Housing Options for Older People presentation at the Caseworkers Network meeting held on June 19th 2019

1. Housing Options for Older
People (HOOP)
Adam Hillier
Deputy Chief Executive
Elderly Accommodation Counsel

2. Self-help toolkit
• An increasing number of local authorities, housing providers and
advice agencies are using self-help tools to help meet demand for
information and advice with reduced budgets
• HOOP helps older people to think about their home and how they live
in it. It has been dubbed a ‘housing MOT’ by one of our partners
• Can be used to help achieve a range of aims:
• Exploring alternative housing options
• Maintaining current home/tenancy
• ‘Delay and prevent’ need for health and social care services by accessing services
• Help to meet duties around the provision of information and advice

3. Using HOOP
1. HOOP takes users through nine topic areas, getting them to think about any
housing-related concerns that they might have.
2. Users are asked to ‘tick’ any concerns and score the topic out of 10, with 10
being ‘perfect’ and 1 being ‘terrible’. Users are also asked to state whether any
of the problems affect their health/wellbeing.
3. At the end, HOOP highlights the problematic topics and makes suggestions on
how these could be improved. It also identifies local services, accommodation
options and further reading.
4. Should the user need additional support, they are given the option of
submitting their session to a FirstStop advisor; who will contact them by email
or telephone.

4. Customisation
• All suggestions are fully customisable to reflect local policy and
services
• New local services can given priority on the suggestion pages
• Local resources (factsheets, leaflets, brochures, websites etc) can be
displayed on the suggestion pages
• Joint-branding is also available

5. Mini-HOOP (leaflet)

6. HOOP statistics
August - October
National
•Approximately 5,700 users
•Over 200 submissions to the FirstStop advice team
HOOP user survey
•68% of users using HOOP to “identify issues” with their current home found ‘what they were
looking for’ whilst using HOOP

7. Developing local HOOP pilots
• EAC hope to work in partnership with local authorities, landlords and
health authorities to produce a self-help toolkit that helps older
people:
• Live independently at home for longer
• Understand the alternative housing options that may be available
• Identify the local services that may be available to them
• Provides information that is local to their borough

8. Demonstrating HOOP
• 76 year old man
• Home owner – 3 bedroom house
• Newcastle resident
• Struggling to maintain his home
• Considering a move closer to family