Housing Allocations Policy

Community Care Category

Applications for housing from Community Care Services Users shall be determined in accordance with the undernoted rules..

Community Care Service Users are defined as:

(i) People who are being discharged from long term hospital care
(ii) People leaving residential care to move into the community
(iii) People who are at risk of reception into residential care or admission to hospital

If an applicant meets one of the above criteria, the Social Worker/Care Manager must complete a referral form and housing application form and send them, together with a background report and/or copy of the Community Care Assessment, to the appropriate Divisional Housing Manager.

The Divisional Housing Manager will contact the Social Worker/Care Manager within two weeks of receiving the application, and where necessary carry out a joint visit within four weeks of receiving the application.

The Divisional Housing Manager will accept or refuse the application from information gained from the referral form and the joint visit

The Divisional Housing Manager will notify the applicant of their decision in writing and send a copy to the Social Worker/Care Manager.

The Head of Regeneration and Housing and Head of Social Work will review any decision on appeal from the applicant and/or Social Worker/Care Manager.

The Divisional Housing Manager may lodge and assess applications under this category where there is no previous Social Work involvement and the case meets one of the qualifying criteria.

Applicants who are awarded a Community Care Category (CCC) will receive priority on the waiting list for suitable accommodation. The registration date for the CCC application will be the date on which the referral form is received, even where the applicant has a current housing application with an earlier registration date. The applicant's position on the waiting list relative to other applicants with a priority status (PMED, PRIS, KEY and IC) will be determined by the date of their CCC registration. Offers will be made in strict date order.

The Social Worker/Care Manager will confirm that an appropriate care package is in place before an offer of housing is made.

Applicants under this category will be made one suitable offer of housing. An applicant who refuses an offer will lose his/her CCC status and revert to a general application for selection under normal rotation.

An applicant who is awarded a CCC status may choose any number of letting districts but will be held for all neighbourhoods, house and heating types in their chosen districts, unless there is a valid reason for not doing so.