Online age-friendly housing 'Design Hub'

Online age-friendly housing ‘Design Hub’

Status: Ongoing

Housing Learning and Improvement Network United Kingdom

Print this page City population: 4000018% over 60Practice started in 2011

Summary

The Housing LIN is a sophisticated network bringing together over 40,000 housing, health and social care professionals in England and Wales to exemplify innovative age-friendly housing solutions for older people and people with chronic conditions. For example, well-designed, accessible housing and neighbourhoods that offer an attractive lifestyle choice in later life as well as ‘care ready’ accommodation that can be adapted to meet health and wellbeing needs of people as they age.

Recognised by government and industry as a leading ‘knowledge hub’ on specialized housing, the Housing LIN’s’ go to’ online and regional networked activities:

connect people, ideas and resources to inform and improve the range of housing choices that enable older and disabled people to live independently
curate and provide intelligence on latest age-friendly funding, research, policy and adaptive practice developments, and
raise the profile of specialized housing with developers, commissioners and providers to plan, design and deliver aspirational housing for an ageing population

The Housing LIN’s managing director, Jeremy Porteus, is author of the influential Housing our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation (HAPPI) reports on age-friendly housing for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Care for Older People, including a plan for implementation. This has seen the housing sector adopt the HAPPI design principles as exemplary practice in meeting the housing aspirations of an ageing population. He is also joint author of a forthcoming Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) publication on Age-Friendly Housing as part of their Futures series.

Website: https://www.housinglin.org.uk/Topics/browse/Design-building/

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Other target group(s): Older people with chronic health conditions or disability

Sector(s): Health, Housing, Long-term care, Urban development

Other sector(s): Planners; architects

Desired outcome for older people:
Meet their basic needs

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:

Accessibility
Ageing in place
Dementia
Healthy behaviours (e.g. physical activity)
Intergenerational activities
Inclusion
Participation
Technologies
Other

Other Issues: Planning

Contact details

Name: Porteus, Jeremy

Email address: j.porteus@housinglin.org.uk

Preferred language(s): English

Age-friendly practice in detail (click to expand):

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Civil Society Organisation

Others involved in the project:

Local authorities
Older People’s Association
Social or health care provider
Private sector
Research institution

How collaboration worked: We are widely networked, and coproduction is an essential mechanism to involve members – organising local networking events, undertaking online surveys or holding symposia to capture and share our professional members’ and/or users of services’ experience, research and projects to help shape our age-friendly programmes. For example, work on community-led and housing solutions. We have a modest turnover and rely on ‘crowdfunding’ to maintain our extensive website and activities. This includes grants and donations from like minded organisations that value our unique approach to knowledge exchange.

Older people’s involvement: Older people were involved in the age-friendly practice at multiple or all stages

Details on older people’s involvement: Our practice is underpinned by the principle of ‘CollaborAGE’ which ensures that the engagement and involvement of older people is fundamental to the delivering of age-friendly housing practice.

Moving forward

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: No

Do you plan to evaluate your age-friendly practice? No

Feedback:
Influence: our publications are cited by government as key documents in relevant policy reports and documents. Learning: our events are oversubscribed tenfold Improvement: our case studies showcase the ‘art of the possible’ and encourage others to have the confidence to transform their services Research: the research we have commissioned our participated in highlights the quality of life improvement that age-friendly housing offers

Expansion plans:
We have been commissioned by government, trade and professional bodies to write market reports and good practice tools to enable others to develop their age-friendly approaches. In addition, on the back of these commissions, the Housing LIN has now also been contracted to provide bespoke consultancy to support housing operators and their local authority or health partners to develop their local age-friendly strategies.

Looking back

Reflections:
Age-friendly design is in the DNA of the Housing LIN Issues that we would have liked to be more aware of include: designing for dementia; links with sustainable development, and exploring how to retrofit existing properties so that they are age-friendly.

Challenges:
In recent years, the UK government has amended Building Regulations and the requirements for accessible housing standards; Lifetime Homes Standards are now optional. The HAPPI design principles take an alternative approach and appeal to the design and construction sector to create a desirable brand and quality kitemark that they can market to older consumers or ‘downsizers’.