At a glance 8: Personalisation briefing: Implications for housing providers

This briefing has been co-produced with the National Housing Federation.

Published: July 2009

Key messages

Personalisation for housing providers means:

tailoring support to people´s individual needs to enable them to live full, independent lives
housing and the local environment can make a critical difference to someone´s ability to live independently
housing providers need to be able to offer people a choice in how and where they could live and to ensure that homes are well designed, flexible and accessible – the Lifetime Homes design standards can help with this
developing ways to respond to personalisation through specialist housing – it is possible to develop a core service offer and a menu of options available for purchase either as individuals or jointly
local authorities can include Supporting People money in the personal budget of people using services if applicable
ensuring that people have access to information and advice to make good decisions about their care and support
finding new collaborative ways of working that support people to actively engage in the design, delivery and evaluation of services
developing systems and processes to enable staff to work in creative, person-centred ways.

Introduction

This At a glance briefing examines the implications of the personalisation agenda for housing providers.

Personalisation means thinking about care and support services in an entirely different way. This means starting with the person as an individual with strengths, preferences and aspirations and putting them at the centre of the process of identifying their needs and making choices about what, who, how and when they are supported to live their lives. It requires a significant transformation of adult social care so that all systems, processes, staff and services are geared up to put people first.

The traditional service-led approach has often meant that people have not received the right help at the right time and have been unable to shape the kind of support they need. Personalisation is about giving people much more choice and control over their lives in all social care settings and is far wider than simply giving personal budgets to people eligible for council funding. Personalisation means addressing the needs and aspirations of whole communities to ensure everyone has access to the right information, advice and advocacy to make good decisions about the support they need. It means ensuring that people have wider choice in how their needs are met and are able to access universal services such as transport, leisure and education, housing, health and opportunities for employment regardless of age or disability.

What are the implications for housing providers?

About one third of all social housing tenants are over 60. Many people living in social housing have a disability or limiting long-term illness. Housing and the local environment can make a critical difference to someone´s ability to live independently. The challenge is to offer people a choice in how and where they would like to live and to ensure that homes are well designed so that people can stay independent for as long as possible. Lifetime Homes(1) is a set of design standards to ensure that new and refurbished housing is as accessible and adaptable as possible. Many planning policies already require the Lifetime Homes standard in new developments and all housing funded from the public purse will be built to the Lifetime Homes standard from 2011.

Housing providers already deliver a wide range of services that promote independence and prevent people needing more intensive and institutional forms of care. These include:

adaptations
inclusive design
flexible ownership options
advice and information
preventative technology and telecare
supported and sheltered housing
support services based on individual needs and preferences
handyperson and care and repair schemes.

Housing providers have a strong track record in finding individual solutions that fit around people but personalisation means further shifting the balance of control in decision making – this includes decisions over budgets, assessment and support or care packages. It challenges existing services and the size and shape of many existing organisations. Personalisation will accelerate developments already underway in the housing sector to give people more control and choice over their living environment and requires different relationships between people who use services, housing providers and commissioners.

Different people will want to exercise different levels of control and many new models of service provision will emerge. What works for a young person in crisis will be very different from what works for someone with a long-term disability. Many people already pay for services themselves and in the future older people are more likely to hold housing equity and be looking for flexible home ownership options as well as support and care services.

What do people want to buy?

Services will need to be more closely modelled around what people want to buy and services block-contracted by local authorities will decrease. Care and support providers will have a different relationship with people who use services and will have to consider direct marketing. Individuals may wish to pay more for a better quality service. Although there will be considerable local variation in the pace of change and impact on commissioning policy, the direction of travel is clear. Increasing numbers of people will have a personal budget or funding for resources to allow them to buy their own services.

A number of housing providers have tested how personalisation fits with models of specialist housing. It is possible to develop a core service offer and then a menu of options which are available for purchase, using public or private funding, either in house or from another source. People may also want to buy services jointly.

Case study: TG´s journey

TG lived with his parents and then moved to a shared supported living scheme because he wanted to be more independent and learn skills that would help him to live in a place of his own.

TG was offered the chance to be part of the local authority/Northern Ireland health and social care trust individual budget pilot and was successful in acquiring a flat. Via Family Mosaic housing association, TG was able to have a home of his own on a shared ownership basis. This was coordinated through a person-centered plan that covered both TG´s housing situation and his support and care: the housing association provides 31 hours of support and care and TG ‘banks’ a further five hours which he uses to attend events and for his holiday to Spain later on this year.

TG has settled quickly into his own home and has thrived in his new environment. His levels of independence have exceeded all expectations of those who know him well. For further details see: Family Mosaic housing association website.

Case study: Extending control to people with high support needs

A project in east London for people with severe and enduring mental health needs seeks to devolve as much control and choice as possible, while at the same time ensuring that there is a safe and effective environment for people in need of a high level of support.

The model commits the provider to personalisation of services in its most profound sense: the changing of the support relationship from that of ‘professional gift’ to one where individuals (alone and collectively) choose and design their services. The model comprises core support (around 70 per cent) provided by Look Ahead staff and covering the risk-related elements; flexible support worker hours (20 per cent), where tenants will be able to purchase support worker hours from Look Ahead, to be delivered at a time and in a way to suit them; and a cash fund (10 per cent) to be used to purchase support services or goods.

This will be trialled to the end of 2009, following a long period of preparation with each person to develop a personalisation plan outlining aspirations and how the funds will help to change lives. This is a joint pilot between Look Ahead Housing and Care and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

The role of local government

In the future, personal budgets are expected to be the normal arrangement for most people who get help from social services. All councils in England must introduce personal budgets by 2011. Local authorities can design and shape their own local systems and all authorities can now include Supporting People(2) funding within this personal allocation and offer an integrated personal budget. From the recipient´s perspective there is no distinction between the various funding streams and they may choose to buy care, housing-related support or some other service that meets their needs.

As choices increase, access to good advice and information becomes critical. A brokerage service should be independent of the resource allocation process and services; it should work to assist the person to make choices about how resources are used. In some areas user-led organisations are supported to provide this service.

Case study: Collective purchasing

Up2Us(3), is a three-year Housing Association Charitable Trust (HACT)(4) project that will develop and test approaches to service user purchasing consortiums. It aims to empower people who use services to maximise their purchasing power; increase independence; and improve service quality and demand for new services. Working with housing associations and other support organisations, Up2Us also seeks to highlight new business opportunities and service models, to show how providers can continue to provide economies of scale in the new market place. Up2Us seeks to find solutions to two key concerns:

individuals´ lack of power to impact on the development of new services and to drive up quality of existing services for social care and support
the fear that new and existing service provision is unsustainable due to fragmentation of the market putting at risk economies of scale.

Further information

Communities and Local Government (CLG) (2008/2009) Support to individual budget pilots to deliver the objectives of Supporting People and the DGF and learning and experiences from the individual budget pilot sites, London: Communities and Local Government (CLG)
Housing LIN (2008) Case study no 43: Reeve Court Retirement Village: Block contracting care in bands & individual budgets, London: DH Care Networks
Housing 21 (2008) Building choices: personal budgets and older people´s housing, Beaconsfield: Housing 21
National Housing Federation: The National Housing Federation represents 1,200 not-for-profit housing associations and campaigns for better housing and neighbourhoods
One Housing Group (2008) Aspiration Age: delivering capital solutions to promote greater choice and independence for older people, London: One Housing Group
Sitra (2009) Personalistion, prevention and partnership: transforming housing and supported living, London: Sitra

Other Personalisation briefings

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