Crossing the housing and care divide: Integrating housing and social care for older people

Abstract

The fundamental role of housing in community care has long been acknowledged. However, progress in achieving any real integration of housing and social care has been slow. This article reports the findings from the Crossing the Housing and Care Divide programme, which was jointly sponsored by the Housing Corporation and Anchor Trust. The programme aimed to stimulate developments in services for older people that would enable housing to become part of community care, lead to greater inter‐agency working, enhance the involvement of users in the planning, monitoring and delivery of services and deliver a high quality of service more cost‐effectively. The programme offers many practical lessons for the effectiveness of services.