LINks - the Housing LIN's essential weekly bulletin (w/c 7 Dec 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:
New Housing LIN case studies
Getting HAPPI - A review of the winning 2015 design awards
Since 2010 the Housing Design Awards have championed a handful of developments that each year highlighted what good senior housing could be. But 2015 was the year design quality went mainstream with winners that were not just 'best in class' but the class acts across all housing development. This paper by Design for Homes, the organisers of the awards, reviews key trends across shortlisted entries in all categories, both HAPPI and non-HAPPI, and highlights how HAPPI characteristics are informing a new generation of housing.
Download at: http://www.housinglin.org.uk/Topics/browse/Design_building/HAPPI/?&msg=0&parent=8649&child=9930
Building Better End of Life Care: North London Hospice
Continuing our look at good design in palliative care, this case study strikes a balance between good hospice design and understanding the way services for people at end of life and their carers are delivered holistically. Set in a suburban residential area, North London Hospice is a distinctive and dignified new building supporting people with a terminal illness at end of life and their carers. Completed in May 2012, the £1.8 million building fulfils the aspiration to increase the provision of palliative care in a contemporary, beautiful and non-clinical environment. A key objective of the design was for the new centre to be inclusive, encouraging patients and their carers to drop-in for a chat, join in creative therapies or undergo treatments.
View at: http://www.housinglin.org.uk/HousingRegions/London/?&msg=0&parent=1027&child=9923
Inspirational Achievements
Our latest 'Inspirational Achievements' puts the spotlight on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Dementia without Walls (2012-2015) programme. Here we feature the important lessons learned in creating dementia-friendly communities in Bradford and York and supporting the collective voice of people with dementia.
Get inspired at: http://www.housinglin.org.uk/Topics/Inspirational-Achievements/Dementia-without-Walls/
Towards Accessible Housing: A toolkit for planning policy
This toolkit gathers together resources to support local authorities in implementing the new Housing Standards. The contents are divided into 6 useful sections which are aimed at supporting the accessibility standards and thereby helping to ensure an increased supply of accessible homes: Category 2 and 3 housing in the language of the new standards, or M4(2) and M4(3) as they are termed in Building Regulations. These new categories are broadly comparable with Lifetime Homes and the Wheelchair Housing Design Guide respectively.
Browse at: http://www.habinteg.org.uk/tah-toolkit
Housing and Planning Bill update
The RTPI report that amendments to the Housing and Planning Bill being debated last week provide a unique opportunity to improve the quality of houses and communities that we will build to tackle the housing crisis, including accessible homes. New estimates have shown that we are only building 54 per cent of the homes that are needed, and over 220,000 homes will need to be built each year to reach the demand, and it is vital that these dwellings are the right type of homes. The RTPI explain that the new clauses give additional much needed emphasis to creating good quality places including laying the foundations for the delivery of high quality new garden cities. These are an effective way of building large scale developments that not only meet housing need, but create beautiful communities offering people a decent quality of life.
Neighbourhood Planning & Local Planning Service Redesign & Capacity Building
A pot of £600,000 resource grant funding is being made available for local councils in the 2015-16 financial year to be awarded to help them pilot better neighbourhood planning and identify ways of involving or delegating planning decisions to neighbourhood planning groups. Pilot authorities will also be expected to deliver resources, toolkits and reports that can assist other local authorities have an up-to-date Local Plan in place by 2017. The deadline for applications is 18 December.
Later Life in 2015: An analysis of the views and experiences of people aged 50 and over
This report details the results of this research and sets out how divergent the experiences of later life are for different people. Together with the interactive report (opens new window), it brings to life people's stories about how they experience and feel about later life. It explores how the three dimensions of a good later life - health, financial security, and social connections - contribute to overall wellbeing.
