HLINks - Are you missing out on the Housing LIN weekly update?
Welcome to #Jeremytalks and our must-read weekly bulletin, HLINks, week-ending Friday, 9 April 2021.
This week we announced our 10th Anniversary independent of Government and expressed our sincere thanks to all those who have supported us to reach this significant milestone. To celebrate we have made some changes to our website’s homepage. Can you spot these?
We also signed up to the HoME Coalition’s letter to the Secretary of State for Housing, Robert Jenrick MP, which appeared in Monday’s Telegraph and calls for tougher accessibility standards for new homes.
The Housing LIN has also released a new HAPPI-related case study on Lifestory's (formerly PegasusLife) contemporary new retirement living development in Westminster, Chimes, shortlisted for the 2021 Housing Design Awards.
In this week’s HLINks, you can take a tour of other news and events on later life housing and independent living with regard to homes and communities, health and social care, design and technology, planning matters and more. In particular, we feature the schemes shortlisted for this year’s Housing Design Awards which are either age-designated schemes or incorporate housing for older people as part of their plans. There are 14 in total.
We are also delighted to draw attention to next week’s HAPPI Hour. We are hosting a special session that will be shining a light on the recent housing report by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and looking at some of the policy recommendations and examples of practice, including St Brides’ Church at Trafford Housing Trust’s Limelight extra care and community hub. Not to be missed!
Check all the latest news and register here to keep in touch with all our alerts and other notifications of your choice, sent direct to your inbox. And remember you can also follow us via our Twitter feeds: @HousingLIN, @HousingLINews and @HLINConsult
Finally, if you would like to talk to us about any matters highlighted in this week’s issue, share learning about your work and/or discuss how you can engage our highly regarded consultancy services to assist you, email ‘Jeremy talks’ at: info@housinglin.org.uk
You can also listen to #Jeremytalks… here
Stay connected and, above all, with lockdown beginning to ease, stay safe.
Jeremy
Housing LIN news items
Housing LIN’s 10th anniversary independent of Government
Did you know that 2021/2022 is the Housing LIN's 10th anniversary independent of government? Originally part of the Department of Health's Change Agent Team and then the Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP), the Housing LIN was responsible for the delivery of the then Extra Care Housing grant programme.
This saw grant funding allocated to 97 specialist housing schemes for older adults and independent living for adults with learning disabilities or autism over a 9 year period.
Ten years on, this remains the largest ever sustained investment made in purpose-built affordable housing for older and vulnerable adults and saw a significant boost in the supply of housing with care in England.
To mark our decade of existence, we have made some changes to our homepage in recognition of this milestone. Can you spot the difference to our logo and banner?
Letter to Secretary of State for Housing on accessibility for new homes
We are pleased to join a wide ranging coalition of organisations, representing older people’s representatives, policymakers, private sector and civil society leaders, to sign up to the HoME Coalition’s call for tougher accessibility standards for new homes.
This follows last week's deadline of the government's consultations on planning reforms and draft guidelines on a new model design code.
Championing the HAPPI design principles, the Housing LIN is a co-signatory of the Coalition's letter and joined forces urging the implementation of stronger standards to ensure new housing is accessible for older people and people with disabilities.
New Housing LIN Resources
Why city living for people in later life chimes
This new Housing LIN case study features Lifestory's (formerly PegasusLife) new retirement living development in Westminster, Chimes. The stylish collection of 39 one- and two-bedroom apartments offer a contemporary take on a traditional mansion block with generous ceiling and window heights, shared amenities and architectural detailing. Designed by Mae, the development has been shortlisted in the HAPPI category (supported by the Housing LIN) at this year's Housing Design Awards.
Coronavirus Update
With further easing of Covid-19 restriction rules coming into force from Monday, 12 April, check out current the relevant sector guidance on the pandemic on our Coronavirus Info Hub along with a range of Housing LIN practice briefings for the sector and links to other useful information and websites.
We have also identified the following items as useful reads.
- COVID-19: updated guidance for supported living
- Extra Care and Supported Living Settings Testing guidance
- Centre for Ageing Better: Poorest hit hardest by pandemic, according to new figures
Do also post any or reply to questions on our discussion forum. It allows you to share information, raise issues and ask questions to solve a tricky issue. For example, can you share your organisation’s COVID-19 risk plan or information about how you are engaging with residents remotely?
Housing, Community, Disability, and Ageing
Dunhill Medical Trust call for proposals pre-announcement:
Building and delivering suitable living environments and communities for an ageing population
As reported last month, back in November 2020, Dunhill Medical Trust published their priorities for the next five years in a new strategic framework, including supporting a smaller number of larger community programmes, focusing in particular on those which create age-friendly living environments, connect older people to the wider community and enable them to stay in their own homes for longer. More info to be released in coming weeks.
