Department of Health

Website of the Department of Health

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Housing

man in wheelchair watering plants

Housing has an important role to play in health, well-being and the delivery of health and adult social care services.  The role of housing becomes pivotal where services to an individual with complex long-term needs are involved.  Such service delivery is often dependent on the accessibility and/or adaptability of the individual’s home.  Issues such as dampness or cold rooms, uneven floors or loose flooring, a lack of support rails or floors that are slippery when wet can all make it difficult for the occupant to maintain good health and well-being.

Our health, our care, our say

The Government takes the role of housing seriously, listening to people who say they wish to remain in their own homes to receive the services they need.  The White Paper, Our Health, Our Care, Our Say: a New Direction for Community Services (2006), makes shifting care closer to home a priority.  A range of Government policies help to make these ideals a reality for adults with complex, long-term health and social care needs, see the links at the top right of this page for further information.
 
The Government has highlighted the fact that poor or inappropriate housing is a recognised factor in ill health. The White Paper recognises the contribution that housing makes to people's well-being. It also identifies a need for a continued shift towards prevention and improved lifestyles.

Government funding to support extra care housing

The Department of Health has made £227 million available to encourage the development of Extra Care Housing. Further information is available on the Department of Health Extra Care Housing Fund page.

The Housing Learning Network (LIN)

The Housing LIN, run by the Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP), is the national network for promoting new ideas and supporting change in the delivery of housing, care and support services for older people, and people of all ages with disabilities and long term conditions. The Housing LIN has recently produced this document that may be of particular interest:

More choice, greater voice

A toolkit for undertaking work that will support a whole system approach to planning and developing accommodation and care. It is published by the Housing Learning and Improvement Network at the Care Services Improvement Partnership at the Department of Health and the Department of Communities and
Local Government.

It is good practice rather than mandatory and has been prepared specifically to accompany the government’s new National Housing Strategy for an Ageing Society, to offer guidance for commissioners and providers to enable them to produce accommodation and care strategies for older people.

The Supporting People Programme

The Supporting People Programme was introduced in April 2003 and has been a major success, bringing 7 funding streams together across Whitehall to create a coherent and consistent approach to housing related support.  It ensures a more strategic and structured approach to the commissioning and provision of housing-related support services, enabling people to move into or stay in their own homes.

The Housing Green Paper

The Housing Green Paper, Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable, seeks views on the Government's proposals to increase the supply of housing, to provide well designed and greener homes that are supported by infrastructure and to provide more affordable homes to buy or rent. The Housing Green Paper can be found on the Deparment for Communities and Local Government (CLG) website.

Lifetime homes, lifetime neighbourhoods: a national strategy for housing in an ageing society

The critical role of housing in achieving better outcomes for older people is recognised as a major Government priority, underpinned by the cross-cutting national strategy for housing in an ageing society, published by the Department for Communities and Local Government in February 2008:

Transforming social care

Local Authority Circular LAC (DH)(2008)1: Transforming social care sets out information to support the transformation of social care as signalled in the Department of Health's social care Green Paper, Independence, well-being and choice (2005) and reinforced in the White Paper, Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services in 2006.

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