More than 50 people working in health, social care, housing and related professionals gathered in Maidstone to consider key issues facing the sector and to brainstorm innovative ways in which services can be improved for people living in Kent and Medway.
Organised by the Kent Housing Group (KHG), delegates were addressed by sector leaders before splitting into roundtable sessions to study hot topics facing organisations in the county.
Setting the scene before the roundtable sessions were Vince Maple, Leader of Medway Council and Chair of the ICP; Brian Horton, Chair of Kent Housing Group; Paul Clarke, Public Health Specialist at Kent County Council; Alison Broom, CEO of Maidstone Borough Council; Roger Gough, Leader of KCC; Cedi Frederick, Chair of NHS Kent and Medway; and Kerry Parr, Associate Director of AECOM, which is drafting the evidence base for the new Kent and Medway Housing Strategy.
Following the roundtable discussions (summarised below), the conference discussed identifying next steps, including point of co-operation and collaboration between housing and health, creating a joint action plan with health, agreeing actions and commitments.
How to improve conditions in housing
The group said barriers to improving housing conditions include a shortage of funds and resources, the age of homes, landlords unable to improve their properties, insufficient enforcement resources and a lack of suitable routes to becoming a private rented sector housing officer.
Ideas for addressing the barriers to better housing conditions involve using professional touchpoints for referrals, the implementation of the Renters’ Rights bill, reforming Right to Buy to limit the further reduction of local authority housing, and providing information to tenants and landlords on maintenance of their homes.
Housing for people with disabilities and social care needs
Organisations mentioned the support they provide and some of the challenges, including the collaboration between health and housing sectors in providing personalised care packages for disabled adults and children, palliative care, appropriate education and support for children, administration of Disabled Facilities Grants, and technology support.
There is the acknowledgement of the multiple needs of some disabled people, e.g. those in need of domestic abuse and mental health services. However, there is a shortage of funding to cover increased attendance from district nurses in cases of severe disability. There is also the support for disabled employees including the provision of working equipment etc using Access to Work, and Employee Assistance Programmes for mental health support.
The group mentioned the need for long-term accommodation plans with a community focus, and the importance of mitigating vulnerability, such as around cuckooing. Partnership working can improve support for adults with disabilities by developing integrated approaches for long-term accommodation planning, understanding organisation and systems’ restrictions and strengths, and pooling resources.
Specific examples given were to help manage expectations of social housing, e.g. for care leavers, or providing education for parents around affordable food for their families. Partnerships ensuring developers and architects understand the needs of disabled people and that infrastructure is designed to meet these needs, including designing buildings that meet the needs of neurodivergent people. Learning from other countries with radical thinking were highlighted.
The group said that co-production of housing for disabled people and people with social care needs is crucial.
How can organisations share data to meet the needs of service users
The group shared their projects in data sharing. Maidstone Borough Council’s project aims to predict and prevent mould problems through data sharing, while Golding Homes collects health and family composition data for damp issues, and a linked data set is being developed for Kent and Medway.
Kent, Medway and Sussex are establishing a Secure Data Environment to support academic research, and an aim is that public health analysts will have access to the data. Kent and Medway care record is working well technologically but may be underused and doesn’t have housing data.
A suggestion for a Primary Care Network pilot involving Integrated Care Board beginning with ICB analysts’ query on health characteristics. This would help identify the health issues of GPs’ patients with necessary consents, which housing providers could use to prioritise housing interventions. Barriers were identified such as biased samples and the inability to reach the most at need people, as well as whether this project would be able to use the NHS messaging system.
To overcome data sharing barriers, the group mentioned that understanding the law, legal compliance, obtaining necessary and timely consents, being not averse to risk, and ensuring secure environments are crucial. Sharing data among partners can lead to progress in predicting and preventing housing and health issues but needs careful handling of data privacy and legal concerns.
Creating the right new housing to meeting the needs of the population
Looking at the needs of the population, data provides only a fraction of the information required, highlighting the need to use the available data effectively. We know numbers of households and other data, we have housing needs assessments, strategic market assessments and we should note demographic considerations, such as those in parts of Kent and Medway that are close to London.
Barriers to meeting the needs of the population include the reduced rate of delivery of new homes because of extra costs and infrastructure challenges. There’s a challenge between the costs and what is deliverable. The group mentioned their roles in helping to deliver housing, including good relationships with Homes England, the local authority Local Plan, including private sector standards and the council’s Housing Revenue Account, and clarity on infrastructure.
The Integrated Care Strategy indicates the need to link up and work in collaboration. The group noted the lack of routine connection between health and housing, calling for a multidisciplinary approach, while acknowledging the ‘busy-ness’ that challenges us all.
Addressing homelessness and temporary accommodation
Strategies to identify people at risk of homelessness early include training health visitors, working with ASB and community safety units, building relationships with local landlords, and conducting targeted information campaigns for landlords. There’s also the importance of upstream prevention, a more nuanced approach to homelessness and employing funded posts for intervention in schools to prevent youth homelessness. An example of prevention of homelessness work with families by St Basil’s was shared, emphasising that this is crisis support which is over relied upon.
The group highlighted the need for more joint assessments, consideration of wider determinants like gambling and substance misuse, and the development of a floating support model. Additionally, they mentioned the role of the NHS in addressing homelessness e.g. around delayed discharge of homeless people, along with the need for a joined-up approach with the NHS and councils. There is potential for a community-based workforce which could take a preventative approach.
The main points drawn from the discussion were the need for professional education, and the need for a response plan to address the risk of homelessness.
Housing for older people
Good housing for older people empowers older people to make their own choices. It provides options that support independence for as long as possible in homes that are warm, efficient. Good housing should support social connectivity, so the location is important – not isolated; provide opportunities for older people to work or volunteer locally.
Supporting older people to live in their own homes, (eg by multidisciplinary teams) would help to reduce dependence on residential and nursing care homes, a suggestion on how to achieve this was to spread home support workers from Thanet to the rest of Kent and Medway.
Learn from existing housing developments, what works and want does not work. Repton in Ashford was suggested as a potential model for older people’s housing, and the successful Dutch Hogeweyk Model for dementia-friendly communities was also highlighted.
We have an opportunity to take a coordinated approach to development in high street town centres, to be inclusive of both young and older people. This includes using contributions from s106, repurposing retail and redundant spaces in town centres. This would help create homes appropriate to the needs of older people. Designing new builds which can be reconfigured for the ageing population and helping older people to downsize from larger homes, to make homes available for families. Working collaboratively, we should focus on building/adapting for age-friendly housing and communities co-produced by older people.
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