Publication - Strategy/plan
Age, home and community: a strategy for housing for Scotland's older people 2012-2021
A strategy for providing housing and housing-related support for older people in Scotland.
ANNEX A: SUMMARY OF COMMITMENTS
| Chapter 3: Clear strategic leadership | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Through this strategy, we are setting out what we want to achieve for older people's housing and housing-related support, along with a national framework for delivery, focusing on increasing alignment between housing, health and social care. |
| 2 | We will engage with, and take account of the views of, older people, in the development of policy initiatives which affect them. |
| 3 | We will continue to work with local authorities, health boards and Community Planning Partnerships to support greater integration of needs assessment and strategic planning at local level. |
| 4 | We have established the £70 million Change Fund for Older People's Services to support the innovations in services which help older people to live independently at home. We will increase funding to £80 million in 2012-13 and work to increase access to the Fund for housing. |
| 5 | We will develop a central reference website of providers of housing and support for older people and their remits, for use by organisations seeking local partners. |
| 6 | We will identify the case for investment in housing and related support to achieve the outcomes we are seeking for reshaping care for older people. This would bring together evidence of the impact achieved in relation to particular aspects of different support services. |
| Chapter 4: Information and advice | |
| 7 | We will examine services which provide information and advice on housing and support for older people, taking account of existing advice provision to ensure the best use is made of information about the opportunities available to older people. |
| 8 | We will continue to publicise existing sources of information, such as the House Key, the Care Information Service, the Age Scotland Helpline, Citizens Advice Bureaux and Citizens Advice Direct. |
| 9 | We will review and, where necessary, develop online information on housing and support for older people on the House Key website. |
| 10 | We will work with local authorities to pilot the housing options approach for older people and, if successful, promote its implementation more widely across Scotland. |
| 11 | We will encourage organisations providing information and advice to older people to gain accreditation under the Scottish National Standards for Information and Advice Providers. |
| Chapter 5: Better use of existing housing | |
| 12 | Through the Adaptations Working Group, we will consider whether there is a need for fundamental change to the funding and delivery of housing adaptations, so that they provide the best outcomes for those who need them. |
| 13 | We will review the disability adaptations elements of the Scheme of Assistance to assess whether changes are required, pending any more fundamental change in the delivery of adaptations across all housing tenures. |
| 14 | We will continue to support the development of a register of accessible housing by Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living, to help disabled people across Scotland to find homes that are suitable for them. |
| 15 | We will support the improvement of housing quality, so that housing in the social rented sector meets the Scottish Housing Quality Standard by April 2015 and the new climate change standard by 2020. |
| 16 | We will support the extension of information and advice on housing options to help home owners to find reliable tradespeople to undertake repairs and maintenance, including through the development of trusted traders schemes. |
| 17 | We will undertake an urgent Review of the Fuel Poverty Strategy, in the light of increases in fuel prices. We will also take forward the Warm Homes Fund and continue to develop the Energy Assistance Package. These measures will help older people to maintain a comfortable and warm home environment. |
| 18 | We will encourage all social landlords, both local authority and housing association, to build on the experience of those landlords that have introduced packages of support and assistance for older people to move to more suitable properties. |
| 19 | We will re-shape and, if necessary, extend, existing services, so that older people, whatever their housing circumstances, have the opportunity to access information and advice about their housing, support and care options. The importance of information and advice has been a recurring feature across the Reshaping Care programme, and older people have made it clear to us that they want more information and advice which is relevant to their individual circumstances to help them make decisions. |
| 20 | We will explore the feasibility of and, if appropriate, support the development of services operating as social enterprises, which support older people in looking for a suitable home and in making the move. |
| 21 | We will prepare a practical guide to the redevelopment of existing sheltered housing to provide a varied and flexible range of supported housing for older people. This will be prepared as a priority in recognition of the immediate issues for social landlords who have sheltered housing, which is no longer fit for purpose or which could be used more effectively. |
| 22 | We will provide practical advice about the development of supported housing, the issues to be addressed and ways to do this. This will include ways to achieve an integrated package of funding for both construction work and service provision. We will support the objective within the wider Reshaping Care programme to put in place arrangements so that we make best use of resources from all sources ( e.g. NHS, local authorities and benefits) to meet individual support needs. |
| 23 | We will consider whether there are ways of, and benefits to, developing financial products that are more attractive. |
| 24 | We will consider the potential for new mixed or flexible tenure arrangements, which support national policy objectives and help individuals better to achieve the personal outcomes they seek. |
| Chapter 6: Preventative support services | |
| 25 | We will publicise and extend understanding of the role, contribution and benefits of housing support services, particularly in relation to their value for money. We already have evidence of these benefits, but we are aware that more is required if older people and those commissioning services are to be convinced of the importance of investment in this area, particularly when public resources are stretched. We will use the evidence we have about the effectiveness of housing support services, together with additional information which becomes available, to inform the preparation of the 'business case' for housing, which is being taken forward as part of our work to improve strategic leadership. |
| 26 | We will explore the feasibility and, if appropriate, support the development of services operating as social enterprises, which are income generating, to provide housing support and potentially other services. Public funding cannot provide housing support for all older people who would benefit from it, so we need to find ways to offer services which older people trust and consider to be value for money. Our assessment of the potential for different business models may also be relevant to providing older people with support in moving home, and the provision of handyperson and small repairs services, including by housing associations and organisations such as Care and Repair. |
| 27 | We will assess the role of social landlords in providing handyperson type repairs as part of their landlord responsibilities, in areas where these services are not available. We know social landlords recognise the difficulties that older people face and help where they can, but we also know that there are financial pressures facing landlords. Landlords have an obvious role to play, as they are in contact with tenants and other household members who are vulnerable. |
| 28 | We will look at options for extending the role of Care and Repair and businesses operating as social enterprises, to include handyperson type services. |
| 29 | We will identify the role currently played by housing providers, particularly the social rented sector, in building capacity and supporting social networks for older people and the potential for extension of this role. We intend to publicise case illustrations, giving examples of social landlords working with local communities to support older people. |
| 30 | We will continue to develop telecare and telehealthcare through the Change Fund for Older People's Services and local partnerships. The Scottish Government is also committed to driving forward and utilising the benefits of telecare through the £10 million Delivering Assisted Living Lifestyles at Scale ( DALLAS) programme, which will further develop and extend telecare services across Scotland. |
| Chapter 7: New build housing | |
| 31 | We are discussing with stakeholders how to deliver a forward programme of new housing, which continues to achieve high rates of leverage and also allows local authorities and housing associations to plan ahead with confidence. We will seek to ensure that the needs of older people and disabled people are appropriately reflected in the new programme. |
| 32 | We will work to increase awareness of the features of new housing that are important to older people and how they can be built into new developments. |
| 33 | We will work closely with public and private sector housing providers to review whether current building and design standards meet the needs of older people and others with particular needs in our communities. |
| 34 | We will encourage the development of new models of housing with care and support in all tenures, which help older people to maintain independent living in the community. |
Contact
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government St Andrew's House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
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