Helping people to live independently

The Supporting People Programme Grant means people get help in their own communities without adding extra costs and pressure to public services.

I recently stopped a Torfaen man from being illegally evicted from his flat and becoming homeless. This would have worsened his mental health issues and put him in unsuitable accommodation.

His privately rented flat was flooded and his landlord moved him to another home. During one of my support visits, I was checking his letters and he showed me a three-month eviction notice. I could see it had been illegally post-dated.

This had been making him anxious. He is bi-polar, schizophrenic and has anger management issues.

I spoke to his landlord who wasn’t very happy that I had spotted what he had been trying to do. The extra time meant that we could get his application into Homeseeker ready to start bidding for a new place to live.

I supported him through this and, in a lovely coincidence, a flat that he lived in many years ago became available and his application was successful.

He couldn’t manage the contact with the different agencies such as removals, housing benefit, the health charities and the Department for Work and Pensions. My work with him made sure it was smooth and he knew what was happening at every step.

He is meeting all of his support outcomes which we agreed when I began working with him. It won’t be long before I stop seeing him and take on another person to help live independently.


Amanda James
Support Officer, Bron Afon Community Housing

Little by Little - Small Changes lead to Better Living

Welsh Government's Warm Homes Wales project has funded 5 Local Authorities (RCT, Torfaen, Cardiff, Blaenau Gwent, Merthyr) to take a joined up approach in order to support its households to take action to save energy alongside the installation of energy efficiency measures. The South Wales based energy behaviour change project, Little by Little, has been supporting households across the local authority areas, targeting over 1400 households who have previously received energy saving measures under the Welsh Government's Warm Homes Wales.

The project's key aims are to educate and empower householders to use their energy more efficiently through looking at the whole household's approach towards energy, whilst providing support to improve the quality of life of all those they engage with.

Advisors carry out a home health check with each household, along with energy saving advice that provides information on how to switch providers and the savings that could be made.

Using its partners, the project signposts those who require onto training, education and employment opportunities, digital inclusion advice, along with debt support and other house management opportunities.

As well as providing adults with an OCN level one in Understanding Home Energy via its training sessions, the project is also working with schools encouraging children to become Junior Green Energy Champions via its fun workshops. The project will also be carrying out local energy fairs where energy providers, partners and other community groups can engage with the community to help reduce those affected by fuel poverty.

The project is being run on behalf of the five local authorities by Melin Homes. Allison Cawley, Project Manager said: “This really is a fantastic programme that is helping those in the community who are on the verge of or already in fuel poverty to make some big savings as well as supporting them with their employment, training, digital and financial requirements.”

For more information or to discuss the project, please contact: Allison on 01495 745947, 07791 657386 or allison.cawley@melinhomes.co.uk.

Allison Cawley
Project Manager, Little by Little

A view from housing: What would the draft Wales Bill mean in practice?

The draft Wales Bill, published last week, caused all the usual political rumblings. Amid all the talk of insults to Wales, Whitehall being a bad loser, and the looming threat of a constitutional crisis, there doesn’t seem to have been too much discussion about the practical implications of the proposals within the Bill.

A devolved legislature with extensive powers is now clearly the settled will of the people of Wales.

And while technical debates about constitutional mechanisms and legislation probably won’t be a topic of conversation as the people of Wales eat their tea tonight; job security, health, and housing probably will.

What will the draft Wales Bill mean to, for example, a social housing tenant in Bangor? Or a homeless woman in a hostel in Cardiff?

Housing is probably the area of devolved policy where we have seen Wales and England diverge most over the last 16 years.

Not only is devolved government the settled will of the people of Wales, but a vastly different approach to housing (amongst other things) is too.

In Wales, we have had successive governments committed to investment in social housing, through Social Housing Grant, which has allowed the housing association sector to provide an average of 2,000 additional homes each year. At the same time, Welsh Government supports a ‘Help to Buy’ product which allows better access to home ownership. Across the border, UK Government pursues home ownership as the be all and end all of housing policy, with funding for social housing sacrificed for a loosely defined ‘affordable’ home ownership offer.

Devolution has meant that the housing association sector in Wales has had an opportunity to define itself very differently from our friends across the border.

The Right to Buy for housing associations and the 1% cut to social rents will have a profound impact on affordable housing as we know it in England. In Wales, there are proposals afoot to abolish Right to Buy completely, and we hope that Welsh Government won’t follow the same path on rents – a path now roundly rejected by housing providers and tenants groups.

The draft Wales Bill threatens the ability to legislate for these policy differences – voted for by the people of Wales.

Welsh Government suggests that the Housing Act, which took action on the scourge of empty homes, created new models of co-operative housing and takes action to improve the private sector, would not have been within the competence of the Assembly. This is inexplicable.

It is not a leap to suggest that the proposals in their current form take us back to the dark days of the Legislative Competence Order (LCO). Those of us schooled in the history of LCOs, or indeed housing policy, will know that this didn’t work.

The Reserved Powers model this Bill seeks to enshrine should be about simplicity and clarity. For legislators and voters.

In its present form, the Bill adds to the confusion - not only threatening to slam the brakes on the devolution journey, but threatening to halt the significant progress Wales has made as a nation in a number of areas. For housing, devolution hasn’t just allowed us to do things differently; it has allowed us to better meet the needs, and the will, of the people of Wales.



Aaron Hill
Public Affairs Manager, Community Housing Cymru Group

This blog post was originally published on IWA's Click on Wales site. You can read it here. 

A case study - PORTH Supporting People Service

PORTH is a Supporting People service provided by Tai Ceredigion for elderly and vulnerable people through the county.

The service is provided in our Sheltered Schemes and any individual from the community can access the service by arranging an appointment and visiting a scheme which is most convenient to them. Referrals for support can be made by statutory or voluntary services, or by self referral. The advisors can talk through each concern and then work with each person to achieve the desired goals.

