The Older People’s Housing Champions Group, working in partnership with Care & Repair England has published Planning Ahead: Influencing local planning on housing and ageing.

The new guide provides an overview of the planning system and potential opportunities to influence the homes and neighbourhoods being planned and built, particularly regarding making good inclusive places to live as people get older. It also contains a practical example of how High Peak Access Group influenced the Local Plan.

It is aimed at local older people’s groups and forums and draws on the experience of members of the older people’s housing champions network and representatives from the Town and Country Planning Association.

The Older People’s Housing Champions  would love to hear from you if you are taking any local action on housing and ageing.

Website: www.housingactionblog.wordpress.com
Email: housingchampionsnetwork@gmail.com

Following presentations on Universal Credit and Housing Benefit at the Scheme Manager/Wardens Seminar (Tuesday 25th September 2018), it became clear that some Local Authorities did not understand that the Weekly Maintenance Contribution equates to a rent (paid by a private tenant).  This has led to problems with residents claiming Housing Benefit and Universal Credit.

The Almshouse Association will be highlighting this issue to both national and local government but should any Almshouse Charity face similar problems they should direct the Local Authority to:

The Housing Finance Act 1972 – ‘Extension of the Allowance Scheme to Almspeople’

This is quoted below:

“Regulations made under Section 19A of the 1972 Act.  Joint Circular 107/75 Appointed Day

2.  The Housing Rent and Subsidies Act 1975 (Allowances for Almspeople) Appointed Day Order 1975 (SI1975 No 1565) bring almspeople within the scope of allowances schemes on 17 November 1975.

3.  Regulations which have been made under Section 19A of the 1972 Act (hereinafter referred to as “the regulations”) modify and adapt existing provisions of Part II and Schedules 3 and 4 of the Act, together with the various instruments (principally directions) made thereunder, so as to meet the special circumstances of almspeople.

4.  The general modifications specified in Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the regulations relate to the substitution of terminology applicable to almspeople for that applicable to private tenants of rented accommodation (eg “almsperson” for “tenant”, “weekly maintenance contribution” for “weekly rent” etc).  In some instances it has been necessary either to make more substantial alternations to the existing provisions or to disapply them specifically in relation to almspeople.”

In summary of the above, Weekly Maintenance Contributions required to be paid by an almsperson equates to a rent (paid by a private tenant).

We understand that all new applicants for Housing Benefit will now fall under the Universal Credit scheme and existing claimants will be migrated to Universal Credit over the next 5 years.  There is a lot of useful information about Universal Credit at the following:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-and-you/universal-credit-and-you-a

At the recent Trustees and Clerks Seminar held  at the Bristol and Anchor Almshouse Charity on Tuesday 19^th June 2018,  charity members received training on a number of topics, including The Application and Appointment Process, Managing Challenging Situations with Residents, Fire Safety and Data Protection.

As many are aware, there have been a number of changes to General Data Protection Regulations this year and to assist charities with compliance, we invited a company called Protecture, which has a team of data protection experts, to attend our seminar, give a presentation on GDPR and answer members’ questions. They have kindly given us permission to post their presentation on our website which can be accessed by clicking here.

More information on Protecture can be obtained by visiting their website at  https://protecture.org.uk/

The Almshouse Association has produced a model policy and guidance notes which can be accessed by clicking on the links.

Important Note: The products and services of third parties should be compared with others in the market place

The Almshouse Association held the 67^th Annual General Meeting on 13^th June 2018 at The Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, Merchant Taylors’ Hall, 30 Threadneedle Street, London. There was an excellent turnout with the Almshouse Association staff greeting over 130 attendees.

Our Chair, Mrs Elizabeth Fathi welcomed representatives of almshouse charities, Associate Members and guests and representatives of the National Association of Almshouses Common Investment Fund (NAACIF). Mrs. Fathi then introduced Mr. Duncan Eggar, the Chairman of the Housing and Care Committee of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, representing the Master, who welcomed everyone to the Hall and spoke of the exciting new almshouse development which will be opened this summer.

