HLINks - Housing LIN’s weekly update at your fingertips!

Welcome to our must-read weekly bulletin, HLINks, week-ending Friday, 9 July 2021.

This week we published a guest blog by Maarit Heinonen-Smith, Associate Director at IBI Group and Lead for Retirement Living and Senior Care, exploring the concept of vertical retirement villages and what this looks like for the UK. We also thank Katey Twyford, for all the support she has provided the Housing LIN over the years as dementia co-lead, and welcome Candy Worf, Senior Commissioners at Somerset Country Council, who we are pleased to announce will be taking over.

In other news, we highlight a range of items that we think will be of interest to you, including:

Register here to keep up-to-date with the latest on housing and care matters, sent direct to your inbox. You can also follow us on Twitter at @HousingLIN@HousingLINews and @HLINConsult.

And please do get in contact if you would like to discuss matters highlighted in this week’s issues, share learning about your work or find out more on how you can engage our highly regarded consultancy services to support you.

Stay connected and, above all, with further lockdown arrangements delayed for the time being, remain safe.

New Housing LIN blog

Vertical retirement villages: On the up!

Maarit Heinonen-smith head shot

Housing-with-care providers begin to re-evaluate their future plans based on lessons learnt during COVID-19. In this Housing LIN guest blog, Maarit Heinonen-Smith, Associate Director at IBI Group and Lead for Retirement Living & Senior Care, explains what vertical retirement villages are, how they cater for the needs of people with dementia and higher care needs, and what this looks like for the UK moving forward.

Coronavirus Update

Enews Covid19 Illustration

With the easing of Covid-19 restriction rules that came into force last month and further relaxations expected from 19 July, 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

Cover RE-COV Study

And if you missed the 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?

Housing, Community, Disability, and Ageing

ARCO’s proposal for housing-with-care task force under serious consideration after Parliamentary debate

Arco Logo

Last Thursday, MPs urged the Government to back ARCO’s proposal for a cross-department housing-with-care task force.

The strong performance by housing-with-care settings came to light after research conducted by St Monica Trust and the Housing LIN revealed that housing-with-care kept people safe from COVID-19 and socially connected during a period of loneliness and isolation caused by the pandemic. During the debate Social Care Minister, Helen Whately confirmed that the task force was now under serious consideration to help solve existing policy challenges holding the sector back.

Homes for healthy ageing – time to ‘level up’

This new blog by Sue Adams, CEO, Care & Repair England for The Housing and Ageing Alliance discusses three steps to improve homes for healthy ageing that will result in improved quality of life for current and future generations of housing occupants, a health and care dividend benefiting the NHS and Social Services, and a positive impact on climate change through reduced energy consumption.

What else caught our interest?

Design, Construction, Planning and Technology

COVID-19 and the digital divide: Supporting digital inclusion and skills during the pandemic and beyond

Covid-19 and the digital divide cover

The Centre for Ageing Better has published a new report offering examples of good practice and recommendations for organisations that deliver services to users and help digitally excluded people with skills training.

Informed by research conducted by Citizens Online, the report reveals that building skills and confidence is key to digital inclusion and will be of interest to leaders of community organisations, digital inclusion role holders at local authorities, digital-focuses charities and funders wanting to support local community groups. 

What else caught our interest?

Health and Social Care, Mental Health and Learning Disability

The Cost of Inequality – putting a price on health

The Cost of Inequality – putting a price on health cover

Published by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (CFSI), in partnership with International Longevity Centre UK (ILC-UK) and The Business School at City University, this report argues that supporting people to spend more time in good health could boost people’s time in work, reduce health and care costs, as well as welfare costs on the state.

 

The paper urges the Government’s new Office for Health Promotion to work not only with only with bodies that promote improvements to health life expectancy and longevity, but also with those focusing on raising productivity and level of economic activity.

What else caught our interest?

Housing and Dementia

Dementia & Housing Working Group Leaders Group Meeting

HAPPI HOUR holding slide 020721

On Friday 2nd July, the Housing LIN hosted an inaugural invite-only meeting of the Housing and Dementia’s Leaders’ Group, comprising of senior executives of housing associations and partners from the Dementia and Housing Working Group to work together to take forward the actions from the recent APPG Inquiry report.

During the roundtable discussion, organisations shared actions that they had taken from the APPG recommendations and what other learning, research, scheme developments and innovations they were working on.

New Housing LIN Dementia co-lead

Candy Worf - Head shot

My name is Candy Worf and am a Senior Commissioner in Somerset. I am delighted to be taking over from Katey Twyford in the role as the Housing LIN’s Co-Dementia Lead, with Guinness Partnership’s Wendy Wells. What a hard act to follow!
 

The Housing LIN is a fantastic organisation which I have worked alongside on sounding boards in previous roles, and which has given me so much clear steer over the years surrounding good practice engagement and evidence based models and initiatives.

Time for Dementia - Could you help healthcare professionals of tomorrow learn about dementia?

Alzheimer's society logo

Time for Dementia is an innovative, award winning, educational programme designed to give healthcare students ongoing contact with a family living with dementia to improve their knowledge, understanding and attitudes towards the condition.

Available across Surrey, Sussex and Devon.

For more details, call 07713 779582 or email timefordementia@alzheimers.org.uk

APPG on Housing and Care for Older People Inquiry Report

Cover APPG HCOP Dementia

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.

Screenshot APPG launch 170221

And did you miss our HAPPI Hour sessions on housing and dementia last month? The recording and presentations are now available.

What else caught our interest?

Wales

Flag Wales

For Welsh government guidance on COVID-19, visit: https://gov.wales/coronavirus

What else caught our interest?

Scotland

Scottish Flag

For Scottish government guidance on COVID-19, go to https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance

What else caught our interest?

Events

Sign up to our July HAPPI Hour sessions

HAPPI Hour 4pm logo sml

Have we got an exciting programme of HAPPI Hour live-streams to quench you thirst this month, before we take a break in August. Please note the change of the day of our sessions from Thursday to Tuesday!

IBI logo

On 20 July we host a HAPPI Hour on Compassionate Neighbourhoods: communities that care with St Joseph’s Hospice’s Patrick Dollard, Ann Brolan from Anchor Hanover and IBI architect’s Maarit Heneinon-Smith.

And lastly, on 27 July we welcome Levitt Bernstein’s Irene Craik, Phoenix Community Housing’s Steve Connor and UKRI’s Julie Glenn to our HAPPI Hour - Fostering innovation in designing for Ageing

And you may be interested in these other events supported by the Housing LIN

In next week’s HLINks

Next week we publish Carla Fulgoni’s Housing LIN guest blog on planning and responding to the demands of working from home.

Carla’s blog also coincides with the launch of the new Workhome Project’s website - of which the Housing LIN is a founding member - a website underpinned by extensive research and pulls together thought-leadership and useful resources that set out new thinking on design and policy norms on homework.

The Housing LIN would like to thank Willmott Dixon for their support in producing this newsletter.

And while we await further details on the easing of lockdown, take care and stay safe.