The scheme can help with benefit enquiries, financial matters, mobility issues, housing issues and general help with accessing social support and services.

Our client, 'Mrs Neighbour' was referred to the PORTH service from a partner agency with concerns for escalating rent arrears.

The initial assessment identified many areas of need including mounting debts, high rent arrears and potential homelessness, inappropriate and damp private rented accommodation, failing physical health, mental health issues and the inability to manage life on a day to day basis.

PORTH worked with Mrs Neighbour to understand what the personal goals and priorities were and then liaised with specialist agencies where necessary. Negotiations were made with her current landlord to buy time to try and reduce the rent arrears, medical information was supplied and the Environmental agency accessed to maximise the award of points for the housing register to try to move client Mrs Neighbour into more affordable and sustainable social housing.

This was successful, and 'Mrs Neighbour' was able to move into sheltered accommodation some months later and so avoiding certain homelessness.


PORTH supported Mrs Neighbour to successfully:

• Apply for ESA & SDP, PIP and DHP. 
• Also to declare bankruptcy (via a CAB financial specialist)
• To obtain a grant of £700 towards rent arrears
• To manage medication through liaison with the GP and chemist
• To attend relevant medical appointments
• To set up utility accounts
• To open a suitable bank account for direct debits.

Buddug Lewis

Tai Ceredigion Housing Manager

By offering support and guidance, the service assisted with many aspects of Mrs Neighbour's life. It was noted that there was a marked improvement in their mental health, general wellbeing and the ability to sustain an independent life in suitable accommodation.

Spotlight on Caring & Repairing

Break-in Britain Series 2 - The Crackdown

So in the middle of January 2015, Tony and I (Lyndon) were invited into Kelly Jones’s office. We were informed that we had volunteered for a special assignment involving the normal day to day work we carry out, but this time with the cameras of the BBC recording our every move!

We of course were naturally overjoyed to be the focal point of such attention, whilst showcasing the burgeoning talents of Swansea Care & Repair and Care & Repair services to the full. So after a discussion on materials and likely job types, and the possibility of one or two other members of staff joining in the fun, and the likelihood of “short notice” warnings of filming, we vacated Kelly’s office and returned to our duties.

A week or so later, the call came from upstairs that Tony and I were to report to a property in the Baglan area to install some security equipment as yet undecided. The BBC film crew would meet us there later. We duly arrived at the property of Dennis and Ann, and discovered the need to install new lockable window handles, patio door locks and the like for Tony, and a couple of security lights and a burglar alarm for me. We immediately set about our respective tasks and the BBC film crew along with the presenter Dan Donnelly soon arrived. They then proceeded to enquire about our work by asking us (individually) to explain to the camera what we were doing, and how the expected completion of our tasks would benefit the householders concerned. This we had to deliver several times as the “mike” was not working, or the wind was too “noisy”, or someone fudged his lines (Dan). They then proceeded to film us actually installing various items, and Dan the presenter even lent a hand (honest). Everything proceeded as planned; all electrical items were tested and certificated as required. Although fitting the burglar alarm sounder box on the outside wall of the property did prove problematic for me on the ladder and the BBC cameraman filming, while the snow was falling! Burglar alarm programmed and tested (with Tony’s assistance), we vacated the property, leaving the householders Dennis and Ann feeling safe in their home once more.

Two weeks later, the second week of February 2015, Tony and I were despatched to the Mumbles area to help Jackie, a single mother who works for the Prison service, after she had been burgled. To this end we installed a wireless alarm system, a security light at the rear and Tony fitted a new lock and some “sash jammers” etc. We were then joined by several more members of Care & Repair when David and Steve and even Raymond turned up to help fit a fence and gate at the rear of the property (this can be seen in the title sequence of the broadcast programmes where I am passing a fence panel to Dan, while Steve holds a drill, and Dave looks busy). In the first episode of programmes in series 2, all members of the Care & Repair team in attendance at the property ended up being shown on TV! Also at this address, we were pleased to encounter an ex-Care & Repair member Lloyd Thomas installing a new UPVC door and window assembly to the rear porch as part of the upgraded security measures for the property. As can be seen on the programme, Jackie says she will now be able to sleep at night knowing that her safety rating is much higher than before.

All in all it was really satisfying to help out in the above situations and, perhaps as it's being televised, it might raise the profile of Care & Repair and show the general public we really are there to help with their comfort, safety, and security.

Kelly Jones, Chief Officer
Swansea Care & Repair

Older people deserve better

The word 'deserve' disturbs me and implies that whoever ‘deserves’ has had to have done something to earn whatever is on offer. This actually implies an inequality for some people. Those people might be you, me, your sister, brother, mother or father. I have always been interested in how the use of language to describe people and practices does tend to influence attitude.

So I want to concentrate on the fact that we need to remove that word 'Deserve' and focus on rights for all people, recognising the humanity in us all.

It is amazing and indeed shameful that older people felt the urgent need in Wales to actually produce an explanation of what Human Rights meant to them.

But we must understand why we still have to use the word ‘Deserve’ when we consider older people's care and support. I think this is because there is still evidence out there of failed care, omissions of services and public inquiries into abuse.

My contention is that we are continually being pushed into lobbying for better services for older people, and using terms such as ‘Deserve’ indicates that society and public services still do not understand ageing or adequately recognise the real cost and benefit to supporting older people to maintain their health and wellbeing.

Similarly prejudicial remarks have long been recognised as inappropriate when applied to, for example, gender or ethnicity. So it seems that older people are still the last frontier and we are still having to use this term to get what older people actually need to enable them to experience a higher quality later life.

The attitudes that fester the lobbying for better services I have just mentioned affect assessments of need and packages of support. The customary diagnostic rigour which, for instance, healthcare professionals have been trained to apply as standard, can sometimes be mysteriously replaced for older people as patients by ageist therapeutic emptiness. In other words, nothing substantial to help them maintain their health. Professional values and training still overly prioritise the acute, the rare, the high-tech and the cure, and need to change to reflect the reality of modern health and social care practice which now is beginning to embrace, in partnership, the work undertaken within housing services for older people.