Mrs. Fathi thanked Mr. Eggar and the Merchant Taylors for generously hosting the meeting, following which she delivered the Chairman’s Report. The Association’s Assistant Director, Sue Turner followed by giving a résumé of the projects which had been short-listed by the Patron’s Award Committee. Mrs. Fathi then announced that Amersham United Charities, Shrewsbury Draper’s Almshouses and The Davenport Homes, West Midlands would receive 2017 Patron’s Awards and it was hoped these would be presented by HRH The Duke of Gloucester later in the year.

Special Resolution

By way of a special resolution , the draft Articles of Association circulated with the Annual General Meeting Notice dated 10 May 2018 were approved by a large majority and adopted as the new Articles of Association of the Charity in substitution for and to the exclusion of all existing Articles of Association of the Charity.

Election of Board Members (Directors/Trustees)

Following the passing of the above resolution and the adoption of the up-dated Articles of Association, under Articles 33 and 40 it was confirmed that Trustees would remain in office until the third Annual Meeting following their most recent appointment or re-appointment. Accordingly the following Trustees due to retire submitted themselves for re-election and were duly re-appointed:

• Dr. M Aldridge (Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire) proposed by Mr. A Martin (Yardley Great Trust) and seconded by Mrs. D Hoy (King Edward VI & Revd. J. Prime Charity)
• Mr R.C.F. Waite (Cambridgeshire & Norfolk) proposed by Mr. A. Sedgwick (Lady Anne Windsor Charity) and seconded by Miss L. Clayton (Thomas Philipot’s Almshouse Charity

Mr. B. Gulland and Mr. C. Huntley, who were stepping down as members of the Board, were thanked by the Chair for their past service and commitment.

Key Note Address

Mrs Elizabeth Fathi introduced the speaker, Professor C. Phillipson, Professor of Sociology and Social Gerontology, Manchester University, who spoke of the positive aspects of ageing and then took questions from the floor. A transcript of his speech is available here

Next Annual General Meeting

The Chairman announced that the next Annual General meeting would take place as part of a conference on Wednesday, 5^th June 2019 at the Haberdashers’ Hall, 18 West Smithfield, London EC1A 9HQ.

Post AGM

After the AGM, everyone got the chance to catch up and enjoy the glorious weather in the beautiful surroundings of the Merchant Taylors’ Hall, which was followed by a delicious afternoon tea.

The Almshouse Association would like to take this opportunity to once again thank Mr. Eggar and the Merchant Taylors for generously hosting the meeting, our speakers, trustees, member charities and guests for their continued support and commitment to the almshouse movement. We are greatly looking forward to next year’s AGM which will be incorporated into an Almshouse Conference which we are sure is going to prove to be a popular event on the Almshouse Association members’ calendar.

Speech by Prof. Chris Phillipson, Professor of Sociology and Social Gerontology, The University of Manchester at the 67^th The Almshouse Association Annual General Meeting on 13^th June 2018 at The Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, Merchant Taylors’ Hall, 30 Threadneedle Street, London.

 The Future of Ageing Populations: Managing Diversity and Inequality

I very much appreciate this invitation to address the AGM and I would like to pay tribute to the remarkable work undertaken by the members of the Association in supporting older people living in the community. Just to summarise my own background: I have been involved in research on older people since the 1970s, working as a sociologist on different projects relating to family and community care, work and retirement, and more recently how we develop age-friendly cities and communities.

Looking back on this work from the vantage point of 2018 I have a feeling of, yes, much has been achieved in better support for older people but on the other hand there is also a sense of real crisis which is affecting some groups of older people and which I am sure is echoed in some aspects of your own work. Let me just set out some issues and dimensions of current challenges but more positively some responses which I think we can make.

First, population ageing is of course the fundamental context for your work: The number of people aged 65+ is projected to rise by over 40 per cent over the next couple of decades to around 16 million. By 2040, nearly one in four people in the UK (24.2%) will be aged 65 or over. For myself as a sociologist, what is more striking though – and which will be very important for your own work – is that this will be a much more diverse population than has historically been the case:

Diverse in terms of attitudes towards ageing with people searching for more ambitious lifestyles in later life; diverse in terms of the transitions which people experience – no longer education/work/and then retirement – but much greater flexibility and multiple stages across the life course; diversity in income – presently taking couples the poorest fifth have £224 a week compared with the richest at £911 a week: and this gap is of course widening as inequalities increase in our society; and diversity in social characteristics – especially in respect of gender, ethnicity, and social relationships more broadly. So thinking about ageing – and who older people are – is now much more complex, with great differences within groups of older people as much between older people and other generations.

