Remodelling sheltered housing and residential care homes to extra care housing (October 2007)

Published by King's College London, October 2007

Extra care is a significant policy development in both the support and housing available to older people. In essence, schemes allow people to live in their own flats or bungalows with a range of facilities and support designed to meet their needs. One of the difficulties in discussing extra care is the lack of a universally agreed definition. Housing associations and local authorities have their own definitions of eligibility and what kinds of support should be provided. Extra care is commonly seen as an alternative to institutional care. A Department of Health annual report (2005), for example, described extra care housing as giving choice to very frail or disabled people whose care needs might traditionally have been met by residential care.