Looking at best practice models to address future demand for both adult social care users and older persons housing needs assessments in the Wokingham Borough area.
At a glance
Housing Advisers Programme case study
2021/22 cohort
It is very useful to have an external objectively verified view on our borough needs. It supports setting our Planning objectives for specialist housing. The data and modelling enables Adult Social Care to work with Housing and Planning colleagues strategically for needs over the next 15 years. It is useful to compare with the day to day crises of specialist housing need and see these in the long term context of population growth"
Jenny Lamprell, Head of Service, Strategic Commissioning, Adult Services
Executive summary
The scope of the assessment involved two key strands:
- To understand the housing requirements and needs of vulnerable adults within Adult Social Care (ASC) and those transitioning from Children’s services into Adult Social Care.
- To understand the housing requirements of the Borough’s older population and what models are required, for example, retirement living, nursing, extra care etc.
The needs assessment involved the analysis of the following data:
- Case management data and related finance data for those groups who are eligible for adult social care.
- Data on Education Health Care Plans to identify children and young people who may be eligible to transition to adult services over a 10 year period.
In addition to the data analysis, a number of stakeholder meetings took place including with commissioners and practitioners as well as engagement with service users who had recently moved into supported living schemes delivered by the Council.
The needs assessment is structured into the following areas:
- learning disability and/or autism
- people with mental health problems
- people with physical disabilities
- older people.
Challenge and context
Wokingham Borough is an area seeing a large amount of new development, as well as having a forecast of significant population growth in older people and those with disabilities. Therefore, this funding was an ideal opportunity to be able to assess what we need to do as an authority to build the right tenures to meet needs going forward. The result is that we can ensure the creation of new neighbourhoods which are attractive to a diverse range of residents and supportive of the needs of vulnerable people.
The work has been focused on one of the priorities within the council’s housing strategy which is to address our housing need and support our most vulnerable residents through a range of housing options. The end assessment will enable the council to strategically plan for current and future provision more effectively, taking into account the current needs of customers, best practice in housing delivery for meeting these needs and the projected pipeline of demand. The result will be that the council has a sound evidence base from which we can commission.
What we did
The council delivered a phase 1 of a wider accommodation project for ASC users encompassing those with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, mental health and young people transitioning into the service. Whilst the council did its best to deliver against this need, some of the programme resulted in making available properties fit around this need, rather than the needs being the starting point for developing suitable accommodation. This didn’t always lead to optimum results. We also experienced that some models such as shared accommodation within a household setting that didn’t necessarily work for some service users.
The LGA housing advisers report has now given us the information to inform our next pipeline of ASC users, so we can get smarter about how we can deliver to meet the identified need. It has also given us the information we require about best practice and how we could utilise this within the council.
The difference we made
We want to support more people to live independently and keep healthy for longer by offering the right housing options to meet their needs. It is important that we address and manage demand for long term care and maintain high quality services.
Our key outcomes from the report will be to develop and deliver more supported accommodation based on models of best practice, through a better understanding of our pipeline of ASC users. Secondly, the development of strategies and policies around the development and use of housing for vulnerable residents including older residents, through a thorough understanding of the pipeline of need.
We will measure success by monitoring the suitability of future provision for our residents, as informed by the report, both in terms of tenure type and whether availability meets demand. We can engage with our LD clients, for example, to gauge whether new accommodation provision better meets their needs than previously based on their personal experience in their tenures. These ongoing conversations will continue to shape our provision for future need beyond the LGA Housing Advisers report.
An awareness and monitoring of changing demographics will also act as a KPI, to ensure that the provision we envisage continues to reflect the population of Wokingham’s needs.
What's next
Planning for the next phase of our adult social care programme and looking at the range of options available to Wokingham Borough Council, as to how we can be delivered against the projected need identified within the needs assessment report. This next phase will include a cross council collaborative approach with full buy in from the council’s leadership team. The council will also be looking at the financial implications if we do not meet the anticipated need.
Lessons learned
The LGA Housing Advisers report has outlined some of the lessons learnt from phase 1 of the council’s adult social care programme, highlighting issues such as converting existing properties to meet specific needs, whereas new build properties can be purpose designed to meet wheelchair and accessibility standards and built to high fire standards from the outset. Similarly, there were issues in compatibility of residents in allocating shared properties. Going forward the good practice highlighted in the report, such as securing clusters of self contained flats within new build developments, securing delivery of specialist accommodation through RPs and looking for additional opportunities for supported living funding through the White Paper 'People at the Heart of Care' will be incorporated as the council moves into phase 2 delivery plans.