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It costs £20million a year, and has come in for criticism for many years. The County Council's 'Supporting People' programme aims to help vulnerable people across Lincolnshire stay and live in their own homes - but how well is it doing?

Well it's just undergone a review by the Audit Commission - and we've taken a look at the findings - So what's it said?

Firstly - and importantly - the Commission have said that the service is fair and getting better. That means it's been given a one-star rating out of a possible three, with 'promising' prospects for improvement. To put that in some form of context, you can achieve a maximum of three stars and Lincolnshire in previous reviews hasn't received any at all.

Unfortunately, it wasn't all good news. The service costs roughly £20million a year, so it's a significant sum of money. The services themselves are farmed out to commercial companies - so they do the work on behalf of the 'Supporting People' programme.

That's basically an umbrella term for 7 different partners including the NHS, the Probation Service and the County Council. They do all the admin - so they're the lead organisation.

The Audit Commission's criticised both the value for money the scheme offers; and says there is no strategy in place to make sure the money's being spent wisely.
It's also said that the targets being set for the providers of the care aren't hard enough.

So what's next for the service? Well, the aim is to continue to improve in the hope they can eventually reach the 3 star target.