HSEU News: Scottish Housing Day 2025

The HSEU welcomes Scottish Housing Day 2025 on Wednesday 17 September. This year’s theme is the importance of good neighbours and communities.

Housing support services enable and support neighbours and communities to thrive. Providing the right support at the right time helps people live in the community, rather than in institutions or in delayed hospital discharge. This also means people can contribute to their communities as active citizens and it upholds the human rights of people receiving support.

The 2023 UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) report on the benefits of housing support identified vignettes showcasing examples where services delivered significant benefits for people and communities, including for a couple staying in extra care housing:

Bob and Maureen, a couple in their 70s, moved into extra care accommodation. Maureen had been diagnosed with dementia three years earlier and Bob had taken on a caring role. The housing support provided to them in their new home enabled the couple to become involved in the social life of the community, build connections with other residents and learn how to digitally connect with their family in Australia.

The social and physical activities made possible through housing support form part of the prevention agenda, enabling people to live better in their own homes for longer.

The HSEU has jointly commissioned further cost and benefit of housing support analysis research, conducted by researchers from CaCHE, the University of Stirling and HACT. The research, which will be launched on Wednesday 1 October, highlights the significant positive impact housing support services have on public finances, as well as preventing crisis and enabling independent living. Sign up to the launch event here.

Housing support services hold vital importance in delivering the objectives of Scottish Government strategies. These policies often emphasise prevention, people-led services and digital transformation, all of which are progressed through housing support models. The HSEU believes existing housing support services can serve as exemplars for the health and social care improvements the Scottish Government seeks, if given its proper recognition.

For more information, read our briefing on three recent Scottish Government strategy and framework documents: the Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework; Scotland’s Population Health Framework; and Scotland’s Public Service Reform Strategy: Delivering for Scotland.

UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence: The economic and social benefits of housing support