LINks - latest Housing LIN weekly bulletin (w/c 16 March 2015)
Welcome to LINks, the weekly e-bulletin from the Housing LIN (Learning and Improvement Network) where we put a selection of latest information, resources and events under the spotlight. In this week's issue, we would like to draw your attention to the following:
Budget 2015 - save to spend
Did you know there is a general election around the corner? Yesterday's budget, the last of the Coalition Government, contained very little that will give immediate cheer to the housing with care sector. The Chancellor outlined public expenditure will continue to be reduced over the term of the next Parliament, at the same time, introducing a couple of popular measures for the grey vote and younger people seeking to get a foot onto the property ladder. 5m pensioners are to be given access to sell their annuity for a cash lump sum and a new 'Help to Buy' ISA is being introduced to tackle the high deposits needed by 1st time buyers. We will be following the greater pension freedoms and the accompanying tax changes with interest and whether this might become a new 'Help to Move' initiative, seeing those in retirement with savings using these to spend on their future housing and care needs. More at: www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/budget-2015 (opens new window)
Is digital the new black? Technology-enabled housing with care - why aren't we further ahead?
Written by Ali Rogan by the author of a new paper 'Unleashing the power of digital communications', this blog for the Housing LIN outlines how technology is a fantastic support to integrating housing with health and care delivery and providing a better quality of life to residents and discusses the current challenges for housing with care providers. Read at: www.housinglin.org.uk/Topics/browse/HousingOlderPeople/OlderPeopleHousingProvision/Telecare/?parent=987&child=9467 (opens new window)
To read more about housing and telecare, including the White Paper, 'Unleashing the power of digital communications', visit: www.housinglin.org.uk/Topics/browse/HousingOlderPeople/OlderPeopleHousingProvision/Telecare/?parent=987&child=9467
Distinctive, Valued, Personal: Why Social Care Matters - The Next Five Years
ADASS have published a new discussion paper that outlines the developmental steps needed to be taken immediately after the General Election in order to ensure a safe, secure and personalised care and health system for older and disabled people. It calls for central government to protect social care funding and align it with the NHS. This should make provision for the £4.3 billion gap in social care funding by 2020 alongside the estimated £8 billion gap in health service funding over the same period. More at: http://kingsfund.blogs.com/health_management/2015/03/distinctive-valued-personal-why-social-care-matters-the-next-five-years.html (opens new window)
How to ...promote good adult safeguarding practice
This new briefing from the Chartered Institute of Housing explores the policy and practice within a housing setting of protecting adults with care and support needs from neglect or abuse. Download at: www.housinglin.org.uk (opens new window)
And for more information on housing and safeguarding, check out the Housing & Safeguarding Alliance pages on the Housing LIN website at: www.housinglin.org.uk/AdultSafeguardingAndHousing
Further Alterations to the London Plan
The Mayor of London has launched a city-wide planning strategy to deliver the economic, environmental, transport and social improvements that London will need over the next 20 years. The latest version of the London Plan sets out in planning terms how London will be able to manage its unprecedented population growth until 2036, by which time the city will be home to more than ten million people. A key alteration in the plan is that housing for older people is one of the most important emerging planning issues for the city. With average life expectancy in London increasing, it is anticipated that between 2011 and 2036, the number of people over the age of 64 will increases by nearly 580,000 to reach 1.49 million - an increase of 64 per cent. During the same time period, the number of over 90s is expected to grow by 89,000. For the first time, the London Plan includes indicative requirement benchmarks for the delivery of specialist housing for older people for every London borough (Annex 5). The London-wide target is 3,900 specialist units for older people a year until 2025, whilst, in the last few years, delivery in the capital has been around 1,200 units a year. The plan also highlights the need for more age-friendly environments across the capital and the need for improved design quality. Download at: http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/London%20Plan%20March%202015%20%28FALP%29.pdf
New fund to improve the health of homeless people
The Department of Health has announced a new £55 million homeless fund administered by the HCA and GLA over 2 years to upgrade existing accommodation and provide new housing. The money will be used for the Homeless Change project (upgrading hostel accommodation to improve physical and mental health outcomes for rough sleepers and to help reduce A&E attendances) and the Platform for Life project (new low-rent shared accommodation for young people who want to work, but are struggling to hold down a job or attend college because of a lack of stable housing). View the Prospectus at: http://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/412047/150309__homelessness_change_prospectus_full.pdf (opens new window)
Rebuilding Lives
For the first time in the UK, information has been collected about the longer-term outcomes for homeless people who are resettled. This research summary by King's College London examined their experiences over five years and their success in living independently and rebuilding their lives. The study was carried out in London, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire and makes important findings on their housing stability since being resettled, the reasons why some people moved or became homeless again, the support they received and needed, and the extent to which they were able to attain employment. More at: www.housinglin.org.uk/_library/Resources/Housing/Support_materials/Rebuilding-Lives-summary.pdf
Landscapes of helping: kindliness in neighbourhoods and communities
This paper from the JRF explores how communities need to evolve, to reconnect, so that people cultivate the 'background hum' of sociability that has been associated with neighbourliness. Drawing on Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, it maps the key characteristics of the landscape of helping, how best to cultivate, nurture and create the environment to enable social bonds to flourish, based on emotional attachments, shared values and social forms that actively sustain relationships of trust and mutuality. Read at: www.housinglin.org.uk/_library/Resources/Housing/Support_materials/Landscapes-helping-kindliness-summary.pdf