To consider the acceptance and approval of the use of Better Care / Disabled Facilities Grant funding received from Lincolnshire County Council to fund and host the Lincolnshire Good Homes Advice & Casework pilot.

1.       That the additional allocation of £177,969 Better Care / Disabled Facilities Grant funding for 2023/24 received from Lincolnshire County Council be accepted;

a.       That the use of £112,844 to contribute funding to a 2-year Good Home Alliance Advice & Casework pilot, funded via contributing Lincolnshire District Councils and County Council be approved; and

b.       That the use of £65,125 remaining additional BCF/DGF funding for 2023/24 to support the delivery of DFG and, where appropriate, Discretionary Housing Financial Assistance be approved.

2.       That the hosting of the proposed 2-year Advice and Casework pilot on behalf of the Good Home Alliance funding authorities, inclusive of the recruitment of up to four (4) 2-year fixed term Advice and Casework Officers (in line with available funding) and the retention of the existing Healthy and Accessible Homes (Housing) Lead role for 2 years be approved; and

That subject to the Executive Board approval of recommendations 1 and 2 above;

3.       That Full Council be recommended to accept £340,965 funding from Lincolnshire County Council to fund the 2 year pilot service, inclusive of the £112,844 ELDC contribution; and

That subject to the receipt of additional external funding contributions:

4.       That Full Council be recommended to delegate approval to the Section 151 Officer in consultation with the Assistant Director – Wellbeing and Community Leadership and Portfolio Holder for Communities and Better Ageing, to accept up to £145,035 in additional external funding contributions to support the delivery and expansion of the Advice and Casework pilot throughout 2024/25 - 2026/27. Bringing the total available funding for the 2-year Advice and Casework pilot to £486,000 across 2024/25 – 2026/27.

A report was presented to enable consideration of the use of Better Care / Disabled Facilities Grant funding received from Lincolnshire County Council to fund and host the Lincolnshire Good Homes Advice & Casework pilot.

This report presented a summary of the partnership project between the Centre for Ageing Better (CFAB), Lincolnshire County Council and Lincolnshire District Councils to develop a Good Home Alliance (GHA) in Lincolnshire.

It also explained how elements of the Alliance were being progressed and recommended support was given to progress the project’s themes, specifically funding East Lindsey District Council’s contribution to and hosting of a 2-year advice and casework pilot service across Lincolnshire that is central to the approach.

During his introduction the Portfolio Holder for Communities and Better Ageing referred to the Centre for Better Ageing, Lincolnshire County Council and all Lincolnshire District councils working together to support more people to improve the condition of their homes to help improve health and wellbeing.  This project brought together Lincolnshire’s ambition to support people to live independently, stay connect and have greater choice in where and how they lived. 

This was focused on the development of a Good Home Alliance in Lincolnshire to provide a local public facing hub providing access to information and advice, finance schemes and a range of home improvement services.

It was estimated a pilot of four case workers would provide advice and support for up to approximately 1500 referrals each year, the service to be established in a sustainable way to meet identified needs.  Full details of the Good Home Alliance pilot were set out within Section 2 of the report.

The pilot funding contributions were shown at Table 1 to paragraph 2.7 of the report.

Following which, it was confirmed that six of the seven districts involved were now confirmed.  Thanks were expressed to those officers involved and Members fully supported the recommendations.

RESOLVED

1.       That the additional allocation of £177,969 Better Care / Disabled Facilities Grant funding for 2023/24 received from Lincolnshire County Council be accepted;

a.       That the use of £112,844 to contribute funding to a 2-year Good Home Alliance Advice & Casework pilot, funded via contributing Lincolnshire District Councils and County Council be approved; and

b.       The use of £65,125 remaining additional BCF/DGF funding for 2023/24 to support the delivery of DFG and, where appropriate, Discretionary Housing Financial Assistance be approved.

2.       That the hosting of the proposed 2-year Advice and Casework pilot on behalf of the Good Home Alliance funding authorities, inclusive of the recruitment of up to four (4) 2-year fixed term Advice and Casework Officers (in line with available funding) and the retention of the existing Healthy and Accessible Homes (Housing) Lead role for 2 years be approved; and

That subject to the Executive Board approval of recommendations 1 and 2 above, the Executive Board recommends that:

3.       That Full Council be recommended to accept £340,965 funding from Lincolnshire County Council to fund the 2 year pilot service, inclusive of the £112,844 ELDC contribution; and

That subject to the receipt of additional external funding contributions, that the Executive Board recommends that:

4.       That Full Council be recommended to delegate approval to the Section 151 Officer in consultation with the Assistant Director – Wellbeing and Community Leadership and Portfolio Holder for Communities and Better Ageing, to accept up to £145,035 in additional external funding contributions to support the delivery and expansion of the Advice and Casework pilot throughout 2024/25 - 2026/27. Bringing the total available funding for the 2-year Advice and Casework pilot to £486,000 across 2024/25 – 2026/27.

Reasons:

A Good Home Alliance advice and casework pilot would help our residents, especially owner-occupiers who are older and vulnerable, to maintain their homes. This will benefit our community’s health and wellbeing and should lead to considerable cost saving to the public purse. Additionally the Centre for Ageing Better will continue to work with Lincolnshire Councils to fund an evaluation of the pilot. This will provide invaluable information and evidence on the benefits of the service to residents, the savings to the public purse and other operational learning to support the service being permanently delivered.

Lincolnshire County Council support the use of this additional Better Care / Disabled Facilities Grant funding to support the Good Home Alliance advice and casework pilot as set out within section 2 of this report.

The additional funding’s purpose is to support the delivery of Disabled Facilities Grants and where appropriate Discretionary Grants.

Other options:

1)       To allocate the total additional Better Care Funding (BCF) / Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) funding for 2023/24 received from Lincolnshire County Council to support the delivery of DFGs and where appropriate, Discretionary Housing Financial Assistance.

This option does not deliver against the ELDC commitment to support the delivery of identified actions within the Lincolnshire Homes for Independence Blueprint for people to live independently, stay connected and have greater choice in where and how they live.

This option does not support the continued development of the work that has been undertaken between the Centre for Ageing Better (CfAB), Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) and all Lincolnshire District councils to deliver against a key recommendation of the CfAB Good Home Inquiry “- placing a duty on local authorities to ensure every authority has a local ‘Good Home Agency’, a public-facing hub providing access to information and advice, finance schemes, and a range of home improvement services including maintenance and repair, accessibility adaptations and energy retrofit”

2)       Development of a specific ‘Good Home’ information and signposting website only.

This option only partially delivers against the recommendations of the CfAB Good Home Inquiry, and risks leaving vulnerable residents without access to necessary support where they lack the capacity or capability to resolve identified housing condition related issues for themselves.

This option is also not recommended as there will still be a requirement for continued support and development to ensure the web-based resource remain up to date and of value and does not allow for a period of testing and ongoing refinement post site launch.

3)       Host the Good Home Alliance Advice and Casework pilot within an alternative Authority, or delivery partner.

This option is not recommended at present due to the pilot nature of the service, available timescales to deliver and evaluate the pilot activities, and other recommissioning activities underway across the County.

ELDC is identified as the recommended host authority due to the level of funding being contributed by ELDC, representing 23% of the total 2-year funding, and the wider South and East Councils Partnership (SELCP) contributing almost 40% of the total proposed pilot funding.

A full options appraisal is included at Appendix 1 for other identified hosting options, including:

•        LCC or other District Hosted

•        Voluntary Sector Hosted

•        Wellbeing Service Hosted (note – this option remains a potential preferred option following evaluation and ongoing service delivery recommendations)

•        Do nothing.