Housing matters: National evidence relating to disabled children and their housing

Description

Housing has always been at centre stage in terms of community care for adults. Yet the housing needs of disabled children and their families have only recently been acknowledged. "Housing Matters" presents evidence to support and inform change in policy and practice to ensure that the housing needs of disabled children and their families are better met. The report challenges traditional notions of housing need, calling for a reconceptualisation that embraces all impairments, focuses on child-centred needs and extends beyond the "four walls" of the family home. The findings of the report are discussed and interpreted within the context of current policy and practice. "Housing Matters" reports the findings of the first ever national survey of housing needs in which a representative sample of almost 3000 parents of disabled children took part. It examines parents' responses to their housing needs, and their experience of housing adaptation services, using information gathered from interviews with housing and social care managers to provide details of the current practice context.

Bryony Beresford is a research fellow at the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York. Christine Oldman is a freelance researcher; she formerly worked as a senior research fellow in the Centre for Housing Policy at the University of York.

"Berseford & Oldman are the leading researchers in the field of housing and disabled children and this piece of work from them is important and valuable." Housing Studies