20 Years of Extra Care: A Review - Hanover

Hanover pioneered the development of Extra Care housing. As a specialist
provider we used our knowledge and experience to develop a model of
housing that fully integrates support, care, catering and convenience
services for older people in one location. Extra Care housing as developed
by Hanover has been adopted by the Housing Corporation (now the Homes
and Communities Agency) and the Department of Health as a preferred
development option. Extra Care is an ideal solution for older people who
seek the independence afforded by their own home with the assurance of
care and support services readily available on-site.
Since starting our first Extra Care housing development, Hanover Court,
Dulverton, in 1989, Hanover has tried very hard to be at the forefront of
innovative design, service development and partnership working.
To celebrate this milestone we asked Nigel King (of the Housing and
Support Partnership) to undertake a review of the evolution of Extra Care
housing and how Hanover has responded over the last twenty years.
We are very grateful to Nigel for this valuable independent report.
I am delighted that this report – alongside the conclusions for Hanover’s
future work in a separate document prepared in house – will be launched
at the opening of Hanover’s latest Extra Care development: Olive House,
Imperial Wharf, London. The opening will be on the 21st July 2009 and will
be hosted by Baroness Andrews, the former Parliamentary Under-Secretary,
Department for Communities and Local Government, who has done so
much to promote the cause of better housing and care for older people.
Twenty years on it is very clear that the model of
Extra Care housing has worked extraordinarily
well. Whether or not this approach survives the
fierce public spending constraints that lie ahead is
another question. But everyone at Hanover can be
proud of the levels of satisfaction recorded by those
living, now and in the future, in our superb Extra
Care housing.
Lord Richard Best, OBE
Chairman
Introduction