HLINks - Housing LIN’s weekly update at your fingertips!
Welcome to #Jeremytalks and our must-read weekly bulletin, HLINks, week-ending Friday, 11th June 2021.
This week we published two guest blogs. The first is by Aileen Evans, CEO of Grand Union HA and President of the Chartered Institute of Housing (who was also a member of the RE-COV Advisory Group), in which she reflects on the findings from the study and our research with St Monica Trust on the impact of Covid on the retirement village and extra care housing sector. The second blog is by Professor Roy Sandbach, chair of our TAPPI Inquiry, who has transcribed the presentation he gave at the AGM of Lord Best's APPG last month, sharing his thoughts on why technology in later life matters.
And yesterday, over 150 people joined our latest HAPPI Hour session on a roadmap to housing for an ageing population. We heard from a selection of regional contributions from English housing associations including: Clarion Group, Southway Housing Trust, South Yorkshire Housing Association and Methodist Homes. Each shared their individual strategic and operational objectives in planning, developing and managing a range of housing choices for people in later life.
You can also take a tour of other news and events on later life housing and independent living with regard to homes and communities, health and social care, design and technology, planning matters and more. We highlight a range of items that we think will be of interest to you, including:
- a new report by the World Health Organisation’s guidance on community mental health services: Promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches
- a new report by the Pensions Policy Institute entitled ‘What is an adequate retirement income?’
- the government’s latest paper on the planning system (recommending a new planning use class for specialist housing), and
- Launched today! Motionspot’s new website to support businesses looking to create accessible and inclusive buildings and services.
Keep up-to-date with the latest on housing and care matters and register here to receive 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 in this week’s issue, share learning about your work and/or discuss how you can engage our highly regarded consultancy services to support you, email ‘Jeremy talks’ at: info@housinglin.org.uk
You can also listen to #Jeremytalks… here
Stay connected and, above all, with further lockdown arrangements expected to come into force later this month, remain safe.
Jeremy
Two new Housing LIN blogs out this week
Keeping extra care and retirement housing residents and staff safe, engaged and happy during the COVID-19 pandemic
Aileen Evans, CEO of Grand Union Housing Group and President of the Charter Institute of Housing, reflects on the recent report released by St Monica’s Trust: Retirement Village and Extra Care Housing in England: Operators’ experience during the Covid-19 pandemic – RE-COV Study.
Funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust and supported by the Housing LIN, the ground-breaking project aimed to better understand the experiences of retirement villages and extra care housing during the Covid-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on the effectiveness of measures taken to safeguard the health and wellbeing of residents and staff.
Technology & Housing: Working together to allow us all to “live better for longer”. The TAPPI Challenge in the 21st century.
Professor Roy Sandbach OBE, former Director of the National Innovation Centre for Ageing, and chair of the Housing LIN’s Dunhill Medical Trust TAPPI Inquiry Panel into Technology for an Ageing Population, considers how our fundamental needs depend on how we engage with technology.
Ahead of the TAPPI report later in the summer, this blog provides an overview of what the TAPPI Panel have been learning about, including: how to ensure ‘choice’ is at the forefront of technology and housing; how to get the end-user 100% involved in creating solutions; and to avoid doing a minimum compliance build, how to address traditional practicalities.
Coronavirus Update
With the easing of Covid-19 restriction rules that came into force last month and further relaxations from Monday this week, check out current and relevant sector guidance on the pandemic on our Coronavirus Info Hub along with a range of Housing LIN practice briefings for the sector and links to other useful information and websites.
And if you missed last month’s launch of the St Monica Trust/Housing LIN RE-COV Study, that ‘state of the nation’ report on COVID-19 and its impact on the retirement village and extra care housing sector, you can now download the presenters’ powerpoints and watch a recording of the HAPPI Hour session.
What else caught our interest?
- Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee report: Workforce burnout and resilience in the NHS and social care
- Insider Media article: Pandemic shift accelerates expansion at Inspired Villages
Housing, Community, Disability, and Ageing
What is an adequate retirement income?
This report by the Pensions Policy Institute, sponsored by The Centre for Ageing Better, examines the issues underlying debates around adequacy and the fundamental questions of what adequacy is, how it should be defined and who is responsible for providing it.
What else caught our interest?
