Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how his Department’s plans to assess people's length of stay in supported housing will take account of the fluctuation of mental health conditions and associated challenges.

Supported accommodation provides a lifeline to many vulnerable people including those with mental health conditions and this Government is committed to protecting this vital provision.

We are engaging with the supported accommodation sector on the Government’s new approach to funding housing costs, which comes in from April 2020, and as part of this we will be talking extensively to providers and stakeholders on how provision for people with mental health conditions should work within Government’s proposals for funding short-term and long-term supported accommodation.

I should make clear our proposals do not involve a requirement to assess individuals’ length of stay. The two years mentioned in the proposed definition for short-term support housing refers to the type of supported housing provision, rather than actual stays by individuals. Decisions on the length of an individual’s stay, for example taking into account any fluctuation in their mental health condition, will remain the responsibility of providers and/or care/support workers. There is also certainly no intention that individuals would need to leave or be transferred from an existing placement in short-term supported accommodation solely because the length of their stay had exceeded two years. This is the case across the Government’s proposals for funding the housing costs of all categories of short-term supported accommodation, not just for provision for those with mental health conditions.

I recognise that supported housing for those with a mental health condition can be a complex area of provision, and officials will continue to work closely with this part of sector, for example with service providers such as Rethink Mental illness, to ensure that our decisions on detailed policy design here are as informed as possible.