Latest News

Have we got news for you! This week’s HLINks provides a comprehensive round-up of the latest Housing LIN news, views, resources and events and takes a look at other stories that caught our interest.

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) is overseeing a Commission to enable greater choice and availability of housing that facilitates care and support for older adults. The Housing LIN is proud to be represented on the Commission and we encourage our members to complete their survey. They are particularly interested to hear from the BAME and LGBTQ+ community.

Picker and The King’s Fund have been working with NHS England and NHS Improvement on how ICSs can listen to and learn from people and communities. They have produced a practical guide for partners working in these systems, with ideas on how they might go about this.

Tunstall has supported the development of the County Councils Network’s (CCN) latest Analysis Report 'Employing Assistive Technology in Adult Social Care', which makes a series of recommendations ahead of the expected reforms in autumn.

The Housing LIN is delighted to announce that Later Living by Lovell have joined the Housing LIN’s family of sponsors. They become the exclusive sponsor of our dedicated thought leadership pages on the Housing LIN’s website. In this new guest blog, Paula Broadbent, reflects on her the first few months as Managing Director at Later Living by Lovell and announces our new partnership.

Ageing Better have launched the Stronger Together toolkit co-created by the 14 national Ageing Better programmes across England as a one stop, user friend space where collective experiences are shared. 

A few weeks ago the first ever debate on housing with care in Parliament took place; MPs praised the Retirement Living sector for its important role supporting older people during the COVID-19 pandemic. The debate also referred to the sector RE-COV study undertaken by St Monica Trust and the Housing LIN.

The Government has published the next strategy to improve the lives of autistic people: the national strategy for autistic children, young people, and adults: 2021 – 2026. This new strategy, the first of its kind to cover children and young people as well as adults, focuses on supporting autistic people to live their lives in their communities, widening the focus beyond social care and health services, and includes references to housing.

The National Model Design Code sets out clear design parameters to help local authorities and communities decide what good quality design looks like in their area taking into consideration healthier, greener and more distinctive places. At its core it states: “well-designed homes and buildings are functional, accessible, inclusive and sustainable” and, in relation to housing quality, it highlights the need to consider the needs of older and disabled adults.

In this new Housing LIN guest blog, Penny Grosett, Senior Community Engagement Manager at Sparko VRC discusses their new tech-based solution which aims to get older people digitally connected.