'One-size-fits-all sheltered housing is no longer an option,' says ERoSH
ERoSH has published a position statement in response to growing pressure from its members and trustees to be more transparent about its views on a range of issues impacting the sector.
In the statement, ERoSH says that it can no longer exclusively defend a 'one-size-fits-all' model of sheltered housing that is so common with many traditional schemes and says that providers should be moving towards delivering services that are needs-led - where support planning is used to determine preferred and needed frequency, duration and type of contact by support staff - if they are not doing so already.
Commenting on the statement, Imogen Parry, ERoSH's Director of Policy and one of the architects of the document, said: "The practice by some providers of delivering routine five times weekly visiting or intercom call to all tenants in a sheltered housing scheme is becoming increasingly unsustainable because of funding squeezes and older people’s changing expectations. More attention has to be paid therefore to what tenants want, when they want it and what they want out of the service.
"Sheltered housing is under considerable pressure. There are increasing tensions between traditional allocations criteria for sheltered housing and the Supporting People requirement that support funding is based on those with support needs. ERoSH encourages partnership working between Supporting People commissioning bodies, sheltered housing support providers and existing tenants to develop allocations policies that reconcile this tension."
ERoSH is also making public its support for the 'hub and spoke' model of sheltered housing which uses a scheme or collection of schemes as a resource or hub for the wider community; where teams of staff can be based to deliver floating and other types of support and preventative services to those living in the scheme and to those in the community. A wide range of scheme based social, educational and health related activities can be developed in partnership with other agencies – these include exercise classes, computer training, falls prevention and malnutrition screening.
ERoSH has distributed its position statement to a list of stakeholders and partners, including officials at the Department for Communities and Local Government and the National Housing Federation. It intends to start compiling a database of different sheltered housing models so that more can be understood about the different types of services currently available.
