HLINks archive

#Jeremytalks

Welcome to Jeremy talks and my weekly piece to audio to coincide with the Housing LIN's free weekly bulletin, HLINks, week ending Friday, 2 October 2020.

As trailed in HLINks last week, this Thursday was UN International Day for Older Persons and, to coincide, we held a fabulous HAPPI Hour with leading gerontologists Professor Sarah Harper from Oxford University and Professor Tom Scharf of Newcastle University, along with Guild Living's Stop Ageism campaign, to explore whether our sectors is age-friendly or age-unfriendly and what this means for our homes and communities. The Housing LIN is also proud to be a member of the Stop Ageism campaign which was officially launched this week.

In other news, this week also saw Appello release their third report on digital technology and supported housing, drawing on the findings from our joint survey with them. It predicts that 2021 will see significant steps forward in the delivery of TECS as service users become more technology aware and the telecoms landscape moves closer to being completely digital.

And following my blog on work ready HAPPI at the start of the pandemic, I have updated it 6 months on for the Workhome Project taking the opportunity to review the 10 HAPPI design principles for work readiness.

In this week’s HLINks, you can also read our curated round-up of other relevant news and events on later life living with regard to homes and communities, health and social care, design and technology, planning matters and more, including a new housing report on the older LGBT+ community in London.

Check this out and register here to keep in touch with all our news alerts and other notifications of your choice, sent direct to your inbox. And remember you can also follow us via our Twitter feeds: @HousingLIN, @HousingLINews and @HLINConsult

Lastly, if you would like to talk to us about any matters highlighted, share learning about your work and/or discuss how our consultancy services can assist you, email ‘Jeremy talks’ at: info@housinglin.org.uk

You can also listen to Jeremy talks… here

Best wishes and stay connected and be safe,

Jeremy

#Jeremytalks

Welcome to Jeremy talks and my weekly piece to audio to coincide with the Housing LIN's free weekly bulletin, HLINks, week ending Friday, 25 September 2020.

It's been another busy week on the Housing LIN news merry-go-round. It’s National Eye Health Week and we kicked off on the government's Winter Plan for 2020/2021 which came out late last Friday. The Plan sets out the government's ambitions for the sector in England and the challenges facing adult social care this winter, making one reference to extra care housing and supported living, and how digital technology can play a greater role. However, we also noted the short-sightedness of the Plan. With winter in mind, more could have been said about housing interventions to make our homes warm and energy efficient, and the obvious links with health improvements at this time of year. Alongside the Plan, DHSC released the report from the Social Care Sector COVID-19 Support Taskforce on the pandemic. The Taskforce had 8 working groups and each of their papers was also published. The Housing LIN was a member of the working group on innovation and good practice and its paper refers to our Home from Hospital online directory of practice. And staying with government, MHCLG have allocated £91.5m to 274 councils to end rough sleeping, helping vulnerable people who were housed during the pandemic stay in accommodation this year.

On Monday it was World Alzheimer's Day and we hosted the 2nd session of Lord Best's APPG Inquiry into the housing experiences of people living with dementia. The Housing LIN is Secretariat to this Inquiry which is due to report in February 2021. There were also a couple of useful new reports published on designing and planning for dementia that we feature in this issue.

This Thursday saw our 3rd open HAPPI Hour session. Attracting over 80 members, we focused on our recent report on supported housing for the National Housing Federation. We also released our latest A-Z this week. This one gives an alphabetical list of 26 intergenerational and community-led housing, such as cohousing in the UK.

In this week’s HLINks, you can also read our curated round-up of other relevant news and events on later life living with regard to homes and communities, health and social care, design and technology, planning matters and more, including the Centre for Ageing Better's new report with The King’s Fund on Health, Housing and Covid-19.

Check this out and register here to keep in touch with all our news alerts and other notifications of your choice, sent direct to your inbox. And remember you can also follow us via our Twitter feeds: @HousingLIN, @HousingLINews and @HLINConsult

Lastly, if you would like to talk to us about any matters highlighted, share learning about your work and/or discuss how our consultancy services can assist you, email ‘Jeremy talks’ at: info@housinglin.org.uk

You can also listen to Jeremy talks… here

Best wishes and stay connected and be safe,

Jeremy

#Jeremytalks

Welcome to Jeremy talks and my weekly piece to audio to coincide with the Housing LIN's free weekly bulletin, HLINks, week ending Friday, 18 September 2020.

From Monday this week, the government latest rules for social gatherings in England took effect with variations for other parts of the United Kingdom. We have updated our Covid-19 Practice Briefing (No1) for extra care housing and retirement housing operators accordingly.

