About

Supported housing provides intensive support: Designed for people with higher/high support needs—those leaving prison, recovering from substance use, fleeing domestic abuse. Not a primary homelessness solution but a critical part of the housing system for groups requiring intensive assistance.

Severe decline in provision: Overall reductions in funding, removal of ringfencing, and short-term funding cycles have led to significant decline in supported housing availability over the past two decades.

The system is now fragmented and insufficient: Shortages create system blockages—people ready to move on from streets or emergency accommodation into supported housing face limited options, increasing pressures on crisis services.

Key Findings:

Funding and Delivery Issues

Loss of Supporting People Programme was a turning point.

What it provided: Ringfenced funding enabled specialist pathways and floating support for people in tenancies. Services could be tailored to specific high support needs.

Impact of withdrawal: Since removal, supported housing became scarcer and more generalised. Services now must accept a much broader range of needs, losing effectiveness for people with high support needs.

Current fragmentation: Reliance on multiple funding sources (housing benefit for housing management + local authority funding for support) creates inconsistency in service quality and availability. Some areas have lost provision entirely.

"Cliff-edge" delivery: Growing reliance on short-term funding programmes poses risks to long-term housing stability—services end abruptly when funding expires.

Quality and Oversight Problems

Inconsistent quality of exempt supported accommodation: Some providers fail to deliver meaningful support or operate substandard properties, exploiting ability to charge higher rents for 'supporting' vulnerable people.

Lack of strategic ownership: Limited oversight has allowed poor practice to continue.

Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023: Stakeholders welcomed this, believing it will raise standards. However, they warned:

• Smaller providers may struggle with new requirements, potentially reducing supply during implementation
• Uneven preparedness across regions (urban areas more ready than rural)
• Local authorities need adequate support and resources to guide good providers through transition

Cross-Government Collaboration Gaps

People interact with multiple systems: Supported housing clients frequently need housing, health, social care, and criminal justice services—but systems not aligned to meet needs.

Need for integrated strategies: Stakeholders advocated for formalised co-commissioning between NHS Integrated Care Boards and local/regional authorities to reduce fragmentation and improve efficiency.

Success depends on: Clear roles, shared accountability, well-designed data-sharing protocols.

Missing from national strategies: Supported housing should feature more prominently in national housing and homelessness strategies, particularly its preventative function.

Housing First: Promise and Constraints

What it is: Alternative model for individuals with high support needs—provides settled housing first, then wraps support around the person (rather than requiring people to be "housing ready").

Evidence of effectiveness: Local stakeholders shared examples of effective schemes. Government-funded pilots showed promising results.

Barriers to scaling:

• Current funding structures (particularly inability to use housing benefit for care/support/supervision costs) make Housing First difficult to scale
• Inconsistently implemented across England
• Requires adequate housing supply, particularly one-bedroom homes
• Needs national guidance, local flexibility, and long-term funding

Important caveat: Growth in Housing First must not destabilise existing services meeting needs of people requiring more intensive, ongoing support. Traditional shared supported housing remains an important option for some groups.

Policy Insights

1. Support implementation of Regulatory Oversight Act: Ensure local authorities are equipped to implement Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023. Provide additional funding, guidance, and support to help local authorities work with providers to set expectations, support compliance, and reduce uncertainty. Consider the role of the regional government in supporting implementation, especially as exempt supported housing is not always commissioned by/used by local authorities where it's located.

2. Review and reform funding models: Review how supported housing is funded in context of future welfare reforms. Reintroduce ringfenced funding for supported housing with multi-year commitments to improve service stability. Create a dedicated supported housing fund protected from competing crisis pressures, enabling local authorities to commission strategically and sustainably. May provide more cost-effective accommodation for single people with support needs than temporary accommodation (especially expensive B&Bs). Balance capital and revenue funding to reflect the need for infrastructure and support staff.

3. Promote strategic co-commissioning: Support wider adoption of co-commissioning between housing, health, probation, and social care services to improve outcomes for people with high support needs. Provide case studies of effective models, toolkits, and incentives.

4. Integrate supported housing and homelessness strategies: Ensure new requirements to develop supported housing strategies are compatible with existing requirements for homelessness strategies. Better integrate supported housing within national and local housing strategies, emphasising its critical role for people with high support needs or transitioning from institutions.

5. Plan for range of support models locally: Local authorities should ensure strategic planning includes a range of models meeting different levels of need. Consider the role of Housing First within local commissioning plans—strong evidence base exists, but implementation must not destabilise existing services for people requiring intensive ongoing support. Toolkit available based on pilot experience

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