‘Extra Care’ housing developments provide mixed tenure accommodation and options for residents to receive levels of social care from nothing at all to something almost equivalent to residential care.

Research - discussed in this conversation - shows that people who live in extra care accommodation consume many fewer NHS and social care resources because they tend to require medical treatment (including hospital stays) less frequently and if they do, recover more quickly.

However, there is a shortage of such accommodation because levels of housing benefit and social care support for the less well off make such developments difficult to finance. As is explained in the video, the situation would be different if ‘the system’ were able to factor into the equation known savings to NHS and social care budgets.