17 May 2023
It’s been announced that a new taskforce will focus on ensuring the Government is offering a range of housing options for older people. This will help ensure that the housing market works for older people, now and in the future, and gives them greater choice in where they choose to live.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, working with the Department for Health and Social Care, has brought together a team of experts to lead this crucial work, that will report back to Government on how it can improve housing for older people. It’s been announced that SCIE’s Chief Executive, Kathryn Smith, is now a panel member and will be leading on one of the workstreams.
Kathryn Smith says:
I’m honoured to be appointed to the Taskforce. It will be great to be working with the other panel members, including the Chair, Professor Julienne Meyer. I look forward to delivering a roadmap of changes to improve choices in housing as people age. No decision about care and support should be made without considering where people live.
Kathryn Smith continues:
For the ‘People’ workstream, which I am co-leading, we will ensure the products and recommendations are co-produced with older people, building on their lived experience with the challenges of making choices about housing with care and support. Putting people at the heart of things will be central to our work.
SCIE Chief Executive Kathryn Smith concludes:
The work of the Task Force follows on from SCIE’s Commission on the Role of Housing in the Future of Care and Support in 2021. At the heart of the Commission’s vision has been the idea that, as far as is possible, people should be supported to live in their own homes.
The Taskforce began its inaugural meeting this week in London.