If we are providing a public service based on need and preventing ill health, and also implementing action on health and wellbeing as equally important, then we must give adequate and full assessments to all the people who actually turn up in the system, rather than for those whom we would find more personally engaging, or those ‘consumers’ who shout loudest.

It's great that the housing sector is championing a change in the approach to support for the older person and I am proud to be a part of that. However, there needs to be much more commitment all through the health system and action undertaken now which recognises the work that we, the housing champions for older people, have done to promote the rights of older people to continue to live independently and to experience a good later life.

Lets get to a situation in Wales where we never have to use the term ‘Deserve’ any more.

Lorraine Morgan
Board Member, Care & Repair Cymru

Local energy production and local energy supply

According to the Wales Fuel Poverty Projection Tool released in 2013, 31% of social housing tenants in Wales still lived in fuel poverty in 2012. This equates to 70,000 households, which is a rise of 6% from 2008 indicators. Tenants living in housing association properties have been affected significantly by rising fuel bills, benefit changes and the ‘bedroom tax’. High energy prices in Wales are compounded by the energy inefficiency of Welsh housing and lack of access to mains gas in rural areas. Furthermore, many social housing tenants in Wales are using prepayment meters to pay for their gas and electricity bills, which can mean that they end up paying more for their energy needs.

Taking these factors into account, along with the recent changes outlined in the UK Government’s summer budget, any opportunity which offers the potential of increasing household budgets as well as raising income for HAs, needs to be explored. Exploring the potential for local energy production and local energy supply is one of those opportunities.

CHC is holding a ‘Local energy production and local energy supply’ event in Cardiff on September 30th to explore these opportunities. Many organisations feel that we need to address the market failure impacting on low income households and we need to impact fuel poverty directly through price. There is a significant and growing appetite to intervene directly in the energy market, as outlined in a “Non-traditional business models: Supporting transformative change in the energy market” event recently run by Ofgem and Welsh Government. Feedback from this event will be provided at CHC’s event.

Examples of non-traditional business models include community energy projects which share an emphasis on community ownership, leadership or control where the community benefits, as well as ‘Energy Service Companies business models’, which include financing, designing, building, operating and maintaining small-to-medium scale demand management and/or low carbon energy projects, as part of either energy service contracts or energy performance contracts.

Following updates from Ofgem and Welsh Government, ‘Our Power’ will provide an update on their activity at the event. ‘Our Power’ is a new independent energy supply company and the first in the UK to operate on a non-profit distributing basis. It plans to sell heat and power to tenants in 200,000 homes across Scotland by 2020. This agenda item will be the longest session on the day, providing an opportunity to hear about Our Power’s journey so far and any potential for collaboration with the sector in Wales.

Before concluding the event with a ‘next steps’ discussion, a range of organisations will get an opportunity to outline their services and project work in relation to local energy production. Part of this includes local energy production through renewable energy systems. People in Wales have amongst the second highest electricity bills in Great Britain, which is largely due to Wales’ energy infrastructure and higher distribution costs faced by consumers in Wales.

A fair deal on distribution costs is needed for Welsh consumers. Part of this deal is the need to improve the capacity and infrastructure of the national grid with regards to installing renewable energy systems amongst other benefits. There is great potential for renewable energy in Wales and, alongside this, we need to consider the potential for energy storage, smart grids and other technological advances. Such projects can have significant social, environmental and economic benefits for housing associations, tenants and communities.

To book your place on CHC’s event on 30th September, please click here.


Shea Jones
Energy and Sustainability Officer

Who takes care of the carer?

A few years ago, my Dad was suffering with heartburn and was having difficulties with swallowing. He was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer. Due to his age (69) he was not able to have an operation to remove the tumour and therefore started aggressive chemotherapy.

My mum, already retired, became a full-time carer. Both of their worlds completely changed. Mum was fit and healthy and very independent, attending her gym and tai chi and visiting me and my brother who now live far away. As time went on, she lost everything due to Dad’s illness.

After a few months, Dad stopped being able to eat entirely and was fed through a tube. He suffered terribly with the chemotherapy and, despite three rounds, it did not shrink the tumour. Dad lived another 18 months, deteriorating during this time.

My Mum received excellent support from local health services and Dad’s Macmillan nurse. Dad tried attending the local hospice for a few afternoons but didn’t like it so Mum had no respite from him. He was both physically and psychologically demanding, as you can imagine. Marie Curie nurses were also an outstanding support to us in his last few weeks, as they took over the night shift. Because of their support, Dad was able to die at home.

Mum and Dad were typical Care & Repair clients. They had both worked all their lives and owned their own home. Dad was a mechanic and was able to maintain their large three bedroomed house until their crisis occurred. They had never received any statutory services or benefits and were therefore unaware of how to access support.

Due to where they lived in England, they did not have access to Care & Repair services like the Care & Repair services we manage here in Wales. Upon leaving hospital after falling and breaking his leg, Dad would have been eligible for our Rapid Response Adaptations Programme for adaptations to help him and Mum move him safely around the home. Care & Repair would have helped to move the bed downstairs when necessary and would have supported Mum to access Attendance Allowance to fund the extra costs of caring for Dad. They could also have provided advice about the other services which Mum could access to support her needs as a carer. All of these things, of course, were implemented for Mum and Dad, but nowhere near as quickly and as smoothly as they would have been if they had one Agency like Care & Repair to manage this practical support.

Three years on; Mum lives alone. Her health suffered during the first few years but now she is back to her independent self. She not only lost Dad but lost all of her networks due to caring for Dad, so she has had to work hard at developing her own life again. What does she find most difficult? The answer is managing a three bedroom house and a garden, alone, without a Care & Repair handyperson to trust to do small jobs around the house and without a Care & Repair service to support her through larger works.

