Housing Research 135 - January 1995
Housing management, community care and CCT

The importance of housing in community care has only recently received adequate recognition, and it is still unclear what the precise role of housing management should be. This study by researchers at the University of Glasgow examined the implications for housing management in mainstream housing. The research discovered that there was considerable disagreement over the extent to which housing managers could or should play a role in meeting community care objectives, and in particular whether this should involve a support or welfare function.

• Housing managers felt that they were being left to 'pick up the pieces' from social services, without necessarily having the skills or the capacity to do so.
• Relations between social services and housing departments were improving at senior managerial level, aiding the joint planning process. However, there was often resentment and hostility between front line workers, largely due to a lack of mutual understanding about tasks and priorities.
• Housing management staff felt that some level of support was often crucial to sustaining a tenancy. Such support may range from the intensive (e.g. live-in assistance), to the minimal (e.g. help with simple practical tasks).
• Specialist workers employed by housing departments had a central role in fulfilling community care objectives. They tended to build up personal relationships with tenants, and in some instances adopted a 'case work' approach which was hard to distinguish from the social work role.
• Housing departments often funded any support service by an additional charge on the rent, currently recoverable under housing benefit regulations. Considerable concern was expressed that threatened changes to these regulations would jeopardise this support.
• Some housing departments were struggling to reconcile CCT's emphasis on property management with community care's 'social and welfare' role. Others were overcoming this by paying attention to the community care implications of all aspects of housing management, often in consultation with health and social services, and sometimes seeking contractual agreements about support issues with social services.

Background

When the legislation enshrined in the National Health and Community Care Act 1990 was passed the role of housing agencies in meeting community care needs was not considered. However, since that time it has been given more prominence, as evidenced by the Department of Health/Department of the Environment Circular 10/92 which acknowledged the central role of appropriate housing and urged housing authorities to take account of community care requirements in preparing for compulsory competitive tendering (CCT). However, most attention has focused on the role of housing in the joint planning process and there has been a lack of concern about the potential contribution that housing management can make in meeting community care needs.

The trend towards the residualisation of council housing has meant that local authority housing departments are already having to deal with an increasing proportion of vulnerable tenants. The move away from institutional care also means that many public landlords are finding a growing number of people with community care needs living as tenants in 'ordinary' housing, or approaching the agency for housing through homelessness mechanisms, allocation procedures or through planned discharge programmes from institutions. Both of these trends mean that housing departments are under pressure to fulfil a social and welfare role to a greater or lesser extent.

Towards a categorisation of activities

The research sought to elucidate what housing managers and officers considered to be within the scope of housing management, and in particular what, if any, additional services were offered to vulnerable tenants, especially those with community care needs. Based on the information gathered the following categorisation of activities has been drawn up reflecting the full spectrum of activities engaged in by housing management staff.

• core housing management tasks - the basic landlord function
• intensive housing management - a more intensive service for those with community care needs
• housing advice and information, including community care assessments
• community support - services, advice and support to promote community functioning and integration
• brokerage - negotiation and advocacy with other agencies
• practical, non-personal, dwelling-related support - for example, internal decoration, gardening
• practical, non-personal non-dwelling related support - for example, shopping, home-making skills
• practical personal support - for example, getting out of bed, physical health services and emotional support.

The boundaries between housing management and support

The interviews undertaken revealed widespread uncertainty and variation over the interpretation of what housing management was or should be, and the extent to which anything beyond a core housing management service should be provided. Even in those housing offices where boundaries had been drawn in principle, it appeared that they were difficult to maintain in practice. Most housing staff believed that housing management was not just about managing the property and that some form of personal contact with tenants was an important part of the basic landlord function. However, there was disagreement about how far such involvement should go.

"I probably don't think that a housing officer can be so generic as to offer support."

Acting Special Needs Officer

"I don't believe it's housing's job to be a carer, although it is a big part of our job. You can't just turn round and say, well, I'm not going to do that. You have to assess the situation."

Housing Officer

"Any housing officer is expected to perform a social and welfare role."

Area Manager

"I think there are people in this office who would be quite glad to see the back of the social side of the job and just do it as a bricks and mortar exercise."

