Modernisation and transformation of housing support services

Shropshire Council provides a range of housing support services for vulnerable people across the county.  These services help to ensure vulnerable people have appropriate housing and can continue to live independently at home.

The services provide help to improve overall well-being and quality of life, and to extend opportunities for vulnerable people to be involved with community life.  Shropshire Council is committed to improving the way these services are delivered, and new proposals could see about 25 per cent more people being able to access support.

Councillor Mal Price, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for housing, said:

“The housing support services in Shropshire currently work with around 4,000 vulnerable people.  We estimate around 1,400 additional vulnerable residents will soon be able to access the services as part of these changes.

“We’ll be approaching these services from a different angle.  Having secure accommodation remains at the heart of housing support, but we also recognise that people live better at home and feel better in themselves when they are involved with the wider community and have social contacts of their own.

“Our one-to-one support will still be provided.  However, we’ll be working more with groups of people, supporting them to form their own networks based more on shared interests and so on. To achieve this, the services will be more flexible in their design and even more tailored around individual goals and aspirations than is currently the case.  Working with small groups also means we’ll be able to work with an increased number of people – a valuable development in these difficult times.”

Many vulnerable people in Shropshire live in private housing, both rented and owner occupied.  The new proposals also aim to increase the proportion of services available for private sector residents.

Housing support organisations are being encouraged to look at more creative and imaginative ways of providing services.  They are being asked to extend and strengthen partnerships with many other organisations in local areas including the voluntary sector, business sector, training and education and agencies helping people into work.  This will ensure that the best use is made of all the resources in any given area.

The proposals detailing the way in which we will do this will be set out in Shropshire’s Modernisation and Transformation of Housing Support Services report that will be presented to Shropshire Council’s Cabinet for approval on Wednesday 13 April 2011.