Supported housing tenants have their say

Residents living in our supported housing have played a key role in influencing proposed changes to the future of the older persons’ accommodation service and the way it is charged.

Thanks to the Supported Housing Forum, residents were fully consulted about the proposed changes and were also able to meet with key decision makers. This included the Director of Housing and the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, to ensure their voices were heard at the top level.

The proposals for the future of the supported housing service include giving some residents more choice and control, and the opportunity for residents living in our small blocks to opt in and out of support services.

Chair of the Supported Housing Forum, Ray, helped lead the consultation exercise with Ali, the council’s Service Development Manager, with support from the Supported Housing team. This included online surveys, friendly meetings at lots of schemes, and personal invitations sent to every resident, plus extra help for anyone who wanted one-to-one support. Ray personally co-presented every drop-in session, providing residents with the chance to chat with him and share their thoughts directly.

Ray explains: “We wanted to make sure that all supported housing tenants understood the proposed changes and had ample opportunities to ask questions, make suggestions and influence the final decisions. Working closely together with the council has empowered tenants to shape the future of the service, whilst also building stronger relationships and a wonderful sense of shared ownership.”

A dedicated working group of eight residents from the Sheltered Housing Forum have joined forces with council staff. This is to ensure that all comments and suggestions are fed into the process of redesigning the service. This will ensure the final changes reflect residents’ needs and that tenants will have a genuine impact in steering the project in the right direction.

Ray also got involved in helping to choose the new Telecare contractor (warden call system), providing valuable feedback from a tenant perspective during the selection process.

As well as empowering tenants to make a big difference in helping to shape the redesign of older persons accommodation in Southampton, the Supported Housing Forum has also enabled residents to get involved in a national consultation. Recently, the forum hosted an event to provide an opportunity to feed into the Government consultation looking at creating new standards for supported housing across the country. 

If you live in supported housing and would like to have a say in policies and procedures affecting you and your home, why not join the Supported Housing Forum? Meetings take place at Challis Court every two months. Please get in touch to find out more.