Finding a safe home after hospital: Case study research on supported housing and health partnerships
This NHF report draws on NHS data shows that NHS patients, ready to be discharged, spent over 109,000 hours stick in mental health hospitals last year, impacting their health outcomes and preventing new admissions, due to a severe shortage of supported housing.
The report outlines that a lack of supported housing was responsible for a fifth (20%) of all delayed discharges, and nearly three-quarters (73%) of all housing-related delayed discharges, from mental health hospitals. These delays cost the NHS an estimated £71m (opens new window) last year. Furthermore, the report reveals that the number of people unable to be discharged from general hospital for housing-related reasons, including a shortage of supported housing, has more than tripled since 2021, growing from 49 to 153 patients per week (opens new window).
The report takes a holistic look at delayed discharges from the experiences of homeless people, people experiencing mental health illness, people with a learning disability and autistic people, and older people. It features a number of examples from local health and social care economies, or Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), on the Hampshire & Isle of Wight, East London, Bolton, South West Yorkshire Partnership and Gloucestershire, showcasing how they are working with housing associations and other housing partners to deliver effective housing solutions and tenant support to support transfer of care, enablement services and/or reduce or delay readmissions.
The report concludes with a number of important strategic and operational recommendations. The headlines are:
- Integrated Care Boards and housing providers should work together to remove barriers to safe, appropriate housing so people leaving hospital can leave at the right time for their recovery
- The government should set a national strategic direction for health and housing providers to work together
- Integrated Care Systems, local and combined authorities and housing providers should agree a local assessment of need and plan for how this need will be met
- The government’s upcoming National Housing Strategy and NHS 10 Year Plan should integrate health and housing. If this happens, we can make sure that policy looks beyond just the numbers of new homes and assesses local need to plan and deliver the right homes in the right places
- Capital grants need to be sufficient to ensure schemes, including Specialised Supported Housing, are financially viable, affordable for residents and value for money for the benefits system
- The £300 million Housing Transformation Fund announced should be reinstated
- The planned longer term financial settlement for local authorities should be used to drive better strategic planning and long-term commitments on revenue funding for supported housing