Policy
National policy, repeated in successive Green and White Papers
and reports from Government Agencies, is to seek to link housing,
health and social care together. To get at least collaborative
planning of services. The aim is to make the best use of resources,
offer older people a "seamless" service that is
easy to understand and access, increase the range of alternatives
available that in particular reduce reliance on more institutional
forms of provision by making the best use of existing sheltered
housing and enabling more people to continue to live at home,
if this is their wish, by a combination of support services,
monitoring and adaptations to property.
Problems
Much of the sheltered stock is no longer "fit for purpose".
Small flats, bedsits, shared facilities, poor design, barriers
to mobility, poor location, and changes in the environment
or transport all play a part in reducing demand. At the same
time the population of older people, in particular, those
over 85 is rising, as are expectations. There are opportunities
to remodel sheltered housing and support services so it remains
relevant possibly even serving a wider community.
Supporting People funding is prompting changes in the way
services are contracted or provided. Assistive Technology
is increasingly seen to have a big role, but knowledge of
the full range of possibilities is often limited. There are
emerging or larger groups of older people with learning disabilities
and mental health problems to be catered for. Demand for adaptation
is often seen as "insatiable".
Increasingly it is recognised Accommodation and Support plans
have to serve the whole population of older people not simply
those who are renting in the public sector. This too presents
new challenges as well as opportunities around tenure and
use of equity. In two-tier authorities getting the necessary
linkage between Social Care and Housing tends to add further
difficulties to achieving real change in practice.
H & S P Solutions
Working with local authorities, usually in conjunction with
PCT's and local housing associations and other agencies,
we can develop longer term plans that are practical and deliver
better, more coherent services that meet different individuals
and organisations objectives:
- For older people who use services; wider choice, easier
access, better quality services about which they are better
informed, that come closer to meeting actual wishes and
preferences
- For PCT’s ways of delivering on the preventative
agenda, reducing A & E admissions and sometime contributing
to particular local health targets
- For Social Services offering better, wider services,
more people supported at home and the possibility of reducing
residential placement. Sometimes different ways of supporting
people emerge or gaps in services are filled.
- For Supporting People economies and an opportunity to
use funding more effectively and free resources for new
clients
- For housing providers ways of optimising the use of existing
stock including traditional sheltered housing, keeping it
relevant and lettable.
Our approach to developing strategic plans usually involves
several strands of work which ultimately come together to
create a coherent, overarching plan with specific actions.
Commonly the work is overseen by a small group representing
the key agencies.
The steps typically involve, according to the brief:
- Need and demand analysis and forecasts including specific
and minority needs
- Matched against supply of sheltered housing, adaptations,
domiciliary and residential care and other services
- Visits to some schemes and services; assessment of services
- Options appraisal of some schemes/sites (if required)
- Discussion with front line staff actually delivering
service
- Interviews with key individuals from range of agencies
- Consultation/discussion with older people, in all tenures,
using and not using services
- Review of key studies/data available or collected locally
such as housing needs studies, stock condition surveys,
Supporting People service reviews etc.
- Analysis and drafting of strategy drawing on all these
stages and also adding in Housing and Support Partnership
expert knowledge of the field and lessons from other authorities/organisations
we have worked with.
Examples
We have prepared Accommodation and Support strategies for
both large two-tier County Councils with a substantial rural
population like Derbyshire and for unitary authorities with
very high ranking in deprivation indices like Knowsley MBC.
Plans have been prepared for some of the largest City Councils
as well as much smaller borough or district councils such
as Gravesham or Rochford.
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