Council looks at re-shaping support for sheltered housing residents
Councillors meeting next week (15 September) will be asked to support a move to reshape Northampton Borough Council’s sheltered housing service for older people to make it more flexible and responsive to individual needs and make best use of available resources.
The current system of categorising vulnerable people’s support needs into three levels is not flexible enough to deal with the range of support needs sheltered housing residents have nor does it provide a full range of choices to enable independent living, according to the council’s head of strategic housing services Fran Rodgers. She argues that better joint working needs to be undertaken to co-ordinate the provision of support services to older people with other agencies, in particular health and the county council’s adult care services. She also calls for the service to make better use of emerging technology.
Members of the council’s cabinet will be asked to discuss the recommendations for reshaping the service whilst taking into account the significant financial constraints the council faces and the uncertainty around future funding for support related services.
Fran Rodgers said: “Sheltered housing residents have a range of expectations about the services they receive. The decision to remove resident wardens in 2000 has remained an issue for some residents whilst others require little in the way of practical support to continue to live independently. It is clear that many receive services from a range of organisations and there is great potential for the council to work smarter and more effectively by co-ordinating activity between partners and sharing a number of common standards such as assessment frameworks and referral mechanisms.
“There are significant opportunities to improve services despite the economic challenges ahead. The purpose of this review is to maximise the opportunities to develop services for older people that deliver positive outcomes for our residents and that are sustainable in the longer term.”
If approved by the cabinet, a specialist organisation independent of the council will be appointed to consult with residents on the proposals. As part of the consultation they will also be asked for their views on the suitability of schemes for continued use as sheltered housing, whether they would be prepared to pay for certain services and how to maximise the use of sheltered housing community rooms.
Posted by: Northampton Borough Council
