Supported Housing Task and Finish Group Summary Report

10. Recommendations

10.1 For Scottish Government:

• Adopt a policy that consolidates the role and aspirations for supported housing as defined in this report.
• Review where the AHSP can create opportunities for capital funding to be reinvested in the reprovisioning or refurbishment of existing supported housing and supplement this scope with a grant programme.
• Create a discretionary fund to ensure that people who want to ‘earn or learn’ are not prevented by the funding mechanisms from doing so anymore.
• Launch and support a joint leadership network for the heads of HSCPs, councils and housing associations. We need collective leadership for integrated planning and commissioning around core elements of housing, health and social care, including supported housing, prevention duties, Housing First and complex care.
• Reclassify supported housing as a settled housing option into which a local authority can discharge their homeless duty in specific circumstances and providing it meets specific standards.
• Underpin the local strategic assessment of housing support needs introduced in the Housing (Scotland) Bill with a standardised tool to identifying support needs at the person-level and at the local area level.
• The new guidance for local authorities and partners to undertake a strategic assessment of housing support needs in their area should include the 2-5% guide range for supported housing recommended in this report.
• Use the fuller framework of the proposals for a National Care Service to examine and to remove the limitations that current funding arrangements for supported housing place on people’s lives and aspirations.

10.2 For local authorities and health and social care partnerships:

• Develop a joint strategic plan that bridges RRTP and HSCP strategic and delivery plans, is based on a local strategic assessment of supports needs and involves delivery partners in housing associations and third and independent sectors. Plans should embrace innovation in joint planning, commissioning and delivery and include the 2-5% guide range for supported housing described in this report.
• Adopt a progressive funding model of affordable rent to cover housing related costs alongside adequate funding through the general local authority fund, housing support and HSCP funding to cover care and support costs.
• Adopt ethical commissioning and procurement practices and longer-term contracts with delivery partners in housing associations and across the third and independent sectors.

10.3 For housing and support providers:

• Consider the extent to which what is currently provided meets the future role of supported housing described in this report and what could be remodelled or reprovisioned to be structured around a human rights approach.
• Work with the local authority and HSCP on an integrated plan for supported housing in your area, contributing to a strategic assessment of housing support needs and assessment of supported housing provision.
• Safeguarding is a significant factor for all forms of shared or congregate housing; balancing safety with autonomy and choice is inherently challenging in communal settings, but aspiring to do this well must be a core component.