NHF case study research: finding a safe home after hospital

The National Housing Federations new case study research shows that having the right home at the right time for a patient's recovery can save the NHS money. With the NHS facing chronically oversubscribed waiting lists, delays for treatment and funding pressures, our research shows that supported housing can contribute to getting our NHS back on its feet.

Elim Housing's hospital discharge service, the H.O.M.E team, were pleased to take part in the case study, which further supports the findings that supported housing can improve hospital discharge for the main groups of people affected by delays: people experiencing homelessness, older people, people with mental health problems and people with learning disabilities and autism.

H.O.M.E team

The H.O.M.E Service is delivered by Elim Housing and funded by Gloucestershire ICB for inpatients of Gloucester Royal Hospital, Cheltenham General Hospital and Wotton Lawn mental health hospital who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The service also provides advice and support for other community hospitals and units in the county.

The service was borne out of the success of a pilot hospital discharge service based in Gloucester Royal Hospital. Hospital staff were concerned about the numbers of people being admitted to hospital who were identified as being street homeless. Without a home to be discharged to, many had nowhere to go except back onto the streets, the place that, in many cases, made them ill in the first place.

Our Impact

Most residents were successfully moved onto accommodation options – in 2023 these included bed & breakfast (32%), private rented housing (11%), friends & family (8%), social housing (6%), supported housing (6%), sheltered housing (1%) or other accommodation options (14%).

There is a clear indication that our service is achieving its aims. Following the collaboration with Gloucestershire local authorities, hospital social workers, care navigators and community teams, there has been an overall reduction in homeless readmissions over a 5-year period:

• In 2019, 188 people identified as homeless were admitted to Gloucester Royal Hospital, 41 of these (22%) were readmissions.
• By 2023, the number admitted had more than halved to 77 people identified as homeless, and the number of readmissions was reduced to only 8 (a fifth of the 2019 number).

Read the full report here: Finding a safe home after hospital