LINks - latest Housing LIN bulletin (w/c 16 Feb 2015)

Hot on the heels of our successful annual conference, we put the latest information on the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund and a selection of useful new resources under the spotlight in our weekly e-bulletin. In this week's issue of LINks, we would like to draw your attention to the following

A Festival of Ideas

With thanks to our sponsors, presenters and everyone who made our annual conference, 'A Festival of Ideas', on Tuesday this week such a success.

Chaired by Shaun Ley, BBC World at One, there was certainly a buzz created by those attending and those following us on social media. There were an impressive 600 tweets/retweets creating over 1.6m twitter impressions. Copies of all the keynote speakers and 22 knowledge and innovation exchange sessions' slides will be available on our website next week.

Care & Support Specialised Housing Fund Phase 2 announced

As announced by Richard Heaton, Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office, the Department of Health have launched Phase 2 of the £115million Care and Support Specialised Housing (CASSH) Fund. Deadline for submissions is noon, 29 May 2015.

Administered by the HCA (and the GLA in London - their details are expected later this month), this Phase gives particular focus to providing specialised housing for those living with mental health conditions and learning difficulties, as part of fulfilling the Government's "Closing the Gap" commitments. In addition, Phase Two seeks to stimulate the development of mixed tenure provision to increase the range of housing options available to older people. The HCA's Phase Two Prospectus and submission details can be found on our dedicated funding pages at: www.housinglin.org.uk/Topics/browse/HousingExtraCare/FundingExtraCareHousing/DHCapitalFundingProgramme/CASSHF2013-15/

For more information on tenure diversity, including PRS, check out the Housing LIN mixed tenure technical brief and PRS briefings

And finally, along with the emphasis on mental health problems and learning disabilities, the Housing LIN again will play a role in raising awareness on the benefits of specialised housing and is responsible for collating information on all completed schemes under both phases of the fund at: www.housinglin.org.uk/Topics/ECHScheme

New Housing LIN Case Study: Strategic Housing Market Assessment: Housing with Care for Older People in Kent

This case study by the Kent Housing Group (KHG) reports on the findings from a 'Future of Older Persons Housing' stakeholder workshop held towards the end of last year. In particular, it:

Explores the barriers to delivering specialist housing for older people, specifically, housing with care to align with the delivery of the Kent Accommodation Strategy
Identifies possible solutions to overcome any obstacle and enable this market to grow, and
Seek to influence national, regional, and local bodies, such as the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP), to attract inward investment - especially where housing for older people can stimulate the wider housing economy and growth plans

Download at: www.housinglin.org.uk/KentHousingGroup_casestudy

And if you found this study helpful, you may also find the following Housing LIN case studies of interest:

Unleashing the power of digital communications: Revolutionising housing with care with life enhancing technologies

This White Paper, supported by Tunstall Healthcare, looks at how technology may be used to support the ambitions of delivering first class housing, care and support. We have sought the opinions of Housing LIN members on the future of housing with care with a specific focus on the use of technology and how it may be used to support the ambitions of delivering first class housing, care and support. The resultant short paper summarises the results from an online survey and lively workshop held with the South West Housing LIN leadership set last month.

In particular, it looks at:

The art of the possible - innovations in technology enabled housing with care
What can be achieved by doing it well
The housing sector challenges
The barriers to deployment of technology enabled housing with care
How to break down the barriers - keeping it simple

To find out more about what can be achieved by doing technology enabled housing with care well, check out the White Paper along with our 'visionaries' document and infographic at: www.housinglin.org.uk/Topics/type/resource/?coid=9467

And lastly, we are interested to hear about your best practice in the area of technology-enabled housing with care so that we can develop a bank of visionaries and case studies. Send your examples of practice directly to: TECS@housinglin.org.uk

Reminder! Enter the 2015 Housing Design Awards - HAPPI category

As reported earlier this month, the deadline for entries is fast approaching. Entries should be uploaded online by 27 February at http://www.hdawards.org/ where there is also a detailed archive of previous winners.

For more about HAPPI, visit the Housing LIN's dedicated 'Design Hub' at: www.housinglin.org.uk/Design