This document discusses investing in prevention services for vulnerable people through supported housing models. It describes exempt accommodation, which provides extra care and supervision to tenants, allowing them to receive enhanced housing benefits and be exempt from some welfare reforms. Intensive housing management is discussed as another prevention approach that maintains independent living through additional support services. Social and financial return on investment is highlighted as an important framework for evaluating prevention strategies.

1. Invest In Prevention
Support Solutions
September 2014

2. Key Questions
Exempt & Specified
Accommodation
Housing Benefit & Intensive
Housing Management
Tenancy Sustainment
Welfare Reform & Vulnerability
Social & Financial Return on
Investment

3. Investing In Prevention: Context
The purpose of this series of events is to update you
with a number of developments relevant to providing
preventative services for people with additional needs
and to discuss them as examples of investment in
prevention.
We will be using social media throughout today & the
series of events to promote investment in prevention.
We’re using the hashtags #prevention & #SROI and
we’re using Twitter, we’re Live Blogging and using
Ustream (http://ustre.am/1hbYm)

4. Exempt Accommodation
Introduced in 1995 to exempt certain social
landlords from private sector rent level restrictions
Definition:
Landlord must be a non-metropolitan county council; voluntary
organisation, charity or Registered Provider (housing
association)
Landlord must have legal interest in the properties concerned
(ownership or lease)
Tenants concerned must need “care, support & supervision”
Additional services to meet those needs must be provided by the
landlord or an agent on its behalf

5. Advantages of Exempt Accommodation
Attracts enhanced levels of Housing Benefit to meet the
additional needs of people who need “care, support &
supervision” (more than “normal property management
functions”), for example, supported & sheltered housing
Has advantages under the Welfare Reform Act. Exempt
Accommodation tenants are excluded from:
 Spare Room Subsidy (“Bedroom Tax”)
 Benefit Cap
 Direct Payment of Rent
Local Authorities can reclaim the enhanced HB they pay
to Exempt Accommodation providers in full where a
Registered Provider has a legal interest in the property

6. Exempt Accommodation
Some schemes, often wrongly, deemed not to “meet
the precise definition of Exempt Accommodation”
Agency-managed schemes
Schemes that provide insufficient “care, support &
supervision”
Means they can fall outside of Welfare Reform Act
protections & not be entitled to enhanced levels of
Housing Benefit
DWP devised an additional definition: “Specified
Accommodation” to cover such schemes

7. Exempt Accommodation &
Investment in Prevention
Exempt Accommodation is an excellent example of
investing in prevention
Enables people with additional needs to be provided
with services to help them remain independent in
relation to their accommodation
Takes pressure off statutory services
Saves a lot of money

8. Specified Accommodation
There are 4 categories of “Specified
Accommodation”
Exempt Accommodation (as described above)
Supported housing where the landlord does not
provide the care, support or supervision
Refuges (Domestic Violence & Abuse)
Local authority non-self-contained supported
housing (hostels)

9. Specified Accommodation
Tenants entitled to enhanced levels of HB
due to having additional needs
Tenants excluded from:
Benefit Cap
Direct payment of rent
But NOT from Spare Room Subsidy (“Bedroom
Tax”)

10. Specified Accommodation 2nd Category
Supported housing deemed not to be Exempt
Accommodation because the landlord (or an agency on
its behalf) doesn’t provide the “care support &
supervision”.
But actually it often IS Exempt Accommodation because:
 the Landlord provides “more than normal property functions”
(Intensive Housing Management)
 Or an agency does this on behalf of the Landlord (usually in
addition to support funded by a 3rd party such as a local authority)
 And where the Intensive Housing Management is funded by HB

11. Specified Accommodation 2nd Category
The person has to be “admitted” to the
accommodation to receive the “care support &
supervision”
Assessment
The accommodation should be commissioned,
designed or designated as supported housing by a
statutory authority to qualify as Specified
Accommodation
But we think ALL Specified Accommodation is, or could be
made to be, Exempt Accommodation

12. Specified Accommodation: Refuges
Intended to protect Refuges that are allegedly not
Exempt Accommodation.
Includes Local Authority refuges (Specified
Accommodation of other types excludes LA
accommodation except refuges and hostels)
Includes “non-familial” domestic violence, e.g.,
landlord or neighbour
We believe that most, if not all, refuges are or easily
could be Exempt Accommodation

13. Specified Accommodation: LA Hostels
Local Authority hostels providing “care,
support & supervision” are deemed to be
Specified Accommodation
They could be deemed Exempt
Accommodation if:
 the LA is a County Council or
the LA is registered with the Homes &
Communities Agency as a Registered Provider

14. Specified Accommodation
Specified Accommodation, aside from Exempt
Accommodation, isn’t necessarily entitled to enhanced
HB if the LA deems the rents to be unreasonably high
Where no Registered Provider is involved it will be
restricted to Local Housing Allowance levels – not
exactly an investment in prevention!
Only Exempt Accommodation provides:
A guarantee of enhanced HB
Full exclusions from Welfare Reform Act provisions
All too often schemes that are actually Exempt
Accommodation are mistakenly seen as not Exempt

15. Intensive Housing Management
General needs housing management more
intensively applied
Additional housing management tasks that
reflect the additional needs of tenants with the
objective of maintaining & developing
independence in relation to accommodation
http://supportsolutions.co.uk/docs/intensive_housing_