I wrote this blog to highlight the amazing work of carers and the agencies which supported Mum to care for Dad and allow him to die at home. I also wrote it to highlight the work of Care & Repair in Wales and why it is imperative that our services are protected in order to support the ever increasing numbers of older people in Wales to live their independent lives.

Rachel Gingell
Policy Officer, Care & Repair Cymru 

'I never would have managed it without the support and help I received from the Supporting People programme'...

My name is Kerry Manning and I’m a former client of the Wallich in Park Street, Bridgend. I came to live in Wales from Northern Ireland in July of 2010 as a result of domestic violence. When I first came to Wales, I was in Women’s Aid for seven months before I got my own property for me and my two children. I was extremely lonely and my children were living in squalor as I couldn’t afford to decorate or buy things for my home. I was in a desperate state of depression and had no one to turn to as I have no family in Wales.

I then met the man who turned out to be my now husband but my life went downhill even more as he is an alcoholic. I ended up drinking with him and our problems just got worse. We were fighting to the point where the police were called and social services were called for the safety of my children.

I was at my lowest ebb and ended up taking an overdose - I just couldn’t see any way out at all.

Then I started working with a fantastic network of people who just wanted to help me. They referred me to the Wallich and my life has just got better and better. I was allocated a support worker from the floating support team named Ashley and she has done amazing things for me. At one point social services had given me six months to change my home or my children would have been taken into care.

Ashley came on board and helped me apply for benefits that I was entitled to and helped me get grants to get flooring and normal things like wardrobes for my children. But most of all, she was there for me just to chat to if I just needed to scream at someone.

It was a long hard road at times, especially when I was going to my social services meetings. Just having Ashley there for support was a huge godsend for me and my children. Then Ashley moved to another project and I was really worried in case I had no one to turn to, but I didn’t have to worry because my next support worker, Siobhan, just took over where Ashley left off. The Wallich made changeovers of support workers as easy as possible for me.

As time went on I felt my confidence getting better. I decided I would like to do volunteer work and I was offered to do it at the Wallich. I then began to volunteer in the drop-in a couple of mornings a week.

The past year has been the hardest of my life but also the best. I never would have managed it without the support and help I received from floating support (funded by the Supporting People programme). I can guarantee that I would be on the streets and my children would have been taken off me and placed into care. And now, a year on, I’m no longer a client. I’m a single mum now but it’s all for the best for myself and my children.

I’m now volunteering three days a week with the Wallich and I enjoy every minute of it. I never ever thought I would see me doing this, but the support and help I’ve had from floating support saved me and my family and I would really like to help people in similar circumstances. Without the support and help from floating support, I know I would not be where I am today. I am now at a point in my life where I can see a happy future for me and my children. My confidence has soared tenfold and my children are happier than they have ever been, all thanks to the help I have received. I can never thank them enough. And even though I am no longer a client, the team are still there for me, pushing me to my strengths and helping me achieve my goals.

Hopefully the next step now is to actually work for them as gratitude for everything they have done for me and my children, and also help other families in the same situation that I was once in.

Kerry Manning
Volunteer at The Wallich 

Co-operation housing helps build co-operative communities

At the Wales Co-operative Centre, we are running a Welsh Government funded project to utilise co-operative housing approaches to help meet the demand for affordable housing. We know that co-operative approaches lead to a sense of ownership and empowerment which lead in turn to improvements in quality. These principles are extremely important drivers for those social landlords currently engaging in developing this approach – increased tenant ownership and empowerment leads to reduced arrears, reduced void turnarounds and improved community and quality of life.

In West Wales, Grŵp Gwalia is working in partnership with Carmarthenshire County Council to develop a co-operative housing scheme near Carmarthen town centre that will see 27 new homes built.

In recent months, Gwalia has held events to engage with potential members to the Carmarthen housing co-operative. A core group has come forward comprised of people on the housing waiting list who believe they can bring something to a co-operative housing living situation. The site has also recently received planning permission.

One young family, which has been provisionally allocated a property on the Carmarthen site, told us why they've got involved:

“We are living in temporary accommodation for the homeless. It’s not ideal but it’s a roof over our heads. We had so many issues in our last property that Environmental Health said it was unsafe for us to live in. Also, there’s no security when you rent privately. Landlords can tell you to move out at any time. The housing co-operative offers you the chance to live within a close knit community, you know everybody and have the security of housing. You’re in a house and you don’t get kicked out for no reason - it’s all a plus to us.”

This development is part of a wider initiative, led by Welsh Government, where several pilot projects are being developed to explore the use of co-operative models as an additional housing option.

Amongst the other lead pilot projects are developments with Seren, Cadwyn and a Community Land Trust in West Rhyl which North Wales Housing is working with.

The benefits of developing co-operative housing approaches are many. They help to fulfil the need to provide more affordable housing. They offer a community led approach so are often more sustainable in the long term than other approaches. Co-operative housing developments are largely self policing, and their approaches are democratic and based on fairness and equality. Co-operatives tend to work together to look after their communal areas and are often able to manage the maintenance or maintenance contracts on their homes.

There are several different approaches which can be taken up when a social landlord is developing co-operative housing. Ownership can be completely devolved to the co-operative, ownership can be based on a long-term lease to the co-operative, and the social landlord can stimulate co-operative approaches to the management and upkeep of the properties.

In 2014, the Welsh Government pledged to increase the supply of affordable homes to 10,000 before May 2016. Co-operative housing has the potential to make a sustainable contribution to that target and to offer a long term and sustainable approach to housing provision, as well as to the development of local communities.

You can read more about the Grŵp Gwalia scheme here. 

David Palmer, Co-operative Housing Project Manager
Wales Co-operative Centre

Launch of Care & Repair Cymru’s Equality and Diversity Handbook

Tai Pawb has been working with Care & Repair Cymru to develop a practical handbook and guide to help Care & Repair Agency staff respond to the diverse needs of older people in Wales. The guide was launched at the Care & Repair Chief Officers Network meeting on 22 April.

