A letter to the editor
Below is a letter sent to Inside Housing in response to its article, ‘Warden posts depleted', 17-10-08 and published in the magazine on 24-10-08:
The Editor
Inside Housing
One Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London E14 SAP
19 October 2008
Dear Ms Murray,
Your cover story and feature (Inside Housing, 17 October) gave a lot of space and a one sided, sensationalised and negative slant to complex issues relating to sheltered housing. The over simplified approach did not give a voice to those residents who have been pleased with how the changes have improved services; nor properly explained the many reasons for changes to services, some of which precede and are not related to Supporting People.
ERoSH published a position statement in January this year (see www.shelteredhousing.org). We accept that support services need to move away from routine five times weekly visiting but stress that tenants must be properly informed and consulted about proposed changes. Reasons for some providers moving away from resident warden services include: recruitment difficulties in attracting resident wardens; the European working time directive preventing staff being on call at night; low levels of need in some schemes due to historical allocations policies; inequitable work loads; cover difficulties; difficulties in maintaining professional boundaries.
ERoSH is not in favour of models of support that favour only floating support as they fail to capitalise on the potential of sheltered housing schemes as a hub and resource to the wider community. Hub and spoke models, better use of assistive technology (eg. to address access problems and routine checking), a strategic approach to sheltered housing allocations and greatly improved consultation will go some way to address current issues facing sheltered housing tenants. A modern sheltered housing service is about improved, consistent, quality, professional support services - with excellent tenant engagement throughout the change process.
Imogen Parry
Director of Policy, ERoSH