In other news, it is #ForAccessibleHomes week, an initiative championed by Habinteg Housing Association to raise awareness of the lack of accessible homes in the UK. We are a proud supporter of the campaign and, to coincide, we held our 2nd HAPPI Hour webinar yesterday, putting the spotlight on designing HAPPI accessible housing with PRP Architects. And, staying with design, we also published a new Housing LIN Cyrmu case study on Linc Cymru’s new extra care scheme and independent living bungalows in Tondu and Maesteg by architects, Quattro.

The TCPA also launched the final version of the Healthy Homes Bill for England this week. This sets out suggested legislation for Government planning policy to adopt a holistic approach to delivering new homes which actively work to improve health and wellbeing. You can read about this and a round-up of other relevant news and events on later life living with regard to homes and communities, dementia, health and social care, design and technology, other planning matters and more in this comprehensive bulletin.

Check it out and register here to keep in touch with our news alerts and other notifications of your choice, sent direct to your inbox. And remember you can also follow us via our Twitter feeds@HousingLIN, @HousingLINews and @HLINConsult.

Lastly, if you would like to talk to us about any matters highlighted, share learning about your work and/or discuss how our consultancy services can assist you, email ‘Jeremy talks’ at: info@housinglin.org.uk

You can also listen to Jeremy talks… here

Best wishes and stay connected and be safe,

Jeremy

#Jeremytalks

Welcome to Jeremy talks and my weekly piece to audio to coincide with the Housing LIN's free weekly bulletin, HLINks, week ending Friday, 11 September 2020.

It’s been another bumper week of news with the government setting out it’s latest rules to limit the spread of Covid-19 by making social gatherings of more than 6 people indoors or outdoors illegal from Monday, 14 September. We will be updating our Practice Briefing accordingly.

In other news, the Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick MP announced a raft of measures to stimulate the housing market, with further details in Homes England’s Affordable Housing Programme prospectus, including how 10% of the allocations will be used to support programme delivery to increase the supply of much needed specialist or supported housing.

In addition, coupled with the recent Planning White Paper, the government announced a new consultation to consider how best to raise accessibility standards for all new homes in recognition of the importance of suitable homes for older and disabled people.

In this week’s HLINks, we also feature our latest guest blog on Coastline Housing’s Click and Connect service in Cornwall. You can read about this and a round-up of other relevant news and events on later life living with regard to homes and communities, health and social care, design and technology, planning matters and more in this comprehensive bulletin.

Check it out and register here to keep in touch with our news alerts and other notifications of your choice, sent direct to your inbox. And remember you can also follow us via our Twitter feeds: @HousingLIN, @HousingLINews and @HLINConsult.

Lastly, if you would like to talk to us about any matters highlighted, share learning about your work and/or discuss how our consultancy services can assist you, email ‘Jeremy talks’ at: info@housinglin.org.uk

You can also listen to Jeremy talks… here

Best wishes and stay connected and be safe,

Jeremy

#Jeremytalks

Welcome to Jeremy talks and my weekly piece to audio to coincide with the Housing LIN's free weekly bulletin, HLINks, week ending Friday, 4 September 2020.

In this week's edition, we report on the 2nd technology report by Appello. This follows the joint survey we undertook with them earlier this year whose results show the growing appetite for investment in going digital. We also released two guest blogs. The first on a couple's reason for downsizing and the second (following Channel 4's programme on Friday evenings, Lodgers for Codgers) on homesharing.

I am also delighted to announce that during lockdown we have developed and tested out an exclusive new Housing LIN brand called 'HAPPI Hour', our exciting new online platform for our popular thematic and regional events. We will be running a series of hour-long webinars on a variety of themes starting this month. Get your drinks ready.

In this week’s HLINks, you can also read our curated round-up of other relevant news and events on later life living with regard to homes and communities, health and social care, design and technology, planning matters and more.

Check this out and register here to keep in touch with our news alerts and other notifications of your choice, sent direct to your inbox. And remember you can also follow us via our Twitter feeds: @HousingLIN, @HousingLINews and @HLINConsult.

Lastly, if you would like to talk to us about any matters highlighted, share learning about your work and/or discuss how our consultancy services can assist you, email ‘Jeremy talks’ at: info@housinglin.org.uk.

You can also listen to Jeremy talks… here

Best wishes and stay connected and be safe,

Jeremy

#Jeremytalks

Welcome to Jeremy talks and my weekly piece to audio to coincide with the Housing LIN's free weekly bulletin, HLINks, week ending 28 August 2020.

In this week’s edition we bring you a kaleidoscope of features through the prism of housing, care and support for older and disabled adults.

Hot off the press, we kick off with a National Housing Federation report we have written for them on supported housing, released to coincide with their #HomesAtTheHeart campaign and this week's particular emphasis on living well. Our report sets out what is required to ensure there is sustainable development of supported housing for adults with long term care and support needs. And to coincide with the NHF’s campaign, we released a guest blog by Habinteg's support worker, Laura Gregg, on her challenging experience of working in a floating support service with very vulnerable adults during the pandemic in Teesside.

