Evaluating the Care and Support Specialised Housing (CASSH) programme: results of a scoping exercise

Cover_EvaluatingCareSupportSpecialisedHousingCASSH

This report by The King's Fund and the University of York provides “overwhelming evidence” of the widespread benefits of housing-with-care in keeping older people healthy and independent, and reducing levels of health and care support needed.  

Commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care and funded by the NIHR SSCR, it reveals the substantial and widespread benefits of housing-with-care in keeping older people healthier and more independent and in reducing the levels of health and care support they need.

Drawing on resources produced and curated by the Housing LIN, the research, includes an extensive review of available evidence and research on the health and social care value of housing-with-care alongside a study of the Government’s capital funding system for housing association and local authority provision.

It finds strong evidence of significant systemic benefits, as follows:

  • Reduced visits to GPs
  • Reductions in use of community nursing services
  • Reduction in length of hospital stays
  • Reductions in hospital admissions
  • Reduced ambulance and emergency call outs
  • Reductions in care and care equipment costs
  • Reduced likelihood of entering a care home or other long-term care