- Care & Repair England blog: Older People and Housing Action. Supporting action by older people’s groups to improve housing and related services for an ageing population across England
- Habinteg news item: Developing an online accessible housing register
- Centre for Ageing Better blog: We need to prioritise making local areas great places to grow old in
- LaingBuisson Care Markets article: A quiet revolution
- Newcastle University research project: Civic engagement in later life
- TLAP report: Towards resilience: making community matter in social care
Design, Construction, Planning and Technology
Montionspot launch New Website
Motionspot have just launched their innovative new website to support businesses looking to create accessible and inclusive buildings and services.
The launch of the website is timely, as the COVID-19 pandemic has increased awareness of the importance of creating future-proofed homes that can adapt over time to become care-ready. The website provides a set of new tools, information, and products for architects, interior designers and anyone interested in creating appealing adaptations in the later living sector.
This award-winning accessible design specialist will also be taking part in the HAPPI hour on June 24th on the subject of ‘Appealing adaptations and aspirational future proofed apartments for later living’
What else caught our interest?
- MHCLG report: The future of the planning system
- CACHE report: The right to adequate housing: are we focusing on what matters?
- Aico report: Connected and Fair: Ethical IoT for Social Housing
- Tunstall news item: Tunstall Healthcare develops innovative platform to support cross-sector digital transformation
- Porch article (USA): Easy Tips to Transform Your Terrace or Balcony for Maximum Enjoyment
- Everon news: Doro and Everon Announce New Partnership
- Appello blog: Why Interoperability Is So Important In Today’s Digital Technology Enabled Care Era
Health and Social Care, Mental Health and Learning Disability
World Health Organization: Guidance and technical packages on community mental health services
This set of publications by the World Health Organisation (WHO) provides information and support to all stakeholders who wish to develop or transform their mental health system and services to align with international human rights standards including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
This comprehensive document is accompanied by a set of seven technical packages focused on specific categories of mental health services and guidance for setting up new services, including, the ‘Supported living services for mental health: promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches’ technical package, that references Housing LIN’s 2018 independent evaluation in partnership with KeyRing on service costs conducted across local authority areas.
What else caught our interest?
- University of Birmingham survey: Take part in the adult social care IMPACT survey
- Government news: Bridging the Gap: transitional safeguarding and the role of social work with adults
- Care Quality Commission report: A new strategy for the changing world of health and social care - CQC's strategy from 2021
Housing and Dementia
APPG on Housing and Care for Older People Inquiry Report
Did you miss this recent APPG Inquiry report?
Watch and listen again to the launch of the new report on housing and dementia here and be inspired by Wendy Mitchell as she shares her personal story about living with dementia.
Missed our HAPPI Hour sessions on housing and dementia? The recording and presentations are now available.
What else caught our interest:
Wales
For Welsh government guidance on COVID-19, visit: https://gov.wales/coronavirus
Scotland
For Scottish government guidance on COVID-19, go to https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance/
What else caught our interest?
- SFHA news: Healthier Homes initiative launched
- Scottish Older People’s Assembly report: Summary Report - Reconnecting Our Communities event on 25 May 2021
Events
Sign up to our June HAPPI Hour sessions
Have we got an exciting programme of HAPPI Hour live-streams to quench you thirst!
Next Thursday, 17 June, we shine a light on research and development into cohousing and extra care housing for older LGBT communities with Surrey University, Tonic Housing, One Housing, Anchor Hanover and the LGBT Foundation.
And we round off the month with a session on 24 June with Motionspot and ExtraCare Charitable Trust looking at the latest in contemporary and accessible adaptations, including an showcase apartment, and the Centre for Ageing Better’s The Good Home Inquiry.
Also, following our HAPPI Hour session with ADASS and the Home Office on the EU Settlement Scheme, they have announced a new series of upcoming webinars. We look forward to organising another housing one with them over the summer.
And you may be interested in these other events supported by the Housing LIN
In next week’s HLINks
Next week we publish a new guest blogs by John Tonkiss, McCarthy Stone’s Chief Executive in which he outlines his organisation’s approach to dementia-readiness and how they have adopted the recommendations set out in the recent APPG report on housing and dementia. You may also be interested to know it is Loneliness Awareness Week and Learning Disability Week next week. We look forward to drawing attention to relevant Housing LIN resources that cover both of these important issues.
The Housing LIN would like to thank Willmott Dixon for their support in producing this newsletter.