1. Housing and care and support
The traditional definition of care services is changing and one main aspect of this is the
increasing link to housing need as reflected in the increased levels of referrals from housing for
Adult Social Services. Need and demand analysis for care and support services is therefore
inextricably linked to the analysis of accommodation in the borough and the availability in
particular of suitable housing for disabled and vulnerable adults. The Housing Needs Survey
2006 also appears to show the link between support needs and the quality of accommodation
and status of tenure.
The 2006 Housing Needs Assessment estimates that 4.14% of all households, or 5294
households (see table in appendix), suffer from ill-health due to the condition of their home and
which is linked to forms of tenure, and geographical location. For example 15.3% of households
living in council rented accommodation suffer from ill-health because of the condition of their
home and 7.36% of households in Hendon suffer from ill-health because of house condition.
The assessment also estimates that these households are more likely to contain no older
people and to have support needs. Further work is required on reviewing the reasons why
people said their house condition was causing their ill-health. It might be that they are under
notice of eviction or that the house is difficult to heat or that the home suffers from major
disrepair.
The Housing Needs Assessment also estimated that there are 18,734 households with support
needs and that 73.6% of the households require support because of physical disability and
24.2% because they are frail/elderly. A majority of support needs households contain older
people and most requirements relate to needs and adaptations. Some of these households
must also suffer from ill-health because of the condition of their home and more work needs to
be done to identify and link the data on support needs households and ill-health households.
21.4% of all households in Barnet contain only older people and almost all households
containing older persons only are comprised of one or two persons only. There is an increase
predicted in the numbers of older people living alone in common with the national picture and
therefore likely increased demand for support and adaptations to their home.
Housing related support funded through the Supporting People programme is focused on
maintaining independence and supporting stable accommodation arrangements for adults in
the community who experience a range of difficulties including disability, mental health
problems, domestic violence, substance misuse and homelessness. There has been a recent
rise in the numbers of people supported through these arrangements, some of which act as
alternatives to care services. This is reflected in the Supporting People activity data:
A total of 1446 new client record forms were received for 2007-08, an increase of 479 on last
year’s figure of 970, and an improvement of 49%. The overall number of new service entrants
in Barnet was 55% higher than the London borough average although Barnet receives 20%
less SP grant than average. These figures reflect increasing volumes of people from a range of
groups receiving short term support; where 79.5% of the client record forms were for floating
support (the support goes to where the need is) in Barnet compared to a London average of
45.6%, however this should be set against 4.2% for supported housing (support is linked to
specific housing options) in Barnet against a London average of 31.4%. A breakdown of
activity for 2007/08 for supporting people in Barnet compared to London and England is set out

2. Comparison of the breakdown of Supporting People activity
London England
No % % %
Floating support 1150 79.5 45.6 40.0
Direct access 166 11.5 11.2 16.3
Supported housing 61 4.2 31.4 30.3
Womens refuge 45 3.1 4.3 5.8
Foyer 15 1.0 0.8 1.7
Resettlement services 9 0.6 5.2 2.8
Residential care home 0.0 0.2 0.1
Adult placement 0.0 0.1 0.1
Supported lodgings 0.0 0.3 0.6
Teenage parent accommodation 0.0 0.2 0.3
Outreach service 0.0 0.9 2.1
100.0 100.0 100.0
Total 1446 1446 30734 203651
Barnet