Housing with Care and Interim Care

Housing with care improvement priorities

The main priorities for the service are:

• checking the consistency of all service user documents and ensuring health-related support needs are accurately recorded
• checking the quality of all service user documents and making sure all care plans are co-produced with service users, relatives, friends and colleagues from health and social care services, and written in a person-centred way
• embedding the new quality assurance framework to make sure the service has systems in place to identify and address any issues quickly and effectively. This includes ensuring that the CQC are notified of incidents without delay
• we are in the process of recruiting permanent staff to ensure that we are able to provide consistent care and support to service users
• continuing to support staff through training and supervision to apply new skills and best practice to the delivery of care for service users
• engaging with service users, relatives and friends through regular forums and other methods of communication, and continuing our co-production groups with service users, relatives and staff. In particular, we want to ensure that service users, relatives and friends have channels to provide feedback
• exploring better digital systems for managing service user files

There are many advantages for residents choosing housing with care. These include:

• self-contained flats each having its own bathroom, living space, bedroom and kitchenette.  Some schemes have accommodation available for couples
• all schemes benefit from communal gardens and indoor areas
• residents have the option to socialise in the communal areas with other residents and join in with coordinated activities
• residents will have an assured tenancy or an assured shorthold tenancy. This means they have certain rights under housing law as a tenant
• residents can enjoy having friends and family visit within the comfort of their own home
• the schemes provide a safe, supportive environment that promotes independent living

Care and support is delivered on an individual basis in accordance with respective care plans.

Ten schemes have care staff on site 24 hours a day to provide additional care, support or assistance whilst 4 are non 24-hour schemes, with an on-site staff presence between approximately 7.30am to 9pm, dependant on the service user needs.

Housing with care workers will support service users in need of assistance with daily activities. For example, they can help with:

• personal care
• meal preparation
• medication
• laundry
• shopping

Because we aim to help service users to remain as independent as possible, we’ll give residents time to do what they can for themselves and support them with the things they want us to or can’t manage.

Housing support

Housing support workers are on site during weekdays offering support with:

• tenancy related matters
• accessing services such as arranging repairs, claiming benefits, dealing with security or neighbour problems
• finding out about local activities and other services

There are 4 main charges that you will be responsible for paying.  These are:

• rent charge
• service charges
• supporting people charge
• care charge

Rent

The rent is charged by the housing association who will be your landlord.

If a tenant is eligible for housing benefit then this is used to pay the rent element of your charges.

The scheme’s housing support team will help transfer your housing benefit payments or make a new claim if you have not claimed before.

If the tenant isn’t eligible for housing benefit, the rent must be paid in full by you.

Service charge

The service charge is set by the housing association / landlord and is paid by you to the landlord (please note that housing benefit does not always cover the service charge element of the charges).

It includes the cost of lighting, water, gas and some maintenance of the building.

This charge varies in each supported housing scheme and it is based on a yearly cost, payable weekly with the rent charge.

Care charge

It is likely that a tenant may be charged for the care element of their housing with care, based on their financial circumstances.

See more information on care charges.

Decisions regarding eligibility for housing with care will be based on three care banding levels:

• low
• medium
• high

All referrals:

• will be ordinarily resident in Hackney
  will have eligible care and support needs under the Care Act

Low

People in this band:

• are socially isolated and would benefit from living in a scheme where there is the opportunity for communal engagement
• have a health condition / age-related infirmity with clear indications that support needs will increase over time
  will benefit from monitoring and social contact which provides security and reassurance
• need prompting / supervision or some assistance with personal care needs including shopping / meal preparation / prompting with medication

Hours of care will not be the deciding factor but, as a guide, people falling into this category are likely to require up to 7 hours per week of planned care.

Medium

People in this band:

• are socially isolated and would benefit from living in a scheme where there is the opportunity for communal engagement
• will benefit from monitoring and social contact which provides security and reassurance
• may experience episodes of anxiety or distress that responds to reassurance.
  need supervision / assistance with personal care / shopping/meal preparation / prompting with medication / domestic tasks
  may have moderate cognitive impairment that requires supervision and monitoring.

Hours of care will not be the deciding factor but, as a guide, people falling into this category are likely to require between 7 -14 hours per week of planned care.

High

People in this band will:

• are socially isolated and would benefit from living in a scheme where there is the facility for communal engagement
  require a significant  level of assistance with personal care and shopping, meal preparation, medication and domestic tasks
• may require the support of 2 staff for transfers/personal care
  may require support with eating/drinking
• may have a cognitive impairment that requires supervision or prompting/assistance and monitoring

Hours of care will not be the deciding factor but, as a guide, people with high needs are likely to require between 14.5-21 hours per week of planned care

Note: Any referrals to only address a housing need are not appropriate and consideration should instead be given to an application for housing under the choice based letting system.

Who wouldn’t be eligible for housing with care?

• people who are not ordinarily resident Hackney
• people whose health needs cannot be met by community health services

Individuals entering interim care will be in the following circumstances:

• waiting for a permanent housing solution following discharge from hospital
• need an enabling intervention to regain skills prior to returning home
• for the place of safety flat they will need accommodation and care for a maximum period of 72 hours with the intention that this time is used to make alternative arrangements

Referrals to this service are only accepted from social work teams.