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Paul BridgePaul is the Chief Executive Officer within the Social Housing strategy. Paul has worked in all aspects of Social Housing for over 20 ...more
Helping NHS England hit its deadline for Transforming Care
Specialist providers are working with councils and clinical commissioning groups to ensure more people can live in the community, rather than in hospital. However, the challenge for associations is building capacity, says Paul Bridge
Vicky suffers from learning disabilities and has a personality disorder. Her condition was so challenging that, in 2012 she was placed in a secure unit within a hospital setting. In June 2017 Vicky was assessed as ready to move to a Civitas-owned property managed by Falcon Housing Association which allows for 24/7 live-in care if needed.
A year on from her move to a community setting, Vicky’s quality of life and outcomes have improved dramatically. She no longer requires regular assessment from the forensic team on her mental health.
Vicky has also been supported to reconnect with her family and recently celebrated her 30th birthday with candles on her cake – something that had not been possible in previous years due to candles being considered a high risk because of Vicky’s condition.
Vicky is just one example of the positive outcomes that are frequently possible. These factors and potential improved value for money are what encouraged the NHS to introduce its Transforming Care programme in October 2015.
“Specialised supported housing providers are at the heart of this plan.”
This aims to significantly reduce the number of people with a learning disability, autism or both who are living in a hospital setting – instead they are supported to live in the community.
In its Building the Right Support report the NHS set out how it would work with clinical commissioning groups, local authority commissioners, and housing and care providers to deliver the aims of Transforming Care.
NHS England has set itself a deadline of March 2019 for the appropriate network of accommodation and care support to be in place to allow 35-50% of inpatient learning disability hospital beds to be closed.
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Specialised supported housing providers are at the heart of this plan, so how are they working with their partners to deliver and what are the challenges they are having to overcome to help hit the March 2019 deadline?
A recent report by learning disability charity Mencap in partnership with Housing LIN, called Funding Supported Housing For All, found that specialised supported housing providers already provide two to three times more homes than thought.
At present specialised providers have between 22,000-30,000 homes, with Mencap predicting demand will continue to grow to 29,000-37,000 homes in 2027/28.
The report also found that there is clear evidence of a positive impact on the well-being of people with a learning disability, as opposed to living in secure or inpatient accommodation. Mencap also showed living in supported housing in the community provides better value for money.
Specialised supported housing requires state funding of on average £1,569 per person per week for care and housing costs. This compares to £3,500 on average for an inpatient place.
What specialised supported housing providers are doing, in partnership with care providers and local authority commissioners, is working. The challenge is how to increase capacity when there is little or no public capital funding available to help do this.
Many specialised supported housing providers are also relatively small and need to grow quickly to respond to housing demand. This requires skilled management and awareness of risk.
In our experience as an investor in specialised supported housing since 2016, we have found this growing part of the housing sector to be committed to delivering and creative in its approach.
“The challenge is how to increase capacity when there is little or no public capital funding available to help do this.”
For instance, working with the housing benefit and healthcare commissioning teams in local authorities to demonstrate the value of the homes they provide. This ensures some of the savings realised in health budgets are used to cover the increase in housing cost as people are moved to live within the community.
Securing the income required to provide accommodation means specialised housing providers are able to use their balance sheets to increase housing supply. Civitas is helping housing providers, and to date we have invested more than £500m in 440 properties, housing nearly 3,000 people.
The March 2019 Transforming Care deadline is looming large, and there is clearly more to do to continue to increase the provision of much-needed accommodation. However, as the Mencap report concluded, “specialised supported housing is a vital and cost-effective route to accessing a home in the community”.
Paul Bridge, chief executive of Civitas Housing Advisors – investment advisor to Civitas Social Housing plc
