Guidance

Improving health through the home: a checklist for local plans and policies

Published 10 November 2016

A. Should the plan consider the relationship between health and home?

To begin with it is important to understand what the plan is seeking to achieve, for who and when. The relationship between home and health, and opportunities for the housing sector to contribute, will differ.

1. What outcomes is the plan seeking to achieve or contribute to? What is the vision and how will success be measured?

For example, improved life chances for young people, reduced dependency on public services from those with complex needs, reduced delayed transfers of care, increased labour market participation etc.

3. Broadly speaking, what are the main mechanisms described to achieve the stated outcomes?

For example, a single investment fund, integrated commissioning and delivery, new technology, workforce development, data sharing, market development, new homes, empowering communities etc,

4. Who is the governing body for the plan? Who will be held to account?

At this point you should be able to answer the following question, with reference to the evidence if necessary.

5. Is it relevant for the plan to consider the relationships between health, and home and housing circumstance?

If the answer to this question is yes, then move on to the next section.

B. Has the impact of the home on health and wellbeing been considered in the plan?

Having reviewed the plan’s intended outcomes and planned mechanisms you will be in a better position to consider if there should be an evident understanding of whether the home environment and/or housing circumstances may have an impact on achieving the aims of the plan.

It is not necessarily the case that the plan will describe this in detail: often plans are intentionally short, and refer to sources of intelligence that have informed them, for example the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. To answer the following you may need to review the other referenced sources of information.

6. Is it clear where the intended beneficiaries of the plan live?

a. Has tenure been described?

b. Has location (neighbourhood and community characteristics) been described?

c. Have living arrangements and/or household circumstances been described? Eg, sharing, living alone etc.?

7. Have the following been described in terms of their impact on the beneficiaries’ health and wellbeing?

a. The healthiness of current homes?

b. The suitability of current homes?

c. The stability of tenure of current homes?

C. Are plans in place to improve health through the home?

Even if the plan has not described where the beneficiaries live or the impact on health and wellbeing, it may include plans to improve the home environment or housing circumstances.

8. Are there are specific proposals to improve the home environment or housing circumstances as a means to achieve improved health and wellbeing? What are these?

9. Are these proposals adequate to address the identified housing and health issues or those issues you know or could reasonably expect to exist in your local area?

If not, what else could be included?

10. Has the potential for the local housing, health and social care workforce to contribute to intended outcomes been identified?

If not, what else could be included?