The information below is also available as a PDF leaflet.
This information is for anyone who wants to know about Housing Related Support. It is particularly useful if you get a housing-related support service, or think you might need one.
The Housing Related Support programme pays for housing-related support services that help you to live independently and maintain your tenancy. The money comes from the Government as the Supporting People grant.
We use the money to:
- Pay other organisations to give you this support
- Make sure that the quality of the support is as good as possible.
Our Housing Related Support team is part of the Adults and Community department of Wolverhampton City Council.
We work with local health services and the probation service to manage the programme. When we talk about a Housing Related Support service we usually mean a service that is funded by the Housing Related Support grant.
These services should help to promote independence and may help prevent problems that might lead to people becoming homeless or going into hospital.
Housing-related support is help you can get to find, or stay in, your own home. This includes help to:
- gain or develop domestic or social skills
- keep you and your home safe
- claim benefits and manage the money you have.
Housing-related support does not include personal care services such as washing or dressing, or day care.
In Wolverhampton this housing-related support is provided in a number of ways:
Floating support services
These services are where you have a named support worker who will work with you for some time each week to help you with things like managing your money or developing domestic skills.
If you change where you live, the support worker will usually be able to continue working with you in your new home.
Accommodation based services
These services are services which offer you a place to live, along with support.
They can be things like:
- sheltered housing schemes where there is a warden available
- refuges for people who have experienced domestic violence
- hostels for homeless people
- other supported living schemes.
- Home improvement agencies
- Organisations that arrange repairs or adaptations to help you to stay in your own home.
Carelink alarm
A telephone based social alarm system which links to a control centre where operators can offer help.
If you need help and support to live independently, you could benefit from a Housing Related Support service.
You may need help if you:
- Are an older person (which usually means over 60)
- Have mental health needs
- Are a teenage parent
- Have drug or alcohol problems
- Have recently come out of prison
- Are homeless or at risk of being homeless
- Are a refugee
- Have a learning, physical or sensory disability
- Are escaping domestic violence.
If you think you need a housing related support service, you should talk to your housing officer, social care assessor, nurse or probation officer if you have one.
If you already know which service you want, you can contact the organisation who provides it to find out if they can help you.
You can contact us to find out information or use the local directory of services.
If the service is planned to last for less than two years, it is free for you. These are services like women’s refuges or hostels that help you for a time while you become more independent.
You will still need to pay for rent and things like that, but the support service is free.
If the service is planned to last for more than two years (such as Sheltered accommodation or alarm systems) you may be asked
to pay towards the service.
This will be dependent upon your savings and your income and every person will be asked questions about their finances before any charge is decided.
If you feel the charge made for the service may not be right for you, you may ask to go through the Fairer Charging Assessment process.
We produce a leaflet on Housing Related Support Fairer Charging which may answer your queries.
Ask for a copy when you contact us.
We monitor the quality of the support service according to government set standards. As part of this process, we may ask to speak to you or other people who receive the service to see what you think of services.
It is important that new services are developed for the people who need them most. We talk to people who use services, to other organisations and to people who provide the services to find out what kind of support people need.
In the Wolverhampton Housing Related Support strategy we consider how the programme will develop in the future.
Anyone with a comment or a complaint is encouraged first to discuss the matter with the provider organisation they deal with.
If it is not about a provider, or if you feel you cannot discuss it with the provider directly, then you can make use of our complaints procedure.
Information is also available about fairer charging.
Contact us for further details.
We send out our Wolverhampton Housing Related Support information bulletin every three months to all organisations that provide Housing Related Support services.
Or you can contact us using the contact details at the bottom of this page.
You can also find details of the local directory of services on this site.
Information about Housing Related Support is also available in other languages and formats including Braille, large font or CD rom.
For more information contact us by either using our online form or by:
e-mail: supporting.people@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Phone: 01902 554906
Minicom: 01902 555554
Fax: 01902 551195
Or you can write to us at:
Housing Related Support
Adults and Community
Wolverhampton City Council
Civic Centre
St. Peter's Square
Wolverhampton
WV1 1RT