And, staying with Covid, the Government has updated its Coronavirus Adult Social Care info hub. I am delighted to report that the Housing LIN's practice briefing is now cited.

In other news, we also cover the Home of 2030 announcement of the 6 finalists shortlisted to go forward to the final selection process this autumn. This will ascertain who will be the ultimate winner and have the opportunity to develop innovative low carbon, age-friendly homes. I was privileged to be a judge of this government competition.

And following Frances Holliss' piece in last week's online Guardian Opinion, today is your last chance to take part in our working from home survey. We have teamed up with the Workhome Project to take the pulse of home working in the UK's social housing. Whether working in social housing or a tenant, please complete by the end of today.

In this week’s HLINks you can also read our curated round-up of other relevant news and events on later life living with regard to homes and communities, health and social care, design and technology, planning matters and more.

Check this out and register here to keep in touch with our news alerts and other notifications of your choice, sent direct to your inbox. And remember you can also follow us via our Twitter feeds: @HousingLIN, @HousingLINews and @HLINConsult.

Lastly, if you would like to talk to us about any matters highlighted, share learning about your work and/or discuss how our consultancy services can assist you, email ‘Jeremy talks’ at: info@housinglin.org.uk.

You can also listen to Jeremy talks… here

Have a good bank holiday weekend, stay connected and be safe,

Jeremy

#Jeremytalks

Welcome to Jeremy talks and my weekly piece to audio to coincide with the Housing LIN's free weekly bulletin, HLINks, week ending 21st August 2020.
 
In this week’s edition we bring you a selection of new Housing LIN resources. They include 2 new guest blogs. The first by LIFEstyle by ENGIE’s Paula Broadbent on Empowering our older generation by giving them energy to create their own future. The other by Honorary Professor at the University of Geneva, Roderick Lawrence entitled, Housing Matters for All, in which he sets out how to accommodate a growing diversity of activities, lifestyles and needs in our housing.

And a reminder: this week is your last chance to take part in our working from home survey. We have teamed up with the Workhome Project to take the pulse of home working in the UK's social housing. Whether working in social housing or a tenant, please share your experiences under Covid and complete online by 28th August.

In this week’s HLINks you can also read our curated round-up of other relevant news and events on later life living through the lens of homes and communities, health and social care, design and technology, and planning matters.

Check this out and register here to keep in touch with our news alerts and other notifications of your choice, sent direct to your inbox. And remember you can also follow us via our Twitter feeds: @HousingLIN and @HousingLINews.

Lastly, if you would like to talk to us about any matters highlighted, share learning about your work and/or require our expert advice and guidance, email ‘Jeremy talks’ at: info@housinglin.org.uk.

You can also listen to Jeremy talks… here

Best wishes and stay connected and be safe,

Jeremy

#JeremyTalks ...

Welcome to Jeremy talks and my weekly piece to audio to coincide with the Housing LIN's free weekly bulletin, HLINks, week ending the 14th August 2020.

In this week’s edition we bring you a selection of new Housing LIN resources. First up, following the publication of the government's refreshed Supported Living guidance last week, we have updated two of our Covid-19 Practice Briefings to give greater clarity on the latest guidance and how best to implement it. They are Practice Briefings No1 on specialist housing and No3 on housing and dementia.

We also bring you three diverse guest blogs we released this week, as follows: On the homelessness front, the founders of social capital investors - Drum-London -share their thoughts on the use of temporary accommodation during the pandemic and how to learn from this to develop a sustainable long term housing solution.

We also published a blog by Tetlow King Planning’s Managing Director giving his take on the government's recent Planning White Paper. John Sneddon shares his disappointment that the White Paper failed to recognise the housing needs of our ageing population.

With the 75th anniversary of VJ day tomorrow, our final blog is by Housing 21's Vanessa Pritchard-Wilkes in which she draws attention to the resources available from the Royal British Legion and the National Memorial Arboretum to commemorate the end of WW2.

In this week’s HLINks you can also read our curated round-up of other relevant news and events on later life living through the lens of homes and communities, health and social care, design and technology, and planning matters. There is also a survey for you to take part in. We have teamed up with the Workhome Project to take the pulse of home working in the UK's social housing. Whether working in social housing or a tenant, please share your experiences under Covid and complete our survey by Friday, 28 August.

Check this out and register here to keep in touch with our news alerts and other notifications of your choice, sent direct to your inbox. And remember you can also follow us via our Twitter feeds: @HousingLIN and @HousingLINews.

Lastly, if you would like to talk to us about any matters highlighted, share learning about your work and/or require our expert advice and guidance, email ‘Jeremy talks’ at: info@housinglin.org.uk.

