Older People’s Care in Social Housing: A Manifesto for Change

Published by Altair and sponsored by The Guinness Partnership, Housing 21 and Devonshires, ‘Older People’s Care in Social Housing: A Manifesto for Change’ brings together research on Registered Provider’s (RP) role in housing and care, past, present and future.

Drawing from learning from home and abroad on housing and care, in social sectors, the report sets out a manifesto for change and calls on all UK providers of social housing to commit to taking action against ten critical areas:

• Each provider commits to taking action to enable older people to remain independent in their homes.
   
• Providers work to deliver on the objectives of the social care and social housing white papers.
   
• Local authorities work with RPs on potential offers, provide RPs with greater certainty over care packages and incentivise growth by providing land for new housing and care developments.
   
• Providers identify their strengths and bring these to partners such as gathering data on adaptability of homes to support tenants to ‘age in place’.
   
• Providers work with tenants to identify and reduce cliff edges between social housing, social care and health systems which impact tenants’ experiences.
   
• Providers innovate for the future of home as we age, developing better and sustainable solutions to support independent living.
   
• Providers advocate for scalable private and public investment by demonstrating the social and economic value of housing and care.
   
• Providers ensure their tenants and wider communities know about the options available to them and how they may be suited to some individuals.
   
• Providers make housing and care a desirable career.
   
• Providers see being older as a stage of life, not an identity, and work to promote a spectrum of diverse solutions and the language used to describe these is inclusive and fit for the 21st century.

The report shows how social housing providers are integral but largely unrecognised players in the delivery of social care for older people and calls on the social housing sector to work together to create a vision for housing’s role in adult social care.