Housing Officer

Some housing departments had responded to the pressures generated by the increasing numbers of tenants with support needs by creating specialist posts. These included tenancy support workers, resettlement workers, family welfare officers, housing alarm officers and concierges. Resettlement workers, for example, would arrange appropriate housing, liaise with other agencies, and assist with benefit claims and the purchase of furniture. Another authority, in an attempt to solve problems in multi-storey blocks, had engaged concierges who had 'welfare' as a specific remit of their job. They undertook a range of tasks to assist vulnerable tenants, including changing light bulbs, fetching prescriptions, contacting other agencies, and even on occasion cooking a meal. Such workers demonstrably provided more of a social and welfare role than generic officers, often developing a personal relationship with tenants which in itself was highly beneficial.

Relations between housing and social services staff

In some cases there had been considerable progress in getting housing involved in the joint planning process for community care. However, housing managers were still unclear of their role and felt relegated to a peripheral position. Instances of involvement in community care assessments, for example, were minimal. The main concern of front line housing officers was how support was to be provided for vulnerable tenants and by whom. They believed that this should be a social work responsibility, but that there was an unwillingness or an inability to take it on.

"Whenever the housing officer thinks they have got a social services case social services will say no, it isn't a potential case, it's not severe enough."

Social Worker

Housing officers thus felt they were having to step into the gap and do work for which they were under-qualified and under-resourced. The resentment that this engendered was compounded by the fact that they perceived social workers as being unwilling to pass on often crucial information about tenants, and as having a blinkered attitude to the nature of the housing management task.

This perception of social workers was to some extent reinforced during the course of the research:

"My perception of the housing department is that it is to do with management of buildings and collection of rent. I am not sure that there has ever been a very strong sense of the welfare of tenants."

Social Worker

However, this appeared to be as much to do with professional identity and a desire to preserve their own territory in the social care field as to an intrinsic belief that housing management was incapable of providing a support role. Some social workers could see the potential of housing management in assisting the social work enterprise.

"I think a housing officer who knows his tenants is brilliant in terms of adding to our assessment of someone's needs and I would hope social workers would take account of that."

Social Worker

A support role for housing management?

In the light of the evidence from the study, the researchers conclude that housing management cannot escape a responsibility for at least some level of social and welfare role if it is to play its part in fulfilling community care objectives. Confusion about boundaries between different agencies occurs partly because it is not possible to draw a clear, logically consistent dividing line between what should be housing and social services responsibilities.

In the light of the diversity of the situation around the country, the emphasis should be on agreeing an appropriate division of responsibilities at local level, rather than searching for an elusive solution for general application. Ultimately it is for each housing authority to determine, within its local context, the level of services it intends to provide, whether it wishes to create specialist posts, and the way in which the responsibilities of different agencies will be clarified or formalised. This will require meaningful involvement in the joint planning process, a readiness to participate in community care assessments and the packaging of care plans, and a willingness to break down the barriers between related professions.

Community care and CCT

Real concern was expressed by many housing managers that CCT might threaten any progress which had been made in developing housing management into a more sensitive and caring service. It was felt that the issues involved were not amenable to the application of targets, performance indicators or effective monitoring, and that therefore they would be lost in the CCT process. Furthermore they would inevitably be seen as peripheral to the main tasks of lettings, collection of rents, administration of repairs and so on.

The researchers conclude that, despite these fears, it would seem that it is not impossible to construct a contract that ensures that community care objectives are met. This would need to be preceded by a review of the existing housing management service which seeks to identify and clarify precisely which support activities will be provided and by whom. This should be done in consultation with those health authorities, social service agencies and voluntary organisations which might be involved. Due consideration will have to be given at each stage of preparation for CCT as to whether adequate attention has been paid to the community care implications.

If all these issues are satisfactorily addressed, and resolved in a way which takes account of tenants with community care needs, there is no reason why CCT should not act as a trigger to the provision of a more effective and consistent housing management service.

About the study

The study was undertaken by David Clapham and Bridget Franklin at the Centre for Housing Research and Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow. Both are now employed at the Centre for Housing Management and Development at the University of Wales Cardiff. The research was based on a series of semi-structured interviews with staff in local authority housing departments and housing associations in England and Scotland. In addition, interviews were conducted with social services staff in the same authorities.

Further information

A book by David Clapham and Bridget Franklin, Housing Management, Community Care and Competitive Tendering, which incorporates recommendations from the research, is available from the Chartered Institute of Housing (Tel: 01203 694433). In addition, a fuller discussion of the research and its policy implications The Housing Management Contribution to Community Care is available from the Centre for Housing Research and Urban Studies, price £5 (Contact Julie Morgan, Tel: 0141 339 8855 ext 5048).