You can also listen to Jeremy talks… here

Best wishes, stay connected and be safe,

Jeremy

Jeremy talks….

Welcome to Jeremy talks and my weekly piece to audio to coincide with the Housing LIN's free weekly bulletin, HLINks, week ending 7 August 2020.

Usually in August we have a news 'holiday' and there is a summer break from HLINks for the whole month. This year, with Covid-19 still impacting on our daily lives, we will be reporting throughout August and capturing relevant sector news. We recognise the importance of keeping you informed and the information is certainly unabated. It’s been another busy week!

On the national stage, the government published its long awaited Planning White Paper. The measures outlined are a green light for housebuilders to construct new housing within certain confines; namely, on sites designated for growth. Despite lobbying with other sector bodies for more favourable planning conditions for housing an ageing population, the paper did not propose anything specifically to boost planning for accessible homes for an ageing population, although they do invite suggestions on how best to meet the needs of diverse groups and to meet equalities legislation.

It also released its updated Covid-19 guidance on supported living. It builds on the previous advice to supported living providers and is primarily for supported living settings, but many of the principles are applicable to extra care housing for older people. It also references the resource on our Coronavirus Info Hub.

And staying with government announcements, the NHS' 2020/21 People Plan was issued this week. It focuses largely on workforce issues to support training and learning in our health and care services in a more integrated way, including the use of digital; for example, for remote assessments. However, while home based care is acknowledged, disappointingly, there is no mention of housing or multi-disciplinary working with our sector. So much for integration!

In other news, In other news, I was interviewed by BrouHappy on behalf of Ian Williams Ltd for an exciting new series of podcasts that delve into social housing. I shared my thoughts on affordable housing for older people, gave examples of designing for ageing and looked into my crystal ball on what the future of social housing could be, especially through the lens of housing for older and disabled adults.
 

We also put the spotlight on technology with the publication of the findings of our joint survey with Appello. The resulting paper is the first that will be coming out in the coming weeks. It makes interesting reading and evidences the rapid adoption of digital in our sector and commitment to transform services.

We also released two guest blogs. One on value of housing the homeless during the pandemic by Dr Rachel Manning at the Warwick Business School, and continuing our look at HAPPI balcony designs from last week's blog, the other is on the use of public and private space under lockdown, by architect, Stuart Carr.

In this week’s HLINks you can also read our curated round-up of other relevant news and events on later life living through the lens of homes and communities, health and social care, design and technology, and planning matters. There is also a new survey for you to take part in, in partnership with the Workhome Project. This is seeking your feedback on working from home in social housing and how your organisation has responded in the light of Covid-19. Take part by Friday, 28 August 2020.

Check all of this out in our latest weekly bulletin on our website or register online to receive our alerts and other notifications of your choice sent direct to your inbox.

And remember, if you would like to talk to us about any matters highlighted, share learning about your work and/or require our expert advice and guidance, email ‘Jeremy talks’ at: info@housinglin.org.uk

You can also listen to Jeremy talks… here

Best wishes and stay connected and be safe,

Jeremy

Jeremy talks…

Two hard-hitting reports out this week reveal both the health and care system failures of the handling of Covid and tragic results of the thousands of deaths of older adults in care homes, and also the impact of Covid on the health and wellbeing of 50-70 year olds. The first by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee is highly critical of the initial decision to allow 25,000 untested elderly patients to be discharged from hospital into care homes and the years of neglect of the social care sector. It stated that this was an "appalling error". The second, a joint report by Ipsos Mori and the Centre for Ageing Better, captures the experience of lockdown among people in their 50s and 60s. Findings highlighted negative impacts such as on areas of mental & physical health as well as positive ones; for example, time with family, community involvement, time for reflection.

This week we also share two Covid retirement living-related guest blogs which, whilst highlighting different accounts of living in retirement housing, have a common bond in that they both address the way services have had to rapidly adjust in the light of the pandemic, turning the negatives into positives. The first, led by Hannah Humble at the University of Bristol, is on balconies and community space in extra care housing and how, with Coronavirus taking hold, they have utilised outdoor space to support community connectedness. The second, by Chris Barber, Central & Cecil Housing Trust's Resident Engagement Manager, showcases a variety of creative digital activities that have significantly helped their residents stay engaged, socially distanced but connected during lockdown.

In this week’s HLINks, you can also read our curated round-up of relevant news and events on later life living through the lens of homes and communities, health and social care, design and technology, and planning matters. Check all of this out in our latest weekly bulletin on our website or register online to receive our alerts and other notifications of your choice sent direct to your inbox.

And remember, if you would like to talk to us about any matters highlighted, share learning about your work and/or require our expert advice and guidance, email ‘Jeremy talks’ at: info@housinglin.org.uk

You can also listen to Jeremy talks… here

Best wishes and stay connected and be safe,

Jeremy