About

Residents in general needs housing are presenting with increasingly complex and changing support needs. This raises questions about how landlords identify and respond to vulnerability and what they can reasonably provide themselves.

This session will explore how providers are adapting their approach to vulnerability in practice — from identification through to response — including what landlords can reasonably provide themselves and where health and other partners need to step in. It follows the AHN Breakfast Briefing with the Housing Ombudsman, where he highlighted growing concern around how effectively the sector is responding to these issues.

The discussion will entail:

• Identifying changing needs: How organisations are recognising vulnerability, particularly less visible needs such as mental health and indicators of domestic abuse, and responding as residents’ needs change over time.
• Adapting services and supporting colleagues: What providers are doing differently to respond to additional needs within general needs housing, and how frontline colleagues across housing management, repairs and complaints are being equipped to respond consistently.
• Creating a joined-up response: How information and responsibility are shared across teams, where responses break down in complex or repeat cases, and what different service models are doing to overcome organisational silos.
• Defining the landlord’s role: What landlords can reasonably provide themselves, where specialist support is needed, and how housing providers can respond effectively without overstepping into health or social care responsibilities.
• Working across housing and health: How housing providers can work with Public Health, healthcare, local authorities and community partners to support residents with additional needs, address wider health inequalities and build more effective pathways between services.

Throughout the discussion, speakers will share what they are doing differently in practice, what is working, and what others across the sector can learn from emerging approaches.