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Ambitious new recommendations on the future of housing with care and support published by SCIE

A vision and a roadmap for providing more options for housing with care and support for older people.

A call for an ambitious long-term plan to improve housing with care and support for older people.

Report published today by the Commission on the Role of Housing in the Future of Care and Support.

A new report, published today, concludes that an overhaul is needed on how housing with care and support is planned, commissioned, designed and delivered. The report’s authors say that this will require concerted action nationally and locally, with a ten-year strategy for housing with care and support. It calls for ambitious plans for housing with care and support to be at the heart of the White Paper for social care.

The report, published today by the Commission on the Role of Housing in the Future of Care and Support is called A place we can call home: A vision and a roadmap for providing more options for housing with care and support for older people. The Commission looked at the spectrum of housing options that provide care and support, including retirement housing, care homes, extra care, Shared Lives, supported living and co-housing and heard from a range of older people about the challenges and difficulties they face – and the choices they want to see.

The report includes a number of recommendations for national government, for local authorities and local partners, and for developers and providers and paints a picture of what the route to achieving more choice, more consistently provides could look like.

Key recommendations

The Commission makes a number of key recommendations, including:

For national government

  • Create a national long-term vision and strategy for housing with care and support for older people, co-produced with people with lived experience and other key stakeholders
  • Legislate for a new Housing Future Fund that obliges partners in local places including the NHS and local authorities to pool statutory funding and work together to develop a single plan for housing for older people
  • Streamline and simplify the national planning framework and guidance to encourage greater levels of investment in housing with care and support development
  • Increase capital investment in housing with care developments particular of approaches to housing with care which support people to live independently
  • Invest in improved information, advice and advocacy to support people to find the right option for them.

For local authorities and local partners

  • Form local partnerships to produce a single plan for improving housing for older people within a local place, co-produced with people who draw on support
  • Establish and resource local co-production forums made up of, and speaking for, older people from all kinds of backgrounds, to influence planning, commissioning and design of housing.

For developers and providers

The Commission believes that as much as is feasible, people should be supported to live in their own homes if they choose to, but there will always be some people who need or want to move from their original home and they should have a range of suitable choices available to them, locally.

Co-production

The Commissioners emphasise that the strategy must be co-produced with older people, their carers and families. Co-production is about developing more equal partnerships between people who use services, carers and professionals. Local areas need to develop comprehensive arrangements for co-producing plans for housing with care and support with local people. This includes establishing local co-production forums made up of, and speaking for, older people from all kinds of backgrounds, to influence planning, commissioning and design of housing.

SCIE’s Chair, Rt Hon Paul Burstow, also Co-chair of the Commission on Housing and Care

No decision about care and support should be made without considering where people live. This report is a wake-up call: It makes a compelling case for investing in innovative housing with care and raising public awareness of their later life housing options. Better housing can help people to live in places that matter to them as they age, to remain independent as long as possible and stay connected with their family, friends and communities.

SCIE’s Chair, Rt Hon Paul Burstow, also Co-chair of the Commission on Housing and Care

I said last year that this Commission mustn’t just be a talking shop. I’m delighted that this report makes some tangible recommendations for a ten-year strategy. The seven principles of excellence, identified in the report, are key to delivering our shared vision with Social Care Future, where we all want to live in a place we call home with the people and things we love, in communities where we look out for one another, doing the things that matter most.

Professor Julienne Meyer CBE, Professor Emerita of Nursing: Care for Older People at City, University of London

A test of any country is the degree to which it supports and enables those who need care and support to stay safe and to lead the best lives they can. Excellent housing with care – including care homes, supported living, extra care and the many other models – is at the heart of supporting people to live the best lives they can. I hope that the important recommendations from the Commission will inform future policy and practice for years to come.

Sir David Pearson CBE, Independent Advisor

About the Commission on the Role of Housing in the Future of Care and Support

Funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust, and managed by SCIE, the Commission on the Role of Housing in the Future of Care and Support was established in October 2020. Composed of a group of leaders of care and support organisations, academics, experts and practitioners related to housing with care and support, and co-chaired by the Rt Hon Paul Burstow, Professor Julienne Meyer CBE and Sir David Pearson CBE, the Commission was tasked with developing a vision and roadmap for providing more options for housing with care and support. They were supported by a co-production group of people with lived experience and a Stakeholder Reference group of experts in different aspects of housing with care and support.

The Commission focuses on the options available to older adults, although it also takes account of examples of promising practice in relation to working age adults (including those with learning disabilities), and multi-generational housing options. The Commission also considers the specific needs of diverse communities including BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) communities, LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning) communities and people with disabilities, who often find it more difficult than others to access high-quality housing

About SCIE

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) is a leading values-driven improvement agency. In recent years we have evolved from a largely government- funded body to a fast-moving, high-profile and more commercial organisation and thought leader.

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