Housing and older people: addressing the need

The recently published Government White Paper (Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), 2021), People at the Heart of Care, sets out a person-centred vision of care, building upon the 2014 Care Act. While being far from perfect, it is perhaps the beginnings of a journey to develop and deliver support and care for those who need it as they age. The three stated objectives of the publication are as follows:

These goals are welcome, and set a high threshold against which any future delivery of support and care can be assessed. Notably, this White Paper acknowledges the importance of the context of people's lives—namely, their home and their community.

The publication of the Social Care Institute for Excellence's (SCIE) report A Place We Can Call Home (King et al, 2021), which investigates the housing needs of those over 65 years of age, is timely. It draws upon the deliberations of the Commission on the Role of Housing in the Future of Care and Support, a group of experts established in October 2020. While people should be supported as far as possible to live in their own homes, the Commission recognised that, for some, this is neither possible nor desirable; nonetheless, people should feel that their place of living is a home, with all its connotations. The Commission recommended that the development of a strategy to increase the availability of quality housing with different care and support options that draws from the experience of older people and those needing support and/or care and other stakeholders, with improved partnership working across the public, voluntary and private sectors, including those developing and building housing and those providing services.