At times, it is easy for the diversity of older people to become hidden or not recognised with older people being viewed as one homogeneous group. There is a particular risk of this happening in areas which are falsely perceived as having no or limited diversity, such as rural areas. Viewing older people as one homogeneous group or through stereotyped lenses can lead to actions which undermine services' attempts to treat individuals with dignity and respect. However, recognising the diversity of older people can help organisations to develop more holistic approaches that are sensitive to the needs of all potential service users. Having a service that recognises and removes barriers is vitally important for people who may have faced discrimination in the past.

It is the small things that can often make a big difference. For example:

• An isolated and grieving service user being able to open up to their case worker about the death of their same sex partner. 
• A service user having their communication needs met when engaging with an agency, enabling them to feel informed, empowered and listened to. 
• Using inclusive language so that people can relate to and not feel excluded from the service. 
• A home maintenance officer treating someone’s home with respect, such as wearing shoe coverings or thinking about the implications of moving items within someone’s home.

The aim was to make the guide as practical as possible. That is why, alongside the main handbook, quick reference sheets have been developed for the different job functions within agencies. Each sheet has been tailored to reflect practical tips and information most relevant for the different roles and engagement with service users which staff members will have.

The main guide and quick reference sheets provide tips in relation to age, disability, gender, gender identity, race and ethnicity, religion and belief, sexual orientation and carers on areas such as:

• Communication
• Making appointments
• Treating individuals with respect 
• Visiting or carrying out work in a person’s home
• Office visits
• Raising awareness of services

It also highlights issues that have safeguarding implications in terms of situations where staff members come across cases of domestic abuse, hate crime and elder abuse. The main guide also notes what staff should do if they face discrimination or harassment.

It is recognised that the handbook only provides general guidance and staff are advised that they will need to respond to each person’s individual needs. Each situation and each service user is very different.

Although some of the information in the guide may seem like common sense, implementing these small actions can have a huge impact on the quality of service a person receives.

A copy of the guide can be found online here.

Mair Thomas
Equality and Diversity Officer
Tai Pawb
mair@taipawb.org / 029 2053 7635

Don’t the next generation deserve a home to call their own?

It's my children's future and the future generations to come that I fear for. I don't think my children will be able to access good quality homes or be in a position to get on the property ladder. I’m looking to make changes to my home life to prepare myself for my children's future to be spent with me for some time.

At 17, I started my journey of becoming a social housing tenant and it allowed me to put down roots. Having that security has allowed me to experience positive life goals and made me the person I am today. The stability of housing and having my family close by opened up employment opportunities and I even attended university.

Being housed in social housing allowed me to build roots in my community. I was able to access good education and healthcare links for my children.

The generation after me wasn’t so lucky. Social housing in Wales started to fall and my sister has suffered with the lack of social housing. She has been waiting 9 years for social housing for her and her son. After being housed in 3 hostels and moving into private rented accommodation, her and her 8 year old have had to move 11 times. He has never felt part of a community - he settles in a school and then has to move. This has a knock on effect on his social skills and learning capacity. Once they start to build connections within their community, it's taken away again.

Don't my sister and nephew deserve the same experience I had a generation ago? One that enabled me to build my future in social housing in Wales?

That’s why I attended the Homes for Britain rally. Help us to end the housing crisis within a generation.


Adelle, Cadwyn HA tenant and board member

Faith in Affordable Housing - a growing relationship of trust and partnership

When I was appointed in 2013 to launch the ‘Faith in Affordable Housing’ project in Wales, I couldn’t have been happier. The role brought together the two great passions in my life: my Christian faith and my love for housing. I had visions of me breezing into the offices of senior clergy and them clamouring to hand over surplus church land and redundant buildings to help the poor and house the needy.

One of the first things I did was ask a friend who works as a Director for a large Welsh housing association to tell me his experience of working with churches. To say his response burst my bubble would be somewhat of an understatement. “Churches?” he said. “Pah! They all want top dollar for everything”.

I learned very quickly that although churches and the housing sector are built on very similar foundations e.g. fairness, justice and a desire to help those in need, their relationship was purely commercial with little understanding of each other.

Churches were viewed as not very helpful and the housing sector was viewed as a speculative developer. In fairness to churches, they sought to get the best return for land because they were tied by their interpretation of charity law and were directing the money into other avenues to help those in need.

The challenge for the FIAH project has been to help churches see housing as part of its mission. This has meant showing the difference a good quality home makes to health, education, well being and life chances. As Housing Justice is the national voice in the UK for Christian action on housing and homelessness, this gave us an open door to challenge churches into doing more to be part of the solution to housing need. It also meant acting as an impartial bridge between the church and the housing sector.

Two years later and a number of church sites have been sold to housing associations across Wales through the FIAH project. Work has recently begun near Merthyr Tydfil to build 13 new homes and an old derelict chapel in Bridgend will shortly be demolished to build Move-On accommodation for single young adults. As I write this, discussions are progressing on 25 sites across Wales, many of which involve partnerships between churches and RSLs to jointly deliver community facilities in addition to homes.

Two of the main Christian denominations in Wales have formally adopted policies on land disposal for affordable housing, including below market sale if need be. Hopefully more denominations will follow soon.

So what’s made the difference? I think simply getting the church and the housing sector around the table, then letting them talk to each other. It’s been great to witness the epiphany moment that actually we have really similar aims and values. The result is a growing relationship of trust and partnership between the church and the housing sector in Wales that will benefit generations of people to come. 

Sharon Lee works for the charity Housing Justice and co-ordinates the Faith in Affordable Housing project in Wales, which aims to see surplus church land and buildings released for housing. She is also a board member of Wales & West Housing.

Vote for the Englishman from Porthcawl

As many of you will already know, I am standing for the role of Vice President for the Chartered Institute of Housing. Although this is a UK wide role (and beyond if you count our members in Hong Kong and Canada) there has not been a more important time to make sure that the Welsh voice is heard within the CIH.

