Moores House Sheltered Accommodation Scheme tenants survey
We asked
We carried out a consultation to hear from tenants in the sheltered accommodation scheme, Moores House, about how they use the role of the Scheme Manager and two Activity Co-ordinator posts. There has been a long-standing funding arrangement for Moores House and its housing association, The Retail Trust. This originated as part of the Supporting People Programme. This central government programme was discontinued in 2010. The Council has however continued to provide the funding despite there being no duty to do so.
A review of the services by the Adult Services and Health Directorate has identified that the service provided by this organisation does not appear to have been commissioned to meet any eligible social care needs as defined under Section 18 of Care Act 2014 for residents based in the properties. It is considered to be discretionary rather than mandatory funding.
The consultation commenced from 25th January to 8th March 2023. The survey was distributed to all tenants in the scheme with a covering letter. The survey was also accessible online. In addition, we completed a site visit to meet with tenant’s face-to-face to explain the purpose of the survey and to understand what impact any potential changes may have. It was important to have a face-to-face meeting to be able to communicate with tenants the purpose and objective of the consultation.
You said
The consultation was hosted on Liverpool City Council’s consultation hub and letters sent to each tenant in the scheme through Liverpool City Council's mail room.
We have received a total of 2 online responses and 21 total paper surveys. The survey was completed by 65.22% female and 34.78% male. The highest age percentile for participation with the consultation was 70 to 74 at 30.43%. The consultation was available to tenants in Moores House only.
The responses received allowed the Council to understand how people living in the scheme would be affected If changes to funding was implemented, as well as an understanding on the demand and utilisation of a Scheme Manager and Activity Coordinators.
Key themes highlighted the following:
- 3% of tenants indicated the role of the scheme manager was an important part of the scheme. Tenants demand for the role is for housing support such as reporting repairs and seeking advice on tenancies.
- 7% of tenants that completed the survey stated that they did not have demand for the Scheme Manager role.
- 0% of tenants stated they had ‘no comment’ when completing the survey.
- The consultation highlighted that 95.65% of tenants were on housing benefits. This supports the Council's recommendation to assist the landlord to apply for enhanced housing benefit for identified individuals. This means that people living in the scheme who qualify can still receive housing related support. For the remainder of tenants that self-fund the changes will not affect them.
- 6% of tenants would be affected if the funding was ceased for the Activity Coordinator posts. The themes of feedback were that the presence of activities in the scheme helps to prevent social exclusion and loneliness and allows tenants to feel supported. It was evident from the survey responses that the activity coordinators allow people living in the scheme to feel a sense of community. During the Council's site visit a number of tenants explained that they had selected Moores House because of the availability of activities that take place every day.
- We asked tenants if they would be willing to pay privately for activities and 47.8% reported they would not fund independently. 43.5% said they would be willing to support activities, but that it would be dependent on the costings.
Lastly, different delivery methods may need to be considered when consulting with individuals beyond face to face, online and paper-based approaches. Feedback from the consultation highlighted that the online survey was difficult for some people taking part due to barrier with feeling confident online and having access to computers/laptops.
In addition, lessons were learnt when completing survey questions around protected characteristics particularly when considering legal marital or same-sex civil partnership status. The survey completed did not have the option for participants to select widow/widower as an option which would have made the survey more inclusive. We had a number of people write on the form that they were a widow or widower and as this status is important to consider for this age group, we will consider this for any future consultation.
We did
This consultation has provided an understanding of people’s views that live in the scheme and the impact that any changes will have on them.
The findings from the surveys will help define the next steps for Liverpool City Council. There will now be some changes made to the funding arrangement that is in place between the Council and Moores House sheltered accommodation scheme.
Next steps
During the consultation, the landlord accepted that those tenants on housing benefit should be able to claim enhanced housing benefit towards the scheme manager posts to provide housing support.
The outcome of the consultation is that the discretionary funding for the housing support for scheme manager is stopped on 30.06.2023 to allow tenants time to claim enhanced housing benefit and the landlords to reassess how they fund the positions.
Based on the review of the feedback, it has been identified that the activities being funded are something that the landlords should have responsibility for and tenants to have choice and control over in respect of activity coordinator posts. As The Retail Trust have already set resident charges for the financial year 2023/24 it is recommended that funding is concluded on a phased basis to allow yourselves to transition to alternative funding arrangements. This means that funding is included for 2023/ 2024 to Moores House for a 0.5 full time equivalent activity coordinator post which will allow The Retail Trust to source new funding for this post.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts and feedback with us.