SWINDON Council has received an excellent rating for its plan to introduce a new government housing scheme.

In contrast with the council's zero rating in social services and a poor Ofsted report on education it seems the council is doing things right on housing.

The Supporting People programme will be rolled out across the country next month to help improve the quality of life for some of the most vulnerable people in society including those with disabilities, learning difficulties and the homeless.

From April 1, local housing authorities will become lead commissioners in the programme working with health and social services as well as probation and protection services.

It will cover services to prevent people from losing their homes to finding funding for housing organisations and making the housing support services more accessible and reliable.

The report heralds the first excellent rating for the council since it was rated as one of the worst in the country by an Audit Commission report, which slated the council and placed it in the bottom 13 of 150 councils from across the country.

The rating comes from an action plan provided by the council on how the new Supporting People programme will be executed in the town.

Swindon scored excellent ratings for Accessibility, Inclusiveness, Content and a good rating for the Summary, giving an overall excellent rating.

Excellent ratings were only given to around 14 per cent of the total submissions provided by councils across the country.

Bernie Brannan, acting head of housing and social services was proud of his department's achievement.

He said: "Everybody has worked very hard to get this new initiative up and running with the IT systems ready for launch in April."

"We are obviously very pleased about the excellent rating, it is good that our methods of implementation of this scheme are being recognised."

"I hope this shows that after much of the bad press the council has received over the years, particularly with education and social services, that we are well on the way. We have turned a corner, and that this will be the first success for us."

Swindon's success has meant the council is being put forward as a pathfinder authority. This means that the council will act as an example to other authorities.

They will be watching the way Swindon handles the scheme as it gets underway for a review of the Support-ing People scheme being carried out in May.