So why should you vote for ‘an Englishman from Porthcawl’, as Mike Owen has called me?

As far as my CIH credentials go, they are about as good as you can get. I have been an active member of the Chartered Institute of Housing for over 30 years now and I am still as passionate about housing as the day I started my first job as an Area Housing Officer with Eastbourne Borough Council in 1984. Throughout my career I have been involved with the CIH: as a co-opted member of the South East Branch, as a committee member and Chair of the South West Branch, and as a CIH National Council member for six years.

As far as the Welsh bit goes, you’ll have to make your own mind up.

Since moving to Wales in 2008 I have served on the National Business Unit board and am currently Chair of CIH Cymru. Over the last couple of years the CIH has been restructuring and as Chair I was involved in ensuring that the National Business Units (the NBUs of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) were retained. I therefore have a very keen interest in making sure that the voice of the NBUs is not diminished going forward.

Working in Wales as one of the devolved nations, I fully understand that UK (or English) policies aren’t always relevant or applicable to the work we do and this is something that I would ensure was understood. The role of the NBUs in developing responses to UK and devolved legislation is crucial and I would champion the contribution that the three NBUs make to the CIH overall whilst also ensuring that the membership offer from CIH remains relevant and valuable to members in Wales (and Scotland and Northern Ireland).

I can’t pretend I am Welsh, but if I were to be successful in being elected Vice President I would do all I could to raise the profile of housing in Wales and the many brilliant things we do here.

And as a final point, it’s worth noting that we’ve not had a President of the CIH from Wales for many years now, not since the days of Mr Paul Diggory - although I am hoping that that won’t go against me!

Stephen Cook

Chief Executive of Valleys to Coast and Chair of CIH Cymru

Legislation a chance to tackle fuel poverty

Shea Jones has blogged for IWA on the Well Being of Future Generations Bill... 

How do you picture how our planet will look in the future and how future generations will live on our planet in years to come? Some people might think about hoverboards, power laces and all the other exciting things that we see Marty McFly involved in during the classic ‘Back to the Future’ films. Admittedly, I do think about this when I think about the future but I also think about the bigger picture – how we treat the planet now and how we must do what we can to ensure that we do not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs. This includes using natural resources reasonably, ensuring that life is not negatively impacted by harmful modifications of the ecosystems and that scientific and technological progress in all fields do not harm life on Earth.

Fuel poverty (defined as households spending 10% or more of their income on energy costs) affected 30% of households in Wales in 2012 and is now likely to be significantly higher. Fuel poverty is a significant cause of excess winter deaths and in 2013/14, there were 1,100 excess winter deaths in Wales. The majority (73%) were over the age of 75 (we know that around 30% of these deaths can be attributed to cold homes). Low incomes, energy prices and the number of energy inefficient properties act as the main contributory factors to rising levels of fuel poor households and they make the eradication of fuel poverty a real challenge.

Despite much welcomed investment from energy efficiency programs such as Arbed, the current investment in Wales is insufficient given the scale of the problem. Estimates in a Bevan report on poverty states that it will take 78 years for the Welsh Government’s Nest programme to reach each and every home suffering from fuel poverty in Wales. More needs to be done to ensure that vulnerable households are paying the lowest possible price for their home energy needs.

Housing is responsible for around one fifth of Welsh greenhouse gas emissions. WWF Cymru’s report, ‘Cutting carbon emissions in Welsh homes’, showed that targeting home improvements at the poorest quality houses in Wales would slash energy bills, cut fuel poverty by 40%, reduce our impact on climate change and create thousands of jobs. This would take us well on our way to meeting our climate emission reduction targets of 40% by 2020. Reducing our energy usage and delivering energy efficiency programmes needs to happen alongside switching to renewable / low carbon energy sources, as outlined in WWF’s report ‘Warm Homes Not Warm Words’, although barriers to renewable energy (e.g. the planning system) need to be addressed and Wales needs further energy powers to be devolved for energy planning consents.

A large scale energy efficiency programme much bigger than what we currently have is essentially sustainable development in action. How could this be financed? There have been suggestions of using borrowing powers for energy efficiency programmes rather than funding controversial stretches of motorways, for example. Perhaps a less controversial way to boost investment would be to fund more energy efficiency retrofit works, as well as the amount of energy that we generate through renewable technologies via infrastructure investments through the Wales Infrastructure Investment Plan (WIIP). Of course, we need to maximise the positive impacts of investment and the Welsh Government’s Well-being of Future Generations Bill, if designed effectively, provides an ideal opportunity to achieve this. Infrastructure investments should be benchmarked for their environmental impact and WIIP provides a significant opportunity to ensure that large capital projects fulfil sustainable development criteria at every level from carbon impact to community benefit.

A strong and effective Well-being of FG Act should make sure that investment from public bodies has real positive impacts and ensures that all purchasing decisions are made with consideration of wider benefits for people and nature, in Wales and around the world. ARBED has shown how a programme can be designed to deliver real benefits to local economies. Evidence suggests that, without an explicit legal requirement, it is unlikely that good-practice procurement policy will be implemented and inconsistencies will continue. Community Housing Cymru’s member organisations (housing associations) spent an estimated £1,027m in 2013/14, and £823.6m (80%) of this spend was retained in Wales. Of the completed Community Benefits Measurement Tools returned to Welsh Government, 52% have come from the housing sector.

However, we propose that further work is done to develop the community benefits tool into a legal requirement that ensures public bodies consider the broader environmental, social and economic impact of their procurement activities. We should promote ethical, fair trade and sustainable procurement practices through the Bill which meet the social justice and equality needs of the citizens of Wales. This includes the impacts of supply chains in Wales and abroad and the ability to use local suppliers and installers, which is key to keeping money in the Welsh economy. For example, i2i’s Can Do Toolkit provides guidance to social landlords to help them achieve added value and wider social inclusion through their improvement and investment programmes, in the areas of targeted recruitment and training and SME-friendly procurement. Between September 2008 and December 2011, i2i calculated that this work led to the creation of 2,581 job and training opportunities. The CHC Group supports the continued development of the Can Do Toolkit and its extended application across the public sector in Wales.

