Improving health and wellbeing through housing: A High Impact Change Model

The Improving Health and Wellbeing through Housing High Impact Change Model (HICM) aims to support local care, health, and housing partners to work together to deliver the range of housing that is most effective in enabling older people and other people with health and care needs to live independently and to shape local housing markets and services to achieve this.

The model encourages local partners to integrate housing delivery with local health and care commissioning and service provision.

This is important because:

• housing is an important determinant of health; substandard housing is a cause of health inequalities
• ensuring people have good housing can help to delay or reduce a person’s need for health and care services in the future and help them retain their independence, health and wellbeing for longer
• it is estimated that the cost of poor housing to NHS is £1.4 billion per year; the actions in this model can help reduce the cost of poor housing to the NHS.

The model recognises that the majority of people are seeking to remain living in their existing homes as they get older, but this will not always be possible for everyone. It also recognises that there are people who may want to move to a more suitable home, but there are often limited housing choices available.

It identifies 5 key housing-related actions and activities that will successfully enable older people and other people with health and care needs to live independently for as long as possible. They include:

1. Providing a wide range of housing options and related services 
2. Influencing and improving local housing markets
3. Improving and adapting existing homes
4. Tackling housing and associated health inequalities, and
5. Use of technology to support people live independently at home