So, we all recognise the importance of this changing population, yet the reality is that as a House of Lords enquiry (Ready for Ageing?) reported in 2013, we are still largely ‘unprepared’, as final report put it, for an ageing population. You will know from your own experience the current crisis in social care, but the figures are striking: whilst the number of older people has been growing local councils have seen a 26 reduction in their budgets since 2009/10. Over the period 09/10 to the past year, the average spend on social care fell by 13 per cent; again over this period, 400,000 fewer older people were receiving social care as the eligibility criteria was tightened in response to fewer resources.

And of course the reality on the ground is: lengthy waits for assessment; disjointed services; huge pressures in carers; and a crisis in the quality of care. The latest report from the Association of Directors of Social Services suggests that three-quarters of councils are proposing further cuts in the services they provide, with one half proposing further increases in charges associated with home and forms of care.

Now my argument is that at present we are completely stuck in terms of responding to this situation: we have moved from the world of the welfare state of the 1960s and 1970s – which for all its imperfections was starting to provide a framework of support; through to the world of privatisation but realising now that this cannot provide the essential and secure support which people at periods of great vulnerability need: the closure of residential homes, and continuing problems in ensuring quality in home care illustrating this point.

So we have to have a debate now about where we move to in respect of care for older people: what kind of future do we want to construct in response to the current situation? This seems to me a debate which the Association needs to have and to influence along with many other groups. Let me in offer just a few thoughts from my own work.

First, I think it continues to remain important to thinking about ageing in more positive way and challenging negative stereotypes. There has been a disturbing development in terms of debates and reports which focus on intergenerational conflict and older people as a burden on younger generations when the reality of course is continued reciprocity – financial and social – across generations. And ageism – systematic discrimination against older people – continues to be a real issue, as a report published last week by the Royal Society of Public Health illustrated: so, there is an important task here for the Association in contributing to the debate about the way older people are both transformed by society but are themselves changing the communities in which they live – in very positive ways given the strengths which they bring.

My second point here is about these communities. Here the government have held up ‘ageing in place’ as the preferred ideal for older people – staying in their own homes or indeed a facility such as that of the members of this Association for as long as possible. This makes sense: around 80% of the time of people aged over 70 is spent at home or the immediate environment. The home and neighbourhood are central to social connections and social support. But as we have seen whilst the community has been emphasised we have reduced formal help going into neighbourhoods. We urgently need a response here which of course is about resources but also about how we organise and develop our work.

Here, it seems to be housing is central to re-thinking policies for later life: housing for too long has been the poor relation to health and social care but in reality if we get housing and all that is associated with it right we go a long way to ensuring support for older people. The task here is:

• first, ensuring integration of housing with the other major services;
• second, getting greater innovation in terms of the types of housing;
• and, third, getting more joined up thinking about housing adaptations and home repairs. The Housing Learning Information Network has produced important reports in these issues and these are I am sure helpful to the work of the Association.

But a final important is that we need to integrate work around housing by strengthening the communities in which people live. Here, I think the initiative of the World Health Organization to develop age-friendly communities has been helpful and we are seeing the expansion in the UK of work around this initiative – co-ordinated by the Centre for Ageing Better. My own work in Manchester has been around working with groups of older people around a range of interventions, including:

• Promoting neighbourhood networks: to combat social isolation and provide support to informal carers;
• Support co-operative enterprises drawing on the skills of older people and
• Environmental interventions: promoting the importance of local parks, age-friendly shops and improving transportation.

The key here is working with a range of groups in communities in promoting change and drawing on the skills which older people bring to social and community action. Just on this point, I would like to finish with this quote from two American researchers in evidence submitted to a US Senate committee on ageing:

‘Population aging will transform the global community. The question is whether such changes will better societies or extract net tolls. Either is possible. If we continue to view the life course as our ancestors did and simply tack added years on the end we face calamity. If instead we begin to modify the life course and build infrastructures that support long life, societies can begin to utilize the strengths of older people and support the real vulnerabilities of advanced old age’

(Carstensen, L. & Fried, L. Submission to US Senate Commission on Aging)