Read in full at: http://laterlife.ageing-better.org.uk/resources/cfab_lli_2015_ipsos_mori_report.pdf
Homes and Ageing in England
The BRE paper outlines how simple changes made to the homes of older people could save the NHS more than £600 million a year. Using data collected by the English Housing Survey, and the methodology from the earlier report, 'The Cost of Poor Housing to the NHS' (opens new window). The findings show that there are over a million homes occupied by those over 55 where there is a significant risk to health (for example, excess cold or of injury from falling on poorly designed steps, both inside and outside the home). It estimates that treating these avoidable illnesses and injuries costs the NHS over £600 million a year and offers a selection of case studies.
View at: http://www.bre.co.uk/filelibrary/Briefing%20papers/86749-BRE_briefing-paper-PHE-England-A4-v3.pdf
FirstStop Advice for Older People: An independent evaluation of local services
A newly published independent evaluation of local FirstStop advice services provides evidence of their value. The evaluation for FirstStop Advice demonstrated that local FirstStop advice services deliver significant savings to the NHS & Social Care, highlights how services contribute to the achievement of NHS, Adult Social Care and Public Health Outcomes and Targets and demonstrates the value of such services to older people.
Read in full at: http://www.housingcare.org/downloads/kbase/3432.pdf
Supported housing: Understanding need and supply
This report highlights the growing shortfall in supported housing places, examines the causes, and highlights potential solutions. It estimates that there are 109,556 available places in supported housing for those of working age in 2015/16, amounting to a shortfall of 15,640 - over 14% of existing supply - and suggests that if current trends continue, the annual shortfall will grow to 29,053 by 2019/20 and 46,771 by 2024/25.
It calls for government to adopt number of revenue and capital measures, including excluding housing for vulnerable people from reductions in social rents and from any Housing Benefit caps and continue Department of Health investment in supported housing.
Read at:
Making your home dementia friendly
This booklet by the Alzheimer's Society will be useful for housing managers, handypersons, care & repair and housing related care and support staff in close contact with people with dementia who want to stay at home and/or relatives and friends who are supporting them. It describes some of the practical ways to create a home environment that does not become confusing or restrictive if you have dementia. It is divided into sections, each of which covers a different topic such as lighting, flooring, furnishings, external space and so on.
View at: http://www.housinglin.org.uk/Topics/browse/HousingandDementia/Design/?parent=5091&child=9925
Telecare LIN weekly update
This week's news headlines from the Telecare LIN can be downloaded in two formats (doc; pdf) at:
- Telecare News Headlines: 10 September 2015 (doc - 136Kb) (opens new window)
- Telecare News Headlines: 10 September 2015 (pdf - 365Kb) (opens new window)
Last week's headlines are also available at: www.telecarelin.org.uk/News
Place-based system of care: A way forward for the NHS in England
This King's Fund report looks at how NHS organisations can move towards place-based systems of care, in which NHS organisations and services work together to address the challenges they collectively face. The report suggests 10 principles to guide the development of more collaborative systems of healthcare with a greater focus on integration and pooling of budgets to deliver better coordinated care outcomes for local populations.
View on our 'Health Exchange' at: http://www.housinglin.org.uk/Discuss/forum/?obj=viewThread&forumID=87&threadID=971
Community Builders
This new report by think-tank DEMOS looks at how best to empower citizens to take a leading role in improving their communities and contribute to local economic growth, with a particular focus on housing designed and managed by local people. Highlighting best practice, it finds that communities are more likely to support local house-building if they are given more say over where and what is built, and in particular, if community members take a lead in developing a proposal.
Issues faced by people who are homeless in accessing health and social care
This report by the Patient and Client Council outlines the challenges of meeting the health and social care needs of people who are homeless. Providing services to people who are homeless is complex. It cites evidence of some good examples across the UK of groups and organisations working to ensure that the health and social care needs of homeless people are addressed. However access to health and social care services for people who are homeless is problematic due to a lack of information about available services and issues with how these services are coordinated to best meet particular individual needs.
Download from:
http://www.housinglin.org.uk/Topics/browse/Homelessness1/?parent=5948&child=9926
Stay networked with the Housing LIN for latest news, views and resources on housing with care matters.