Cabinet Office’s Disability Unit Survey
And remember, to help the government with understanding the barriers that disabled people face and what it may need to focus upon to improve the lives of disabled people, the Cabinet Office in preparing a National Strategy are seeking the views people with disabilities to know more about their experiences.
If you are a disabled person, a carer or parent or as someone who has an interest in disability issues, please complete the online survey by 23 April 2021 if you would like to inform the development of the strategy. The survey is also available in other formats.
What else caught our interest?
- Almshouse Association blog: CEO Blog: What about the Affordable Housing Crisis and our young people?
- CBRE blog: Three reasons retirement rental will save the care home sector
- Homes England announcement: Homes England opens strategic partnerships bidding for 2021-26 affordable homes grant funding
- ExtraCare Charitable Trust: Steps to Connection: A Guide to Finding Community in Older Age
- Bristol Housing Festival blog: If Not Bungalows, Then What? Our Need for More Age-Friendly Homes of All Types
Design, Construction, Planning and Technology
9 schemes for ‘seniors’ shortlisted for 2021 Housing Design Awards
Design for Homes have revealed that 9 of the 64 developments shortlisted for the year’s prestigious Housing Design Awards are specifically age-designated schemes, with a further 5 incorporating housing for older people as part of their plans.
Supported by the Housing LIN, they included a range of 100% affordable housing for rent and developments with homes for sale. View all 14 shortlisted developments on our HAPPI webpages below.
What else caught our interest?
- Metro article: I wish caring for disabled people was seen as a career, not a stopgap
- ADASS Tech programme bids: Digital Innovation Challenge
- AAL programme article: Five AAL technologies that can help you look after your loved ones
- King’s Fund report: Shaping the future of digital technology in health and social care
Health and Social Care, Mental Health and Learning Disability
What caught our interest?
- TLAP report: Direct Payments - working or not working?
- ILC-UK video: Michael Marmot on prevention and the social determinants of health
- Department of Health and Social Care plan: Mental health recovery plan backed by £500 million
- LGA resource: Top tips for implementing a collaborative commissioning approach to Home First
Housing and Dementia
APPG Inquiry report on housing and dementia
Did you miss this recent APPG Inquiry report? Watch and listen again to the launch of the new report on housing and dementia here and be inspired by Wendy Mitchell as she shares her personal story about living with dementia.
What else caught our interest?
- Scottish Housing News article: Ashley Campbell: Why should the housing sector take on dementia?
- Alzheimer’s Society research: Dementia assessment and diagnosis during the Covid-19 pandemic
Wales
What caught our interest?
- Mental Health Foundation project: To heal you must remember - a conversation about loss
And for Welsh government guidance on COVID-19, visit: https://gov.wales/coronavirus
Scotland
We are pleased that Housing LIN will be holding its first Scottish HAPPI Hour on Thursday, 27 May 2021. More details will be available soon on our forthcoming events page.
What else caught our interest?
And for Scottish government guidance on COVID-19, go to https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance/
Events
Our Spring HAPPI Hour series is now live
Have we got exciting news for you! Our Spring HAPPI Hour programme is now live and we have some excellent sessions coming up.
Next week on 15 April 2021 we are thrilled to be joined by the Bishop of Kensington who will chair a HAPPI Hour session on the Archbishops of Canterbury and York’s recent report, Coming Home: Tackling the housing crisis together. He will be joined by Professor Christine Whitehead (LSE) and David Orr CBE (former CEO of the National Housing Federation) who were on report’s steering group and the vicar of St Brides in Trafford, a church part of the award-winning DH funded extra care housing scheme and community hub at Limelight, designed by PRP Architects.
And following the launch of the latest APPG Inquiry report on housing and dementia, we are holding 2 HAPPI Hour sessions on design, and adaptations and technology. These are taking place on 22 April 2021 and 20 May 2021 (as part of Dementia Awareness Week respectively). Register on our events page for further details. In between, we are holding a session with Winckworth Sherwood on 6 May 2021 on investing in ‘care ready’ homes and, to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week on 13 May 2021, our session puts the spotlight on housing and mental wellbeing with the Mental Health Foundation, Look Ahead Care and Support, and Ben Channon, co-founder of the Architects' Mental Wellbeing Forum. We are also working on some exciting webinars for June which we will be announcing in due course. Keep an eye on our forthcoming events webpage for details.
And remember you can access slides and watch recordings of previous HAPPI Hour sessions in the Archived Events section of our website
In next week’s HLINks
Next week we look forward to featuring the new Shakespeare Martineau Housing for Older People White Paper.
The Housing LIN would like to thank Willmott Dixon for their support in producing this newsletter.