An independent evaluation of the Department of Health's (DoH) £227m Extra Care Housing Fund is largely positive about the impact of the fund. The second document, a resource pack aimed at increasing the supply of specialist housing – particularly extra care housing – shows how local authorities, housing associations, developers and other partners can capitalise on the learning from those projects and from other best practice and research to provide homes with care that older people want to live in.
Taken together they build on the 'new deal for older people' in the recent government housing strategy and emphasise that the social housing sector and developers need to start reviewing their assumptions about this sector.
Both have been published by the Housing Learning and Improvement Network, the former in partnership with the University of Kent's Personal Social Services Research Unit while the latter is based on work by the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University.
The evaluation of the DoH fund confirms that over six years from 2004, grants to local authority-led partnerships levered in an extra £800m of private, public and third sector funding to build more than 5,000 units of extra care housing – a significant boost to a sector which currently only has around 40,000 units.
The residents involved in the study were found to have better levels of health and wellbeing than a similar cohort entering residential care – resulting in savings for the NHS and social care budgets.
It also concluded:
· Extra care housing is often cost-effective compared to care homes
· Schemes with joint housing and care management tend to have lower costs
· High staff and management turnover appeared to push up costs and affect resident satisfaction
· Residents appeared to have made a proactive choice to move either because independent living was proving difficult or they anticipated needing care.
Meanwhile the Strategic Housing for Older People (SHOP) resource pack provides a comprehensive and practical overview of how local authorities and partners can meet the housing with care needs of local older people – starting with a thorough assessment of current and future demand.
With its emphasis on the practical the resource pack includes tools or resources covering everything from holding focus groups to confirm people's aspirations around future housing after retirement to designing and marketing new schemes
It should equip planners, commissioners, developers and providers to begin to facilitate market development across all tenures.
Jeremy Porteus, director of the Housing LIN, said: "Care and support should be shaped around people's lifestyles and housing choices – not the other way round. Older people increasingly have the means and aspirations to continue living in high quality accommodation which promotes their independence even as their care needs increase. These documents will help all stakeholders as they strive to meet those aspirations."
The evaluation and SHOP resource are available at the following links:
http://www.housinglin.org.uk/SHOP_resource_pack
http://www.housinglin.org.uk/ECH_fund_evaluation
Copy on this page is provided by EAC, supporter of the older people's housing hub.