Prevention and integration principles clearly need to be at the heart of the Wellbeing of FG Bill. For example, ‘Boiler prescription’ schemes exist in England whereby housing associations install boilers in households prescribed by GPs. One of these schemes has resulted in savings to the NHS with a 28% reduction in GP appointments and a 33% reduction in outpatient appointments. It is one of the first examples of the NHS supporting retrofit schemes in order to reduce the cost of health and social services but such schemes need to be valued more by the government and the health sector. CHC is working closely with organisations in Wales to develop similar approaches. Other schemes such as the ‘Warm homes healthy people fund’ show a clear example of the Department of Energy and Climate Change working with the Department of Health in the UK Government.

Legislation is needed to drive change at the necessary scale and pace. It should also be viewed as an opportunity to help create the future we want to see for Wales. With amendments to the Well-Being of Future Generations Bill, we can make it stronger together and transform the way we do things in Wales.

Shea Jones
Energy and Sustainability Officer

You can read Shea's original blog post here. 

Wales’ Collective Energy Switch – helping to reduce energy use

Wales is a small country. One that often punches above its weight, but also one that is able to bring partners together and set up national schemes that can make a real difference.

With awareness of energy costs at its highest, and set to become a key element of the forthcoming General Election campaigns, Wales is embarking on its third collective energy switch.

With the support of the Welsh Government and partners across Wales, the collective energy switch has been developed to ensure the best deal for Welsh householders.

The idea behind collective energy switching is similar to bulk-buying products to get a better price. In a collective energy switch, those interested in receiving a better deal group together as a ‘collective' before approaching the energy suppliers. The larger the number of households that get involved, the more attractive the group of customers are likely to be to the energy suppliers.

The Energy Saving Trust in Wales is working in partnership with Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan Councils to deliver Cyd Cymru / Wales Together.

Esther Tallent, Energy Saving Trust’s Advice Centre Manager, said: “Keeping an eye on energy costs and switching supplier when a better deal is available can potentially benefit everyone. Last year, Cyd Cymru / Wales Together helped over 1,500 households in Wales to switch to a cheaper energy tariff, saving £185 per household on average.

“What is also particularly interesting is that those people who are keen to monitor their energy costs are also keen to reduce the energy they use. We therefore take the opportunity, when supporting our registered households, to provide a range of energy saving tips and information about other schemes and grants that can support them.

“The Wales-wide scheme has really captured people’s imaginations and it’s proved to be a great vehicle to help people save energy.”

More information on Cyd Cymru / Wales Together can be found here.

Register online before Sunday 1st March or call 0800 093 5902 before Friday 27th February to ensure that you are part of the next collective. Phone lines are open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm.

Nick Beasley, Marketing and Communications Manager
Energy Saving Trust

“Trust me, I’m a housing professional...”

This week at the Welsh NHS Confederation conference, the menu of topics is interesting and timely. How do we set up our workforce in an integrated way? How do we bring about meaningful change for those we serve? How do we move from rhetoric to reality?

As a policy professional working in the housing association sector in Wales, I’m keenly interested in all of the above. I was recently invited, on behalf of Community Housing Cymru, to contribute to Welsh Government’s “Making Prudent Healthcare Happen” online resource, which is a collection of essays exploring the challenges and opportunities of this new way of working.

The services provided by housing associations, in terms of high quality housing, care and support services, community initiatives, employment and skills, and digital inclusion, are but some examples of the broad work taking place to improve health and work to reduce the number of people requiring the services of their GP or local A&E. The housing association sector and people working within it are able to provide legitimate solutions to the mounting challenges faced by the NHS and, more broadly, public services in Wales.

Housing associations work in some of the most deprived communities in Wales. When we think about how we work as public facing services to combat factors such as unemployment, education, and inactivity which we know have a substantial impact on health and wellbeing, housing associations are a key part of the formula for addressing such issues.

But the carpet is being pulled from underneath us as a housing sector. Salami slicing cuts to vital services such as the Supporting People Programme are threatening to further push people into NHS services who may otherwise have received a preventative, person centred service at a far earlier stage.

The Welsh Government budget for 2015/16 confirmed a £10m cut to Supporting People, reducing it to £124m. In real terms, this means that over 4,000 people will now go without the support they could have accessed if the fund were protected. The £10m cut is the equivalent of annual funding to provide all services for men and women at risk of domestic abuse and young people with support needs in the Vale and Cardiff. In addition, supporting people services provide a well-used referral route for hospital move-on teams, freeing up hospital beds and resources.

At a time when we need a strong “prevention sector” in Wales, we cannot afford an environment of disinvestment that undervalues the key work of organisations delivering Supporting People services.

Although the prudent healthcare work demonstrates the value, the opportunities and the enthusiasm for things to change, these words mean nothing without action from all sides.

If through prudent healthcare we’re entrusting people to look after themselves and to make positive health behaviours part of their regular habits, then it’s also vital to trust the ability of the housing association sector to support and work closely with the NHS in meeting the challenges it faces both now and in the future.

In our recent economic impact report you can see some case studies (p16-18) which demonstrate the prudent nature of the housing associations sector. Taff Housing addressing delayed transfer of care, and Melin Homes working with a collaborative to re-invent Continuing Healthcare packages in Gwent. Consistency is key, however, and we will know we are on the right track once we are able to call projects such as these common practice rather than best.

