Older People's Housing Advisory Group minutes: June 2017
Minutes of the Older People's Housing Strategy Monitoring and Advisory Group on 22 June 2017
Attendees and apologies
- Moira Bayne, Housing Options Scotland
- Julia Fitzpatrick, Horizon Housing Association
- Helen Murdoch, Hanover (Scotland) Housing Association
- Ronald Ritchie, Tenant Representative
- John Wood, COSLA
- Jim Eadie, Age Scotland
- Katie McBride, West Lothian Council
- Keith Geddes, obo McCarthy and Stone
- Anne Grove, Scottish Government
- Hannah Davidson, Scottish Government
- Catriona MacKean, Scottish Government
- Angela O’Brien, Scottish Government (Chair)
- Margaret Irving, Scottish Government (Minutes)
- Dawn Woodward, Housing Operations Manager, Trust Housing - Part
Items and actions
1. Welcome, introductions and apologies
We have apologies from: Robert Thomson, Care and Repair Scotland; Marian Reid, CIH; Amanda Britain, ihub; Heather Noller, Carers Trust; Glenda Watt, SOPA; Ian Glover, Scottish Government; David Fotheringham, Scottish Government.
Angela welcomed new members to the group and asked for any other items for the Agenda
2. Housing with Care development - Impact on delayed discharge
Dawn Woodward, Housing Operations Manager Trust Housing gave a presentation on the Trust Housing delayed discharge project.
Questions followed picking up on the prevention aspect of housing with care (HWC); the benefits to health and social care integration; importance of building relationships, flexibility of provision; cost savings and preventing hospital admissions.
Helen noted that Hanover, Trust and Bield produced Social Return on Investment on adaptations. Angela said Scottish Government had supported this work and that there was information to support this housing model elsewhere in the UK such as the Housing Lin website.
Helen said that moving from a care home to sheltered housing had a number of benefits. Older people were more independent, didn’t need as much medication, had improved self-esteem and dignity. They also tended to live in HWC longer than if they were in a care home. Angela noted that if it was a social rented property the tenant also benefitted from the security of a Scottish Secured tenancy.
Dawn agreed to provide a copy of the research document and this would be sent out to members along with a copy of the slides. The group thanked Dawn for a very interesting and informative presentation.
3. Minutes of last meeting (28 February 2017)
Angela asked the group if they had any changes to make to the last minutes. No amendments were raised and the minutes will now be added to the Scottish Government web pages.
4. Age, Home and Community – 5 Years On – A Refreshed Strategy
Angela explained that the delay in publication had been due to the two pre-election periods before the local government and UK government elections. Ministers had used this time to rethink the future plans for the Strategy. The intention now is to publish a review of the first five years of the Age, Home and Community strategy and strategy focused on outcomes and actions will be forthcoming in Autumn. It means that COSLA will have appointed a spokesperson. John confirmed that new office bearers will be in place by the end of June.
The Strategy will cover priorities for deliver and set out the relevant timeframes. The later publication of the strategy will mean it has the opportunity to cover new research on housing and dementia and work on manifesto commitments including on developing options for older owners at the lower end of the market, will be more advanced.
Julia mentioned that Link had shared equity and social renting opportunities for older people and it was the two bed properties that sold first. Moira mentioned that many home owners were interested in moving into the rented sector as it removed the responsibility for maintaining a house and garden. It was agreed that there is a need for a mix of housing models and costs.
Angela confirmed that there will be an opportunity for the group to contribute. We will share the review document with group prior to publication but expect it will have similar content to the existing refreshed strategy.
The group were content with this plan of action and Angela asked the group to consider ideas for a joint SG/COSLA launch.
5. Research Grant Horizon Housing Association
Horizon Housing Association, Housing Options Scotland and the University of Stirling received funding from Disability Research on Independent Living & Learning (DRILL) for Match Me which is about the allocation of adapted social housing for an 18 month project. It will follow disabled applicants at various stages of the housing process. It will be coproduced with disabled researchers and be participative. Julia said that Horizon undertook a scoping study which although not exclusively older people, did include older couples, grandparents adopting a disabled child, patients coming out of hospital. In total about 40% of subjects will be over 60.
Angela said that the second Disabled People’s Annual Summit which took place in December 2016 and focussed on housing, has just published its report of the event which will be available on line. Julia noted that Horizon have just commissioned an update of their Mind the Step publication which is about housing needs of wheelchair users.
Action: Julia will send the link to the scoping study
6. Care and Repair Introducing Care & Repair Clients to a Digital World – Video
Action – Margaret to send link and briefing to the group
7. Updates Adapting for Change Hannah Davidson reminded the group of the Ministerial commitment to evaluate the Adapting for Change test sites. This has been a complex evaluation which is almost at a final report stage. In addition to the main evaluation report we will produce a research findings document which we hope to publish later in the summer. Angela commented that the findings will be taken forward with another manifesto commitment about developing guidance on timescales for the installation of adaptations.
I-hub
Angela provided an update on behalf of Amanda. The team who have been supporting the adapting for change sites have been sharing practical learning with front line staff and with strategic leads on health, social care and housing to help overall understanding.
As yet i-hub has not identified a replacement for Amanda and this is on-going. Angela mentioned SG is considering the housing guidance note and the need to update it for Housing Contribution Statement. The majority of Local Authorities do not acknowledge the need for housing for the growing number of people diagnosed with dementia. Helen mentioned that Hanover are taking proactive action when refurbishing properties i.e. if renewing the bathroom, they are putting in shower rooms. Angela noted the need to have a robust record of adaptations for all local authority and RSL
Health and Social Care Integration
A written update will be sent out to the group.
Supported Accommodation
Angela said that welfare benefit funding for supported accommodation will be delegated to SG from April 2019 and we are working with stakeholders to establish how best to manage this process.
8. Date of next meeting We will contact the group to decide on a further meeting of the group in advance of the Strategy publication.
Housing and Independent Living June 2017
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