Starts at Home | News

We’re highlighting the difference that supported housing makes to people as part of today’s Starts at Home Day (2 September) and say thanks to special guests who've shown their support for the national housing campaign.

The Starts at Home campaign has run over six years now and is led by the National Housing Federation (www.housing.org.uk), recognises how supported housing helps hundreds of thousands of people each year to regain their independence and confidence.

Supported housing explained 

Supported housing is the umbrella name for housing services that provide safe environments and vital personal support and care services to help people to live as independently as possible. It includes suitable homes and appropriate services for a wide range of people including older people, people with a learning disability and autistic people, people with mental health related needs, vulnerable young people and people who’ve experienced homelessness.

We’re a member of Greater Manchester Housing Providers (GMHP), a partnership of 24 housing providers. Together, we offer a wide range of sheltered and extra care accommodation, refuges for domestic violence victims, homelessness shelters and housing services for those with disabilities. Registered providers in Greater Manchester are estimated to provide supported housing to more than 25,000 households.

Starts at Home's goals

GMHP supports the three main goals of Starts at Home, which is a national day of action to:

1. Show the value of supported housing.
2. Recognise the services and contribution that supported housing staff have made to people’s lives.
3. Secure long term political support and national funding for supported housing services, so we can continue to help those who need it to settle into and thrive in their tenancy.

Like other not for profit social housing providers across the country, we’ll continue to do all that we can and work closely with specialist partner organisations to meet local people’s needs and help them to flourish. However, national funding is needed to meet the increasing demand for supported housing and ensure that people who need extra support will always have a safe home that meets their needs.

The Starts at Home campaign seeks the long term national funding commitment necessary to ensure we can keep running supported housing services that transform lives.

Many thanks

We’d like to say a big thank you to Yasmin Qureshi MP. And Little Lever and Darcy Lever councillors Sean Hornby, David Meehan and Andrea Taylor-Burke. Also Bolton Council colleagues Rachel Tanner (Integrated Care Partnership Managing Director and Director of Adult Services) and Andrew Walton (Head of Strategic Commissioning, Ageing Well).

Yasmin Qureshi MP pictured above.

Pictured above, from left to right: Rachel Tanner, Andrew Walton, Cllr Andrea Taylor-Burke, Cllr Sean Hornby, Andrew Canning, Cllr David Meehan. 

They visited our new Lever Gardens extra care housing scheme that we’re developing in partnership with Bolton Council and Caddick Construction in Little Lever, and helped us to highlight the importance of Starts at Home. Many thanks to Andrew Canning, Senior Project Manager for Caddick Construction, and the site team for hosting.

Housing schemes like this one are being built and designed to accommodate the specific needs of those who’ll live there. And it’ll be key in our overall provision of good quality and affordable supported housing to help people live independently, confidently and with dignity.

We’ll share more details about the Lever Gardens extra care development in the next few months, including the advertising process and lettings policy.

We’d also like to thank our colleagues– within Bolton at Home, across our group and in partner organisations- who work to ensure people have a safe home and support services that meets their needs as appropriate.

You can read more and get involved on social media using the #StartsAtHome hashtag.

Thanks for your time and support.