HCA case study: February 2015 1

CASE STUDY

Hillside Park: these homes are making sure that people can remain independent in a home that meets their needs.

Meeting a long-term housing need

Wokingham faces a long-term challenge in providing homes that are suitable for some of its most vulnerable residents.

Previous research had identified more than 100 adults with learning disabilities who needed housing in the borough.

Pressure on local services had led to people with learning disabilities being placed in residential care homes, often out of the area.

But this approach did not promote independent lifestyles for its residents and was often more expensive than providing more appropriate housing over the long-term.

This is one of the reasons why providing homes that meet people’s needs is an important issue for local partners.

Wokingham Borough Council made it a priority to increase the number of homes for vulnerable people, including those with learning disabilities. It set out a strategy with clear aims to deliver four local schemes to meet this need.

This provided the basis for the superb specialist housing development at Hillside Park, which opened its doors for the first time in 2014.

Welcoming Hillside

Hillside Park is the first scheme to be built by the council’s housing company Wokingham Housing Ltd (WHL) and allows residents to live as independently as possible.

Built on a former mobile homes site in Shinfield, this scheme offers comfortable and safe new flats for nine people with learning and physical disabilities, one which can be used by carers and two bungalows for older people.

The scheme completed in the summer of 2014 and has been praised by partners and residents as an example of high quality housing that makes a difference to the quality of the lives of those who live there.

Our support for specialist housing

The HCA invested £350,000

through the first phase of

investment from its Care and

Support Specialised Housing

(CASSH) fund to support the

building of 10 new units on the site.

HILLSIDE PARK, WOKINGHAM Building better lives in Berkshire

HCA case study: February 2015 2

CASE STUDY

What partners say

Cllr John Kaiser, the council’s executive member for highways and planning, said:

“These specialist flats offer excellent modern accommodation for some of the borough’s most vulnerable residents.

“Delivering homes to meet the needs of local people is a key priority for the council and this particular scheme allows vulnerable people of all ages to live a full and independent life.

“I am pleased they are settling in well to their new homes.”

More information

For more information about the Care and Support Specialised Housing (CASSH), contact Lisa Clayton, HCA Area Manager, on:

lisa.clayton@hca.gsi.gov.uk 0300 1234 500

For the prospectus of the latest

phase of funding available, visit:

gov.uk/government/publications/

care-and-support-specialised-

housing-fund-phase-2-

prospectus

Sign up for our quarterly e-bulletin:

http://tinyurl.com/m5uxn6s

Hillside Park before its official opening in 2014

We invested £350,000 in the project through the Care and Support Specialised Housing fund, which is set up to help deliver new homes for older and vulnerable people across England

It was the first development in

England supported by the fund to

be completed.

The scheme is one of more than

100 projects supported through the

HCA fund in 2013, which is helping

to deliver up to 4,000 new homes

by 2018.

Applications are now open for

phase 2 of the CASSH fund, which

is run in partnership with the

Department of Health.

Partners have until noon on 29 May

2015 to submit bids for a share of

up to £120m from the latest phase

of funding.