Current Projects
This page provides a brief overview of a number of projects that the Housing LIN is involved in. They include both new resources we have commissioned and research and/or good practice projects that we have been invited to participate in. While some projects have been extended due to the pandemic, where known, we indicate when these projects are now due for completion.
Intersectional Stigma of Place-based Ageing (ISPA)
The Housing LIN is excited to be a partner is a new 5 year research exploring the impact of stigma on fuelling inequalities experienced by UK disabled adults in later life. Led by University of Stirling, the study ‘Intersectional Stigma of Place-based Ageing (ISPA)’, will investigate and identify how stigma related to age, disability, and where someone lives, creates additional barriers for older people living with sensory and mobility impairments.
Supported by a £2m Economic and Social Research Council grant, the five-year IPSA project will result in researchers working in collaboration with disabled adults to use their findings to develop guidance on the actions and modifications required in people’s homes and environments to allow this group to age well in their communities. Other IPSA project partners are: Horizon Housing Association, Stonewater Housing Association , Link Housing Group, Artlink Central, Springfield Properties plc, The Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (Scotland ), Foundations, Public Health Scotland and Motionspot.
The Housing LIN will also play a key role in a newly formed ‘Inclusive Living Alliance’ – a UK wide network made up of organisations from housing, health, social care and the third sector – to road test this guidance and focus on long-term policy change.
DELONELINESS project: DEsign for healthy aging: a smart system to decrease LONELINESS for elderly people (opens new window)
The Housing LIN is delighted to be an industry partner in a new research project on loneliness in ageing population tackled through smart clothing and furniture.
The 3 year EPSRC/NIHR funded DELONELNESS project, a collaboration between King’s College London and the University of Chester, aims to design a smart monitoring and communication system with multifunctional electronics built into textiles used as wearables and home furniture to measure loneliness in older people. It will help understand the conditions of being lonely and develop a smart system to measure and monitor loneliness. We look forward to supporting the academic team recruit housing partners and also share the learnings from the resultant research.
'Technology for our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation' (TAPPI) - TAPPI 2: From Principles to Implementation
Following the successful publication of the 'Technology for our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation' (TAPPI) Inquiry report in October 2021, we are delighted to announce the launch of TAPPI Phase 2 funded by The Dunhill Medical Trust (DMT) and supported by the Housing LIN and TEC Services Association (TSA).
TAPPI Phase 2 will ensure that the evidence gathered by the Inquiry in Phase 1 is built upon and used to create widely accepted Framework which embeds the recommended TAPPI Principles within a transformational change programme. This will be achieved by developing and testing supportive guidance and tools in four live “locality testbeds”.
Collaborative housing and innovative practice in social care (CHIC) (opens new window)
This 30-month project (begun in March 2021) led by the University of Bristol, is funded by the National Institute of Healthcare Research – School for Social Care Research and aims to bring an insight into the potential of different forms of collaborative housing in relation to social care needs in later life. It should prove of value to those planning, designing and commissioning decisions at the interface of housing and care, as well as wider policy makers; to those current providers of housing and care aiming to improve practice in respect of resident participation in the design and management of schemes; and finally to inform practice around ageing among the very diverse and growing collaborative housing sector itself.
The Housing LIN is delighted to be part of the research team, drawing on our work on CollaborAGE. Other members include experts on housing, collaborative and community-led housing, sociology, social gerontology, social policy and social care.
To coincide with the ‘Collaborative Housing and Innovative Practices in Care: an international Exchange’ conference in Barcelona on 6 June 2023, the CHIC project team released these informative YouTube videos which captures the key research findings.
Designing Homes for Healthy Cognitive Ageing: Co-Production for Impact and Scale (opens new window)
The University of Stirling have got the green light from the UK Research & Innovation healthy ageing challenge to research into designing homes for healthy cognitive Ageing: Co-Production for impact and scale (DesHCA). The Housing LIN is delighted to be one of the non-academic partners in this international research project to create future-proof housing to meet the needs of the world’s ageing population.
Led by Professor Alison Bowes, the project will bring together Scotland’s leading experts on dementia and dementia design, the building industry, architects, housing providers and people in the community. It is being supported by the royal charity Silviahemmet (also a member of the Housing LIN’s TAPPI (opens new window) Panel). Hot on the heels of the recent APPG housing and dementia report (opens new window), it will work together to identify housing innovations that can better support people living with cognitive conditions, such as dementia, for longer. For more about this exciting project, visit the DesHCA website (opens new window).
IMPACT (Improving Adult Care Together) (opens new window)
The Housing LIN will be partnering with the University of Birmingham, as part of a broader consortium of key stakeholders from across the four nations of the UK, to develop a brand new Centre for adult social care, IMPACT (Improving Adult Care Together) which will aim to put evidence into practice to promote and maintain people’s independence and wellbeing.
IMPACT (Improving Adult Care Together) has received 6 years funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, and the Health Foundation, and will be the first Centre of its kind in the UK. The Housing LIN will be part of the IMPACT consortium, working with a wide range of academic, policy and practice partners, carers and people with lived experience of using social care services to help develop and lead a programme of innovation and improvement.
Amar bari, amar jibon: My home, my life – developing living environments of Bangladeshi elders (opens new window)
This is a pioneering 36-month long research project, funded by The Dunhill Medical Trust, that will explore diversity and inclusion in later life living environments and communities amongst Bangladeshi elders in East London.
Involving both local Bangladeshi communities and practitioners, the team led by The Open University and Bangla Housing Association, will together set out to hear their voice, communicate cultural preferences, and empower the community to have a greater say in local housing plans and strategies. The Housing LIN is pleased to support knowledge exchange and host the project’s microsite.
The Serious Game
The Housing LIN has joined forces with SCIE, United St Saviours, HACT and the University of Stirling to roll out the university's innovative The Serious Game in Southwark. Over the next few months, project partners will be working with local older people and community groups to test out their housing needs and aspirations.
ALSO IN THE PIPELINE
The Housing LIN Consultancy (opens new window) team are also involved in a range projects with national, trade and professional bodies, local authorities, housing associations, charities and commercial partners. Where the funder grants permission, we will put our reports into the public domain so we can share the findings from our sector learning and improvement activities.
To view all the latest Housing LIN case studies, reports, blogs and viewpoints, best to visit our News webpage. And, if you would like further information any of the above or would like to discuss other projects that you think will be of interest to the Housing LIN, email us at info@housinglin.org.uk
In the meantime, register to receive our weekly bulletin HLINks (opens new window) to keep up to date with latest sector news, relevant new resources and information about our upcoming HAPPI Hour events .