Agenda item - Mental Health Housing and Support

The Corporate Director of Health, Housing & Adult Social Care to present a report which outlines a vision for an improved mental health housing and support pathway in York and presents specific proposals for the development of specialist mental health housing and support for people with multiple and complex needs.

Resolved: (i) That approval be given for City of York Council to enter into an agreement with NHS Vale of York CCG and jointly commission new specialist mental health housing and support provision, in the shape of:

· two specialist mental health supported housing schemes that will support 32 places between them (10 places plus 6 satellite flats supported from each site) and

· 21 Housing First places – people in their own properties supported by 3 Housing First workers (7 cases each)

and that authority be delegated to the Director of Health, Housing & Adult Social Care and the Executive Members for Health & Adult Social Care and Housing & Safer Neighbourhoods, in consultation with the Director of Governance or her delegated officers and the S151 Officer, to take such steps as are necessary to enter into the resulting agreement.

(ii) That it be noted that a formal soft-market testing exercise will be undertaken to identify the level of interest from both Registered Social Landlords (to develop the sites) and external partners (to deliver the support), to define the most appropriate structure for the resulting procurement process(es) to select the partners the council will work with.

(iii) That approval be given to procure a Registered Social Landlord (RSL) to develop the sites and an external partner to provide the specialist mental health support services, and that authority be delegated to the Director of Health, Housing & Adult Social Care and the Executive Members for Health & Adult Social Care and Housing & Safer Neighbourhoods, in consultation with the Director of Governance or her delegated officers and the S151 Officer, to take such steps as are necessary to procure, award and enter into the resulting contracts.

(iv) That approval be given to sell the council-owned sites at Woolnough House and Crombie House to the successful RSL bidder as part of the procurement process, to be developed as specialist mental health supported housing schemes.

(v) That approval be given to re-locate the supported housing provision at the council-managed 22 The Avenue in Clifton to the new provision, and to market that site for sale and subsequent disposal, following the development of the two specialist mental health supported housing schemes.

(vi) That approval be given to sell 22 The Avenue once it is vacated, and that authority to proceed with and complete the sale be delegated to the Director of Economy & Place in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance & Performance, and in consultation with the Director of Governance or her delegated officers and the S151 Officer.

Reason: To enable the city to develop specialist mental health housing and support that will address a significant gap in existing provision for people with multiple and complex needs, and to realise capital receipts for three sites currently owned by City of York Council – at Woolnough House, Crombie House and 22 The Avenue.

The Corporate Director of Health, Housing & Adult Social Care presented a report which outlined a vision for an improved mental health housing and support pathway in York and set out specific proposals to develop specialist housing and support for people with multiple and complex needs.

The proposals would address difficulties in finding suitable placements for people who were chronically homeless or vulnerably housed and also had mental health needs. They focused on the development of 53 specialist mental health housing and support places, via new specialist schemes at two properties owned by the council – Woolnough House, off Hull Road, and Crombie House, on Danebury Drive – and 21 Housing First places. The vision was shared by commissioning colleagues in the NHS, and voluntary and community sector partners had been involved in all stages of developing the proposals, as detailed in the report.

In response to matters raised under Public Participation, officers explained that much consideration had been given to how to deliver the new services and that specialist providers with longstanding experience were best placed to do so. Developing the necessary expertise in-house would take too long and would not be financially viable.