeholders.”

A report to yesterday’s health improvement board meeting admitted most of the responses were against the proposals.

In it, Natalia Lachkou, the county council’s interim commissioning lead for younger adults, said: “We have identified a number of suggestions that we believe would make the original proposals more robust and flexible.”

The £1.5m cut was part of last February’s county council budget which saw savings of £64m agreed, amid protests outside County Hall.

The council spelled out earlier this year how the cut to housing-related support would affect services and launched a public consultation.

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