Supporting People to Live Well and Independently at Home

Working closely with health and care partners, we will focus on prevention, ensuring homes are suitable, accessible, and adaptable, and that people can remain in their homes for as long as possible. This includes expanding supported housing options, improving access to adaptations, and strengthening links between housing and health services. Through the Team Bury approach, we will coordinate support around individuals and communities, recognising that housing plays a critical role in reducing inequalities and improving life outcomes.

Our Priority Groups

Our priority is that people with additional needs can access high-quality, safe, affordable, and adaptable housing that supports independence and wellbeing. To meet these needs, the market must deliver a diverse, flexible, and person-centred housing offer that enables independent living and community inclusion.

Setting Out Our Strategic Need and Delivery Plans

Bury Council will develop a Specialist Housing Needs Assessment and a Local Supported Housing Strategy to strengthen its understanding of need and ensure the right homes and support are in place for residents with additional needs. This work will be undertaken in line with emerging national statutory requirements, with both documents to be completed by March 2027.

The Needs Assessment will provide a comprehensive, evidence-based understanding of current provision, unmet need and future demand for supported and specialist housing across the borough, drawing on data from housing, health, and social care partners.

The Local Supported Housing Strategy will build on this evidence to set out clear priorities, commissioning intentions, and delivery plans, ensuring that supported housing is well planned, high quality, and aligned with wider housing, health, and care strategies.

Improving Digital Connectivity and Technology Enabled Care in Specialist Housing

Technology Enabled Care will be an important part of our approach to helping people live independently, safely, and well in their own homes. We will treat Technology Enabled Care not as a standalone adult social care intervention, but as part of a wider housing, health, and prevention offer that supports people to remain in suitable homes and communities for longer.

Bury's Prevention and Wellbeing Strategy commits to making better use of digital alarms, falls detectors, sensors, medication reminders, GPS devices, and other care technologies to help people manage risks at home, maintain confidence, support carers, and reduce avoidable escalation into crisis services.

Priorities for Specialist, Supported, and Accessible Housing

Bury faces growing and increasingly complex housing needs across all groups with additional needs, driven by an ageing population, rising prevalence of long-term conditions, and increasing demand from people with learning disabilities, autism, and mental health needs. This is placing sustained pressure on existing housing and care systems, with evidence of gaps in provision, misalignment between supply and need, and continued reliance on models that do not fully support independence.

While the council has a strong strategic framework in place, including clear market position statements, needs assessments, and commissioning intentions, there is less clarity on the scale, pace, and delivery of new provision required to meet future demand. The evidence consistently points to the need for a more diverse housing offer, particularly 'own front door' accommodation, extra care housing, and smaller, specialist supported housing models for people with complex needs.

The direction of travel is clear: a shift away from traditional residential and shared provision towards more independent, flexible, and community-based housing solutions. This includes expanding extra care housing, increasing supported living options, delivering accessible and adaptable homes as standard, and developing smaller-scale, high-support schemes for those with complex or overlapping needs.

To achieve this, the focus must now move from strategy to delivery. This means setting out a clearer pipeline of schemes, strengthening commissioning plans, aligning housing with health and care priorities, and working with providers to bring forward the right types of accommodation in the right locations. It also requires greater emphasis on prevention, ensuring people can remain in their homes through adaptations and support, alongside improving pathways into appropriate housing at key transition points.

All new homes are required to meet the accessible and adaptable standard (M4(2)) in accordance with PfE policy, and the emerging Local Plan requires 4% of homes on larger sites to meet wheelchair-user standards (M4(3)).

Accessible and Adapted Housing

Foundations has reviewed our adaptations service, recognising good work already underway and identifying themes where further improvement could be made. The findings are currently being considered and will be used to inform a proportionate improvement plan as part of our ongoing commitment to strengthening delivery and outcomes.

Priorities for Children in Care and Care Leavers

Bury Council's approach to children in care and care leavers is focused on providing stable, suitable accommodation locally and supporting young people to transition successfully into adulthood. This approach is being shaped by rising demand and increasing complexity of need. More children are entering care, including those with neurodiversity, mental health needs, and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. At the same time, a shortage of foster carers, particularly for older young people and those with more complex needs, has led to greater reliance on residential provision, often in the private sector and sometimes outside the borough.

In response, Bury is strengthening both its strategic framework and its supply of provision. A key priority is supporting young people into adulthood through stable accommodation and the development of independent living skills. The introduction of the Joint Housing Protocol and priority access to housing for care leavers has improved coordination between housing, children's, and adult services. A clear and structured accommodation pathway is in place, offering a range of options including Staying Put arrangements, supported lodgings, supported accommodation, and independent tenancies.

Crucially, the council is also expanding locally commissioned provision to reduce reliance on external placements and better meet identified needs. This includes plans to reintroduce in-house children's homes, alongside new supported accommodation: 40 units of self-contained transitional housing for care leavers aged 18-25, 20 units for young families, and 9 units of Ofsted-registered provision for 16-17 year olds. These schemes are designed as supported, short-term accommodation with a focus on building independence and ensuring clear move-on routes into settled housing.

New Areas to Explore

Bury Council will strengthen support for care leavers by developing more flexible and responsive housing and support pathways that better reflect individual needs. This includes exploring alternative accommodation models, such as Shared Lives approaches, to provide stable, transitional options while young people await move-on housing.

Recognising that many care leavers require practical, hands-on support to live independently, the council will explore community-based approaches to build essential life skills. This could include partnership models with the voluntary and community sector to provide light-touch, tailored support with budgeting, managing a tenancy, and maintaining a home.

The council will also improve how information and guidance is provided, ensuring it is clear, accessible and available at the point it is needed. This includes exploring digital solutions, such as interactive tools or apps, to offer simple, timely advice on managing tenancies, paying rent and accessing support, helping care leavers to sustain their tenancies, and build confidence in independent living.

Survivors of Domestic Abuse

Bury’s vision is to create a borough where domestic abuse is prevented wherever possible, victims and their children are protected and supported, and perpetrators are held accountable and supported to change behaviour.

Domestic abuse can affect victims, children, families and communities, causing serious harm and long-lasting impacts. It requires a coordinated response focused on prevention, early intervention, safeguarding, enforcement and recovery.

We will work with partners to ensure victims and their children are protected and supported, and that children are recognised as victims in their own right. Safe accommodation will be a core part of this response, including refuge provision, dispersed units and support services.

We will support the prevention of homelessness, rapid access to safe housing and long-term resettlement, including for people with complex needs or no recourse to public funds. We will also work through coordinated multi-agency arrangements to manage risk, share information and improve support. Our priorities are to:

• Provide timely advice and support to victims and survivors who are homeless or at risk of homelessness because of domestic abuse.
• Support access to safe accommodation, including refuge, dispersed accommodation and other suitable options where needed.
• Improve move-on options from refuge and temporary accommodation into settled, suitable housing.
• Work with partners across housing, health, social care, police, community safety and specialist domestic abuse services to provide a coordinated response.
• Strengthen information sharing and joint working so that risks are identified earlier and support is better joined up.
• Ensure frontline staff are trained to recognise domestic abuse, respond sensitively and make appropriate referrals.
• Use learning from Domestic Homicide Reviews, local data and service experience to improve services and reduce harm.

Through this approach, the local authority will help reduce harm, improve safety and support victims and families to rebuild their lives.