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Released on Friday, it is part of the government-backed review of the UK's £1.8bn Supporting People programme. Respondents have 11 working days to complete the questionnaire, to be returned by 5 December. The review, being done by consultant RSM Robson Rhodes, will report its initial findings on 15 December.

Councils and supported housing providers have criticised this tight timescale even though the authors of the questionnaire said it would only take 15 minutes to complete.

"It's an insult giving us such a short period of time to reply and it's a bad joke to say that it will only take 15 minutes to complete," said one supported housing source. "It shows every sign of being thrown together without thinking how the person filling it in will respond."

David Smith, lead Supporting People officer for Sunderland council, said the questionnaire was "another level of bureaucracy" for teams and providers already drowning in paperwork.

It shows every sign of being thrown together without thinking how the person filling it in will respond

Supporting housing professional

Some providers fear the review is an excuse to make cuts to the programme and that the questionnaire is geared towards this. In a statement, RSM Robson Rhodes reassured the sector that "the need for stability of services would be uppermost".

The review aims to look at councils whose funding shot up between initial estimates in December 2002 and the final figure settled with the ODPM in October this year.

Funding for some has more than doubled during this period and the ODPM had to hand over an extra £400m in total (HT 24 October, page 15).