Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Disabled Facilities Grants.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) supports around 50,000 older and disabled people in England each year to adapt their homes to make them safe and suitable for their needs. Adaptations funded through the DFG can reduce emergency admissions to hospital, speed up a return home following a hospital stay and delay, or even prevent, the need for costly residential care in future.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) collects voluntary local authority-level data returns, including information on local DFG delivery, via its DELTA system. Raw data from local authorities is analysed by Foundations, the DLUHC funded national body for DFGs and home improvement agencies. The 2021-22 report on local DFG delivery is available online at the following link:
www.foundations.uk.com/library/dfg-performance/
There is good evidence of the impact and effectiveness of housing adaptations generically, and the DFG specifically. For example, Public Health England’s falls prevention toolkit (2018) compared the impact of different interventions on preventing falls, including exercise classes and home adaptations. It found that adaptations produce significantly higher returns on investment with £1 of investment in home assessment and modification saving £3.17 on health and care costs. If quality of life gains for the individual are considered, savings rise to £7.34 per £1 spent.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the elements surrounding ageing that fall outside of the remit of the Department of Health and Social Care; and what steps they are taking, together with other government departments, to co-ordinate the provision of support for the multi-dimensional aspects of ageing.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
While the work required to protect our older generation stretches across the whole of Government, individual departments take responsibility for the delivery of relevant policies within their jurisdictions. The Department of Health and Social Care has jurisdiction over policy levers that relate to the physical and mental health of the older generation. The Department of Work and Pensions also has a strong role to play in its allocation of pensions and benefits. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has a taskforce that aims to improve the housing options for older people. Furthermore, the Cabinet Office’s Equality Hub leads on the Equality Act 2010, which provides strong protection from age discrimination in a variety of settings.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the remit will be of the Older People’s Taskforce.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The inaugural meeting of the Older People’s Housing Taskforce took place on Tuesday 16t May 2023 at Grace House in St. John’s Wood in London. The press release is available at the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/news/taskforce-to-transform-older-peoples-housing-underway
The taskforce is bringing together experts from across the sector and people with lived experience to make recommendations on how we can provide greater choice, quality, and security of housing for older people.
The panel will meet regularly and focus on overarching themes, including, the needs, preferences and concerns of older people, their families, and their carers, maximising the potential of technology, building design, and regulation to ensure homes are suitable for the future and understanding what needs to happen at the local level to enable progress in increasing the volume and diversity of housing options for older people. The taskforce will run for up to 12 months, producing an independent report to Government when it concludes.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the penultimate bullet point on page 7 of People at the Heart of Care: Adult Social Care Reform White Paper published December 2021 setting out the policy to be implemented within three years of at least £300 million to integrate housing into local health and care strategies, for what reasons this policy was not included in the document Next steps to put People at the Heart of Care A plan for adult social care system reform 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025 Published 4 April 2023; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The health and social care system is facing an acute set of challenges, such as inflation and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Government has rightly considered how best to target resources where they are most needed to ensure value for money for taxpayers, and has therefore decided not to proceed with some white paper proposals at this time.
Ensuring people have the high quality, safe and suitable homes that can help them stay independent and healthy for longer remains key to our vision for Adult Social Care Reform. This is why ‘Next steps to put People at the Heart of Care’ launched the Older People’s Housing Taskforce. The Taskforce will bring together experts from across the sector to make recommendations on how we make sure that older people have a better choice of accommodation to suit their needs and preferences.
In addition to the £573 million for the Disabled Facilities Grant, which is already available in 2023/24 and 2024/25, the ‘Next steps’ publication also announced a further £102 million, with £50 million in 2023/24 and £52 million in 2024/25. Increasing the level of housing adaptation support available in local areas will enable them to fund supplementary services that are agile and help people stay independent, support hospital discharge, and make minor adaptations.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps the Government have taken to (a) reduce the number of people with learning disabilities or autism in psychiatric hospitals, (b) improve the supported housing services available to people with learning disabilities or autism and (c) improve the community mental health services available to people with learning disabilities or autism.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In 2023/24, we are investing an additional £121 million to improve community support for people with a learning disability and autistic people as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, including funding for Children and Young People’s keyworkers.
The Ministerially-chaired Building the Right Support (BtRS) Delivery Board is overseeing implementation of the BtRS Action Plan (2022) which brings together actions across Government and public services to strengthen community support and reduce overall reliance on mental health inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people.
From 2022/23 to 2024/25, we will continue to provide funding to build specialised housing, through the CASSH Fund, for older people and adults with learning disabilities or autism, physical disabilities and mental ill-health. Alongside this, the £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme (2021-2026) includes delivery within the programme for new supported housing.
In addition, the Government is supporting the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Bill, which includes a range of measures intended to improve quality of supported housing. We are investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year in expanding and transforming mental health services in England, including those based in the community, by March 2024. This will allow an additional 2 million people, including people with learning disabilities and autism, to get the mental health support they need.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on launching the taskforce on Older People’s Housing.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care continues to work in partnership with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in preparation for this. The taskforce will bring together experts from across the sector to make recommendations on how we can provide greater choice, quality, and security of housing for older people. Arrangements for the taskforce are still ongoing and further details will be released in due course.
Asked by: Liz Kendall (Labour - Leicester West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many and what proportion of people over 65 years old live in housing with care developments in England.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The department does not hold official statistics on this but the 'English Housing Survey Older people's housing 2020-21' includes data on households headed by an older person aged 65 and over.
Announcements will be made in the usual way.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to take steps to (a) increase protections for owners of leasehold retirement properties and (b) ensure works to those properties are carried out in a timely fashion.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
In the Levelling Up White Paper, we committed to a new taskforce on the issue of older people's housing, which will look at ways we can provide greater choice, quality and security of housing for older people, and support the growth of a thriving older people's housing sector in this country. Arrangements for the taskforce are still ongoing and further details will be released in due course.
The Ground Rent Act came in force on 30 June 2022 for most new residential leases, and from 1 April 2023 this will also apply to retirement leases.
Where retirement housing providers are registered with the Regulator of Social Housing, the Regulator has the role of ensuring that providers are well-managed and are able to meet the regulatory standards.
The Care Quality Commission oversees standards of personal care services in housing-with-care retirement settings irrespective of housing tenure.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the International Longevity Centre UK The Mayhew Review – Future-proofing retirement living: Easing the care and housing crises, published on 1 November; and in particular the recommendation that His Majesty’s Government should aim to build 50,000 new homes for older people each year to address issues in the (1) housing, and (2) social care, sectors.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Ensuring older people have access to the right homes that suit their needs can help them to live independently for longer and feel more connected to their communities.
We announced in the Levelling Up White Paper an older people’s housing taskforce, to explore how we can improve the choice of and access to housing options for older people.
We are continually increasing our understanding of this market, and note the recommendations in Professor Mayhew's recent review alongside contributions from other stakeholders.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Answer to the hon. Member for Christchurch of 21 November 2022, Official Report, column 18, for what reason he feels more sorry for people outside the Christchurch constituency than he does for people within that constituency who are in council tax poverty; and for what reason he feels less sorry for people who are relatively older than those who are not.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Further to the answer given by the Secretary of State, local councils are responsible for setting their own council tax levels. The Government maintains referendum principles to protect all households from excessive council tax increases. The Government has announced our intention to set referendum principles for 2023-24 at 3%, with an additional 2% flexibility for councils with adult social care responsibilities. For those on low incomes, council tax support is available from their council, and the nationally set Pensioner scheme maintains support at the levels of the former Council Tax Benefit, including reductions of up to 100%.