16. Intensive Housing Management
Providers of Exempt & Specified Accommodation can
include IHM tasks in HB claims
Local Authorities can pay enhanced HB claims to meet
additional needs of tenants requiring “more than normal
property management functions”
Local Authorities can reclaim the enhanced HB they pay
via their annual subsidy claim
Intensive Housing Management qualifies as “care,
support & supervision” for the purposes of qualifying for
Exempt or Specified Accommodation
It is another form of investment in prevention

17. Intensive Housing Management
We believe that the total amount of the annual HB UK
budget of £17bn (2011-12) paid to Exempt/Specified
Accommodation is 6-7%
The DWP is currently quantifying it at local level
It funds Intensive Housing Management as well as rent
and it’s the only part of the HB budget on which we get
both a social and financial return as an investment in
prevention
It is likely to be “localised”
Probably means a fixed pot & maybe a finite list of
eligible tasks

18. Intensive Housing Management
Another “Platinum Cut” as per Supporting People?
Probably.
Whether or not that happens, but especially if it does, it
is important to ensure that you have access to that
revenue now. Trying to get it after the “cut” may not be
possible
That’s what we’ve been helping people to do since 2005
If it is localised it may be restricted/cash-limited, which
means the service charge may not be sufficient to meet
all additional needs
In which case it can be allocated to rent. Plan B!

19. Click here to expand this graphic

20. Intensive Housing Management
Ensuring tenant’s rent is paid regularly and on time.
Explaining the tenancy agreement and assisting tenants
abide by it.
Organising inspections of tenant’s property and
arranging for any repairs or improvements to be carried
out, including the replacement of furniture.
Ensuring that tenants are aware of their rights under
their tenancy agreement.
Offering tenants advice and guidance on keeping their
property to a reasonable standard of hygiene

21. Intensive Housing Management
Assisting tenants to access other support providers as
required.
Liaising with all relevant agencies, both statutory and
voluntary, on tenant’s behalf.
Assisting tenants to reduce rent arrears.
Dealing with nuisance issues.
Ensuring that tenants know how to use equipment
safely.
Providing tenants with advice and facilitating a move to
alternative accommodation as required.

22. Intensive Housing Management
Assisting tenants to claim Housing Benefit and other
welfare benefits.
Helping to keep tenants safe by monitoring visitors,
including contractors and professionals, and by carrying
out health and safety and risk assessments of property.
Providing communication, CCTV, door entry, fire and
other safety systems as a consequence of tenants’
additional needs.
Depreciating furniture, fixtures, fittings & white goods
over a shorter period of time than would otherwise be the
case.

23. Exempt & Specified Accommodation
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/pdf
 Housing Benefit and Universal Credit
(Supported Housing) (Amendment)
Regulations 2014
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/uksi/2014/
771

24. Exempt Accommodation Resources
Please talk to us!
www.supportsolutions.co.uk/briefing/issue_12/exempt_www.supportsolutions.co.uk/briefing/issue_12/ucihm.www.supportsolutions.co.uk/briefing/issue_11/intensive_

25. Tenancy Sustainment
Often people think that Exempt Accommodation involves
only multiply-occupied buildings: but see the qualifying
criteria on slide 4.
It doesn’t mention the type of property and anyway, it
should be about the needs of the person
A large number of “general needs” tenants in social
housing have additional needs: elders, mental health,
learning disability, chaotic lifestyles, substance misuse…
Without short-term and long-term interventions many of
these tenants would be unable to stay put and would
require more expensive & less independent
accommodation

26. Tenancy Sustainment
Tenancy sustainment is an investment in prevention. It
prevents:
 Evictions/homelessness
 Arrears
 The need for more expensive supported/sheltered housing
It maximises independence
It’s Exempt Accommodation: LAs can reclaim the
enhanced HB they pay to fund it & take pressure off
themselves & statutory sector colleagues
We have already worked with providers to develop
tenancy sustainment services funded by HB.

27. Social (& Financial) Return on Investment

28. Social (& Financial) Return on Investment
We are in a process of paradigm shift in
the way that services for people with
additional needs are funded
There is an emphasis of prevention
….and on Social Return on Investment
(SROI)
This helps to move us towards a focus on
value before cost

29. Social (& Financial) Return on Investment
SROI is a methodology pioneered by the
SROI Network
It is interested in changing the way that society
accounts for value
In methodological terms it puts value before cost,
rather like investment in prevention
It’s the theoretical side of the infographic we saw on
slide 26
There is a debate about whether SROI should
measure monetary as well as social value

30. Social (& Financial) Return on Investment
We think it’s important for SROI to calculate a monetary
value (cost-benefit) – for now
Because Commissioners work from cash-limited pots
and want to know how much money a preventative
intervention will save their budget
We have therefore developed our SFROI methodology
accordingly so that providers can assess social
outcomes and cost-benefit when providing preventative
services
This is a hugely important approach to funding services
for people with additional needs.

31. Our Contact Details
Media House
3 Drayton Road
Birmingham B14 7LP
0121 441 2955
www.supportsolutions.co.uk www.investinprevention.uk
info@supportsolutions.co.uk info@investinprevention.uk
Twitter @suppsolutions @PreventionTweet
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-Solutions-Ltd/176634252380383?
ref=hl
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Invest-In-Prevention/255554917972436
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