Collaborative housing and innovation in care (CHIC)

“What’s striking is the degree of agency, choice and control enjoyed by those living in collaborative housing, and which chimes with other research that identifies these as essential to well-being. Individual choice and agency are at the heart of the recent Health and Care Act; the CHIC report reminds us that mainstreaming collaborative housing and care practices – that might seem to some a niche concern – is actually key to making choice, agency and general well-being a much more attainable goal for the adult social care system that desperately needs to shift ideas and investment to self-directed solutions that allow people who draw on social care to lead a good and purposeful life.”

Ian Hanton, Central Bedfordshire Council 

• Aims

  This study aimed to understand the ways in which collaborative housing (CH) might meet the social care and support needs of older people by asking:

  • Can CH act as a preventative model of support negating or reducing the need for access to statutory and privately purchased sources of social care?
  • How are community assets and capabilities mobilised to promote mutual support (e.g. physical design, living arrangements, spaces for social interaction and community policies)?
  • How does mutual support provided in CH complement/interact with other formal or informal (family) care?
    What do different types of CH offer in terms of supporting residents’ inclusion, independence and well-being?

   

• Methods

  The team examined six different types of collaborative housing communities (both age exclusive and inter-generational) in detail through case studies.

  The case studies consist of individual interviews, focus groups and observations of daily life. In a series of workshops with key organisations like council leaders, carers’ representatives, people who make decisions about older people’s care, housing associations, the research also examined how some of the good practices from these supportive communities might be taken up in other kinds of housing environments – e.g. extra care and sheltered housing as well as general needs housing. 

• Findings

  CHIC project findings

  The research identified multiple benefits of collaborative housing in terms of mutual support around health issues but also advocacy (by fellow residents but also by paid staff) for those transitioning to greater health and social care needs. The researchers did identify challenges and critical issues, but also strongly evidenced the overall benefits of these six collaborative housing case studies and the models they represent, all rooted in the concept of agency in later life. Such schemes have benefits compared to ordinary housing, but also the researchers would argue when compared with the current range of options for those seeking more sociable or supportive later-life homes such as retirement, sheltered or extra care housing.

  At present, a majority of the models remain marginal in terms of mainstream housing options for ageing and care. In order for this to change, the researchers believe there must be significant efforts at national and local government levels to better enable collaborative housing models. The research team also believes that there is a necessity for a recognition at local authority / adult social care provision level to become more familiar with the potential benefits of collaborative housing – most notably that they promise to decrease calls on adult social care services.

  The findings also suggest specialist housing and registered housing providers could learn from these models in terms of both social and physical design. 

• Reports and publications

  CHIC project report

  Izuhara, M., West, K., Hudson, J., Felstead, A., Fernández Arrigoitia, M., & Scanlon, K. (2024). Cohousing and the role of intermediaries in later life transitions. Ageing and Society, 1–21. doi:10.1017/S0144686X24000497

  Izuhara, M., West, K., Hudson, J., Felstead, A., Fernández Arrigoitia, M., & Scanlon, K. (2023) Collaborative housing communities through the COVID-19 pandemic: rethinking governance and mutuality, Housing Studies, 38:1, 65-83, doi: 10.1080/02673037.2022.2077919 

• Resources

  Project website 

  Project blog – Sociable living in London for older people: four projects