Sheltered housing is designed to meet the needs of older people. Typically, sheltered housing schemes are self-contained flats or bungalows with communal areas such as a lounge or common room and other facilities like a laundry, guest room or hairdressing. Most have an estate manager who is either resident on site, or who makes regular visits.
The flats themselves have central heating and a call alarm system linked to a central control for emergencies when the estate manager is not available. There are different categories of sheltered housing and not all schemes will have all of these features.
The scope of sheltered housing is gradually changing. For instance, aspirations are changing. In the past, residents moved into residential care homes to access the care that they required as they got older and frailer. Now, residents often want to stay put within sheltered schemes for as long as possible, rather than moving on. To meet these changing needs we are looking closely at the physical aspects of the schemes, the role of the estate managers and links with other service providers.
Our 930 sheltered housing properties are managed by a specialist team of seven staff based in the Liskeard office. They work with 17 scheme based staff.
