| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/C532945/1 |
| Title: |
Remodelling sheltered housing and residential care homes to extra care housing |
| Principal Investigator: |
Tinker, Professor A |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Political Economy |
| Organisation: |
Kings College London |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 May 2005 |
Ends: |
31 July 2007 |
Value (£): |
260,214
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Construction Ops & Management |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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A key objective of policy for older people is to enable them to remain in a home of their own. For the majority this will mean in their existing home but for a minority the most suitable option will be extra care housing (sheltered housing with extra facilities such as additional communal space, meals and the availability of care - sometimes called very sheltered housing). Research shows that this is popular with older people and is a cost effective option. The Government has recently made an additional special grant available for providing additional places in the public sector. Building new schemes is expensive and takes a long time. What some providers are doing is to convert existing sheltered housing schemes, some of which have proved difficult to let, and residential care homes into extra care housing. In some areas all residential care homes have been closed and only extra care housing provided in its place. No research to our knowledge has been done on the technical issues, how they were overcome, the benefits and outcomes.The objectives of this research are to examine how local authority and housing association sheltered housing sheltered housing and residential care homes have been remodelled to become extra care housing. This will involve architects, rehabilitation engineers and social scientists examining buildings to see how the remodelled schemes have been adapted, how successful this has been and what the problems are.There will be ten case studies (5 local authorities and 5 housing associations) to examine a sample of sheltered housing schemes which have been converted to extra care housing and residential care homes to extra care housing with a focus on recent conversions.. The research will include studying before and after drawings and considering the implications for planning permission, building regulations etc. Interviews will be carried out with staff to see why the remodelling was done any problems and how they were overcome, how and why tenants were chosen (a sample will be interviewed) and the assistive technology needed to cater for the increased frailty of the tenants. The architects for the ten schemes will be interviewed in order to analyse the design-making process for each conversion. Members of the team will assess what other structural, engineering and innovatory assistive technology might be needed in the future. The costs of the conversion will be calculated with the help of an economist. The end result will be advice for local authorities and housing associations.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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