Matt Kennedy
Policy Officer: Care, Support and Health  

Out of Stock: The Future of Right to Buy in Wales

Right to Buy, introduced by Margaret Thatcher in 1980, has helped thousands of people in Wales to buy their social homes at a discounted rate. However, this has come at a detriment to Wales’ struggling social housing stock. Over the lifetime of Right to Buy, more than 130,000 homes have been bought at a discount and removed from the social sector altogether, accounting for a 45% decrease in the number of social homes across Wales. This is something Wales simply cannot afford. Affordable and social housing are a vital safety net for the most vulnerable in our society and, with Wales being disproportionately affected by welfare changes, this safety net is now more important than ever. Right to Buy has contributed to a lack of availability and to the backlog of people languishing on housing lists across Wales.

The Community Housing Cymru Group welcomes Labour’s proposal to end Right to Buy, should they win the next Welsh Assembly elections, with the reservation that this measure is like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted – we have an affordable housing crisis in Wales and ending Right to Buy will not build more homes. Ending Right to Buy needs to be part of a bigger approach to tackling Wales’ chronic housing problem including more use of public land for affordable housing development, more planning freedoms and a sustained programme of investment. The Legislative Competence Order already provides Welsh Ministers with the power to allow councils to refuse Right to Buy requests in areas where there is high demand for affordable housing, as has been done in Carmarthenshire. CHC has signed a Housing Supply Pact with the Welsh Government and will continue to work with members and Welsh Government to deliver the affordable housing target of 10,000 homes by 2016 to help ease the pressures of low housing stock and a backlog of unmet housing need.

To own a home is a great ambition but to have a home to go to is essential – ending Right to Buy will help meet the needs of many but it is only a small part of what is a big problem.

The Welsh Government has opened a consultation on the future of Right to Buy and Right to Acquire which will close on 16th April 2015.

Liam Townsend
Political and Administration Assistant

Crowd Sourced Constitutional Convention

For those of you who were at CHC’s Annual Conference in November last year, you may recall both Matthew Taylor and Lee Waters challenging us as a sector to stop waiting for others to change things or stop waiting for others to do things and get on and do it ourselves...

This call came at a time when the constitutional promises that had been made to the people of Scotland following the referendum were generating a much broader debate about the powers we have and, more importantly, the powers we want here in Wales. Couple this with the challenges we as a sector and tenants are facing, and it seemed that the forthcoming General Election would be a lost opportunity if we didn’t make the right calls for change in those non devolved areas which have such an impact on our communities. So, for this reason, CHC made the decision to become a partner in the Institute of Welsh Affairs' Crowd Sourced Constitutional Convention.

This is a debate about the future of Wales. The direction of travel for this debate is not set in stone and we are inviting people to respond to the draft plan. CHC will be involved in all aspects but we will specifically be facilitating the discussion around ‘What makes Wales a fairer country?’. We anticipate certain parts of the welfare state being a key focus in this debate. At CHC, we want to translate the discussions around constitution, devolution and powers into the reality of delivery. As a sector, we have an in depth understanding of existing policies, processes and procedures surrounding key areas of welfare and crucially understand the direct impact they have on individuals and communities. Therefore, when we ask ‘What do we want our communities to look like?', we’ll also be asking, 'What’s stopping us from getting there?' and 'What needs to change?'.

So during the next eight weeks, we hope you will get involved and that you will encourage your colleagues, friends and family to share their views and join the debate to shape a fairer Wales.

Go on, what are you waiting for? ... Permission?!


Sioned Hughes
Director of Policy and Regeneration

A call for action!

We have always maintained that the UK Government’s welfare reform programme will have devastating consequences for communities in Wales.

It therefore came as no surprise when a recent Wales Audit Office report published evidence stating that welfare reform is having an adverse and disproportionate effect in Wales. The report found that a greater proportion of Welsh social housing tenants have had their housing benefit reduced than elsewhere in the UK, with 51% of tenants reporting an increase in personal debt. This was backed by evidence from social landlords showing a £5.3m increase in rent arrears in the first six months of the removal of the spare room subsidy and the introduction of the benefit cap.

For some Welsh social housing tenants, the welfare changes will have created a level of hardship and a spiral of social and economic deprivation that will be hard, if not impossible, to break.

This is easier to understand in the context of:

·                     higher (on average) unemployment than anywhere in the UK

·                     a heavy reliance on the public sector as an employer

·                     households paying 5% more for electricity than the rest of UK 

·                     higher rates of digital exclusion than other UK regions - 39% of social housing tenants have no access to PC 

·                     a five-fold increase in the use of foodbanks over the last 2 years – 29.7% by people who had experienced welfare benefit delays

·                     a £4.1m cut in specialist advice services, despite increasing need 

In 2013, the Welsh Affairs Select Committee also published evidence highlighting how the spare room subsidy had been a “policy failure” in the Welsh Valleys where, effectively, a social housing tenant moving to a smaller property in the private rented sector would cost the tax payer more money.  

  

So what are social landlords doing?

60% of Welsh social landlords have reported an increase in management costs as they refocus their resources to manage welfare changes. Most landlords are also prioritising tenants affected by the spare room subsidy to move, more tenant profiling, providing low level money advice and budgeting services, and investing significant amounts of money in awareness raising, and have programmes in place to help tenants back into work. A rise in rent arrears and the increased costs of managing welfare changes still means, however, that Welsh housing associations and local authorities are struggling to find effective and sustainable solutions to the challenges they face.

These challenges will be exacerbated by direct payments and the roll out of Universal Credit unless action is taken now. We need more control over welfare and the flexibility to provide: 

·                     choice to tenants about payment options 

·                     more investment in specialist services such as Your Benefit Are Changing - a service that demonstrates high levels of success in mitigating the worst effects of welfare reform

·                     local solutions tailored to local needs  

CHC and others have been highlighting the negative impact of welfare reform on Wales for some time and we will continue to make the call for a fairer welfare system for Wales to prevent further deprivation. Prevention is always better, and definitely more cost effective, than cure.

Amanda Oliver
Head of Policy and Research

You can read the CHC Group’s response to the report here, and you can read the report itself here