Housing bodies express concern over Government decision to “scale back” funding aimed at bringing together social care and supported housing

The National Housing Federation (NHF) and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) have expressed disappointment at the Government’s decision to scale back funding aimed at bringing together social care and supported housing.

The decision emerged in the Department of Health and Social Care's policy paper Adult social care system reform: next steps to put People at the Heart of the Care, which was published on 4 April.

The National Housing Federation (NHF) shared “deep disappointment” over the government’s decision “to dramatically scale back funding to bring together social care and supported housing”. 

The NHF described the announcements as a “clear step away” from the ambitions set out in the social care reform white paper, which saw the government recognise the importance of supported housing as an alternative housing option for people who need care and commit to a strategic approach to supporting this provision.

The NFH said the decision to go back on the £300m Strategic Housing Fund that was promised represents a “missed opportunity to integrate supported housing with local health and social care services and further improve resident health and wellbeing”, noting that over the next decade, 125,000 more people are going to need supported housing.

“The Strategic Housing Fund would have been a positive starting point in ensuring that each and every one of these people would have the support, access and care they need at home.”

The NHF added: “Every decision about care should be a decision about housing. Housing associations provide nearly 75% of all supported housing and are ready to work with the government to provide much needed new homes and services. In a time of huge financial pressures, supported housing needs greater security of funding and a long term plan to support even more ‘hard to reach’ individuals. We will work the government to ensure that the funding confirmed today helps to build more supported housing and join up housing and care locally.”

Also responding to the Government’s announcement, Sarah Davis, senior policy and practice officer for the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) said: "Following the government’s announcement on adult social care reform, CIH welcomes the announcement of the long-awaited older persons taskforce included today. This will help local areas identify what more specialist housing is required in the long term to support independent living.

"However, we are disappointed that there is nothing on the previous commitment in the social care reform white paper, People at the Heart of Care, to provide £300m to integrate housing, health and care strategies locally. This is a missed opportunity to maximise the benefits that housing and housing partners can deliver for people, communities and local health and care services.

"Decent housing which is accessible and adaptable, is a foundation for living well, and specialist housing for older people has been demonstrated to support increased wellbeing and reduce the need for health and care interventions. Having accessible and adapted housing is pivotal to enabling disabled people to live safely and engage in education and employment opportunities – disabled people in unsuitable housing are four times more likely to be unemployed than non-disabled people.”

Davis added: "Enabling local partners across health, care and housing to plan for the current and future needs of all within their communities is critical to supporting independent living and enabling people to engage and continue to live well and connected with their local communities. So the loss of funding to drive that forward is hugely disappointing."

Lottie Winson