New open access evidence and tools aim to support families with overlapping social care and housing needs.
While the housing and social care needs of families are often interrelated, efforts to support them can be fragmented across sectors. An integrated approach to working with families makes sense in the national context of severe financial pressures upon families, reduced housing options and sustained cuts to support services.
The Families and Homes Change Project provides evidence and tools to promote aligning support services, listening to families, improving prevention and early intervention, and increasing legal literacy across specialisms.
In a new blog, resource authors Dr Dr Kesia Reeve and Dr Sadie Parr introduce the background to the Change Project. The resources are aimed at practitioners, practice supervisors and leaders across children and families and adult social care, along with occupational health partners and local authority housing teams.
The aim is that these resources are utilised to embed change and improve practice to enable better outcomes for families at the intersection of social care and housing.
In this blog, resource authors Dr Dr Kesia Reeve and Dr Sadie Parr introduce the background to the Change Project. The resources are aimed at practitioners, practice supervisors and leaders across children and families and adult social care, along with occupational health partners and local authority housing teams.
This resource presents an evidence base for supporting families at the intersection of housing and social care services. The briefing presents stark research findings on families’ housing needs and offers possible responses to support professionals across sectors to work effectively together with families. Although aimed at senior leaders the material is relevant to professionals at all levels.
This resource sets out scenarios in which families’ experiences and outcomes might be shaped by practitioners’ legal literacy across housing and social care. It helps to explain how the language and laws of one specialism might interact with those of another, to the benefit or detriment of families. The examples encourage practitioners to consider their own understanding and application of legal literacy.
This podcast features a conversation between Dr Kesia Reeve, lead academic for the Families and Home Change Project, and Leanna Fairfax, a PhD student with lived experienced of homelessness, housing and social care.
Kesia and Leanna explore these issues from family’s perspective, discussing the challenges families face and what support services can do to best support them. Leanna shares personal insight from her past experiences with support services, and her future hopes for creating positive change as a housing academic.
This video provides a short summary of the themes, challenges and opportunities explored in the Families and Homes Change Project. The resources from the project focus on supporting families at the intersection of housing and social care, reflecting on what the support journey has looked and felt like for families working with those services. It is accompanied by a series of reflective questions.
Explore the opportunities for successful relationships across housing and adult social care. It describes the landscape in and across these sectors and considers the implications of this for joint working. It proposes tips for effective partnership working, drawn from the practice and research evidence and supported by practical examples and tools.
This brief guide provides a clear and accessible overview of how where a person lives can impact on their wellbeing. It aims to support adults and carers, alongside housing and social care practitioners, to identify what should be available and how to work together to achieve best outcomes. It explains some basic housing rights and options, and where people might go to get more information for different types of housing problems.
Improving outcomes for families at the intersection of social care and housing
The Families and Homes Change Project aims to embed change and improve practice to enable better outcomes for families at the intersection of social care and housing.
Supporting families at the intersection of social care and housing: Strategic Briefing (2023)
This strategic briefing presents an evidence base for supporting families at the intersection of social care and housing services. The briefing explains some of the challenges and opportunities which can emerge when different local authority departments support the same families at the same time.
Supporting legal literacy across social care and housing: Practice Tool (2023)
This practice tool sets out some of the key legal duties and powers relevant to families with social care and housing needs. This assists practitioners to identify and understand the key language, legislation and policy frameworks which they may encounter while supporting families.
Understanding the perspective of a family with lived experience of homelessness, housing and social care
In this podcast, Dr Kesia Reeve, a dedicated housing researcher, and Leanna Fairfax, a PhD student with lived experienced of homelessness and social care, explore these issues from a family’s perspective. They discuss some of the challenges families may face and how services can best support them.