Adult Social Care Accommodation Strategy 2024-2034

Our priorities

The strategy identifies four priorities:

Priority one: promote strength-based approaches to maximising independence and preventing need

Adult Social Care, Housing and New Build teams will work together to shape the general needs housing offer to promote strengths-based approaches and reduce social isolation. The aim will be to enable residents to live in their own home for as long as possible and reduce reliance on institutional forms of care.  

• Strengthen relationships between housing and social care officers including;
  • facilitation of a programme of joint workshops
  • dissemination of referral and escalation routes 
  • alignment in locality-based working between the two departments.
• Adult Social Care will seek opportunities to influence health trusts to provide re-abling support to patients to prevent deconditioning during hospital stays, which can create greater care requirements upon discharge.
• Ensure new build design principles and standards are in line with best practice to ensure that general needs housing and social care accommodation enables independence and adapts to changing need. This includes standards around dementia, learning disability and neurodivergent friendly design, wheelchair access and technology enabling design.
• Shape Disabled Facilities Grants policy according to best practice and promote innovative use of the grants to support people to maintain independence in their home.
• Expand Shared Lives to meet dementia and mental health needs.
• Promote Homeshare to residents who would benefit from low level preventative support.
• Explore opportunities for intergenerational schemes and activities within estates and care settings.
• Are ready for step down or move on. This will ensure that residents are receiving the right support to maximise their independence and to free up accommodation along the pathway for residents with Learning Disabilities and Mental Health needs.

  Priority two: maximising use and potential of existing capacity

• Adult Social Care will review our void management processes and systems to utilise available capacity in the borough and achieve best value for money. We review care plans annually or as needed, in partnership with care providers to proactively identify residents who;
  • Wish to move back to Islington and whose needs can be met in a local service.
  • Are ready for step down or move on. This will ensure that residents are receiving the right support to maximise their independence and to free up accommodation within the Learning Disabilities and Mental Health pathways.
• We will raise awareness about the Resident Support Scheme and improve processes to expedite decision making for those stepping down to accommodation in the community.   
• Adult Social Care will work with Supported Housing services and explore creative contracting opportunities to support the development of more enabling approaches, which promote progression to greater independence.
• When deciding on the best package of care, social care practitioners must balance an individual’s wishes and best interests while making best use of the public purse. Adult Social Care will develop an Affordable Care policy to provide a framework to guide these decisions.
• Capital Delivery and Adult Social Care will work together to identify capital funding opportunities to update council owned buildings to be enabling and climate resilient.
• Adult Social Care will seek funding opportunities to embed assistive technology in accommodation-based care services.
• Housing and Adult Social Care will provide accessible information and advice regarding accommodation options and reassure residents about the quality of services.
• Adult Social Care will work with the Islington Housing Association Partnership to garner commitment to the strategy’s principles. We will maintain open dialogue to share insights and feedback, identifying what works well and how the partners support each other to improve the accommodation offer.
• Community Wealth Building will implement best practice in general needs and specialist housing design to enable residents to maintain independence for as long as possible and remain in their home until end of life.
• Adult Social Care, housing, other social housing providers and care providers will work together to develop creative approaches to allow flexible use of housing to accommodate a resident in situ as their care needs change.   
• Adult Social Care commissioners will review the configuration of beds in Islington’s commissioned care homes to ensure that we are responsive to the increasingly complex needs of the population and respite needs of carers.
• Adult Social Care will work jointly with health colleagues to ensure continued provision of multidisciplinary support for our care homes and Extra Care Housing services to enhance the care and wellbeing of our residents. 
• Adult Social Care commissioners will support care providers to develop their workforce to be more skilled in supporting complex needs, managing behaviours arising from unmet need and caring for older people with learning disabilities.
• Adult Social Care will work with housing and care providers to implement strategies, ensuring services are climate resilient and able to operate in and provide a safe environment for residents receiving care during the more extreme weather conditions we are likely to experience over the coming years.
• Adult Social Care will consult with service users and carers to ensure services are led by principles of inclusivity and accessibility with regards to disability, LGBTQ, and cultural requirements.

Priority three: develop new capacity

• Work is underway to build three new schemes.
  • An 11-bed supported living scheme for people with a primary support need of learning disabilities, due to open in 2024. The scheme will support people with a range of needs including physical and complex needs and behaviours of concern.
  • A 17-bed 24hr supported living scheme will be opening in 2025. The service will provide long term support for adults with complex mental health needs.
  • The construction of a 60-unit Extra Care scheme is underway on the Holloway prison site and is due to open in the autumn of 2027.
• Adult Social Care and Capital Delivery will work together through the Adult Social Care and Estates Steering Group to ensure that decisions about redevelopment of estates consider Adult Social Care need wherever possible, to maximise limited resources to build capacity in borough.
• Adult Social Care and Capital Delivery will work together to identify capital funding opportunities to support new developments.
• Adult Social Care will influence planning principles and ensure we use our section 106 powers.  to maximise potential of building developments. This will help to grow our in-borough capacity for Extra Care Housing and Supported Living accommodation. 
• Community Wealth Building and Adult Social Care will develop governance processes to ensure that Adult Social Care are consulted on developments at planning pre-application stage and are involved in decisions about nominations rights on new developments.
• Adult Social Care will harness opportunities within the framework of the Islington Housing Partnership to; build relationships with housing providers, promote the Adult Social Care vision, and agree shared principles for accommodation in Islington.
• Adult Social Care, housing will explore opportunities with housing and care providers for joint working to coproduce bespoke housing solutions to meet social care needs.
• Adult Social Care will work in partnership with North Central London local authorities to identify sub-regional opportunities to;
  • increase capacity in for complex and specialist health and social care needs including nursing care, complex mental health, autism and multiple disadvantage. 
  • develop a common approach to market management strategies for effective use of resources.
  • share best practice in the development of Extra Care, Supported Living, and care homes.
• Adult Social Care will involve residents and particularly service users and carers in the development of accommodation services, which will meet the care needs of the population. Service design will be led by principles of inclusivity and accessibility with regards to disability, LGBTQ, and cultural requirements.
• Housing and Adult Social Care will identify opportunities to support people who are discharged from hospital and are unable to return home in the short term, to prevent placements into temporary accommodation or placements into residential care which can lead to increased reliance. 

Priority four: develop our evidence base to support service development

Community Wealth Building will use section 106 powers to ensure new buildings are designed with climate change in mind, ensuring residents’ safety and service continuity during extreme weather events.

Accurate information about our services and the residents who use them will continue to help us to develop services that are responsive to the needs of the population now and in the future. 

• Adult Social Care will improve processes to support better data quality. 
• Intelligence from brokers will be harnessed to better understand demand and availability in the local market.  
• Adult Social Care will work with Children’s services to forecast demand for services arising from children transitioning to adulthood, and particularly those young people who have profound and multiple learning disabilities and those with severe mental illness, who are likely to have accommodation needs into adulthood as the capacity of families to support them living at home diminishes.