Remote access

But while some people might consider it a bonus to live in a sparsely populated, remote area, for vulnerable people with support needs it can be very problematic: such places can feel like no-man's lands with few facilities, resources or support networks.

Supporting People, the new financial and support regime for housing-related need, will come into force in little more than six months. Rural areas, like urban areas, are having to adapt to changes to the funding stream and the new focus on local need – under Supporting People, support costs will be covered by local-level grant rather than through housing benefit.

Delivering adequate housing to vulnerable people is difficult enough at the best of times because a balance has to be struck between offering support and allowing people to live independent lives. Add isolation and a lack of services to the equation and things get even more tough (see Rural Homelessness, below).

The Countryside Agency, Housing Associations Charitable Trust and the Housing Corporation, published a report in June which stressed the importance of providing good support services. Called Support and Housing in the Countryside,

it said: "Need in rural communities may often be hidden or unrecognised. The lack of provision can mean that needs do not come to the fore at all."

Despite this warning, there are many organisations making strides in this area, among them Flagship Housing Group in Norfolk. Flagship has been involved in supported housing schemes for 10 years and runs separate projects for old and young people to cater for their different needs.

Three years ago it launched the Housing, Employment and Rural Training project (Heart) to provide shared accommodation units across Suffolk and Norfolk for vulnerable 16 to 25-year-olds. Set up with £3m from the East of England Development Agency and the Housing Corporation, there are now accommodation units in nine locations, including four-bed houses, 10-bed shared houses and flats above shops. District councils and social services departments make referrals and young people also come of their own accord.

Residents are admitted based on their housing need, their commitment to training and their willingness to work to a personal development plan. They are taught life skills, given IT training and helped with laundry and food hygiene.

The main problem was paying for the staff until transitional housing benefit funds became available 

David Trevanion, Flagship

One unit, a two-storey house in Stalham, Norfolk, offers eight bed spaces to vulnerable young people. Its aim is to get youngsters out of homelessness, unemployment and drug addiction. It sees a steady stream of people and residents usually move on after a year.

Although, like many rural properties, the house is fairly isolated – residents have to get a bus to Norwich or Great Yarmouth if they want to study, which can take up to an hour – the additional support services on site make all the difference.

One resident, Steve*, is an ex-heroin addict in his mid-twenties. He is originally from Felixstowe in Suffolk and has lived in the Heart house for two-and-a-half years.

He moved to Norfolk to get away from a drug addiction that began when he fell in with the wrong crowd in his home town. He also wanted to go back to college.

Since moving into the house he has kicked his drug habit and turned his life around. Now he is studying philosophy, social studies and psychology A levels at a local college and hopes to move out into mainstream housing soon. He has also been holding yoga classes at the house. Steve says: "Flagship helped me through [the difficult times]. The staff have supported me and suggested I go to college."

Foundation of trust
The crucial factor in the success of such rehabilitation schemes, says Flagship's foyers manager David Sice, is that staff must show they trust residents. "Where the trust breaks down we have to go back to the drawing board and start again. At the Stalham scheme, there was talk, when we started, of having a member of staff staying here overnight. But most residents said they didn't want it and so instead we decided to have someone who is on call."

Each Heart scheme has a management committee including people such as the local GP and parish council. Sice says schemes like this are easier to run if there are close links interested parties within the community, and with the local authority. If the council understands and appreciates how the schemes can help, it will refer more and more residents to the schemes. "There is a constant supply of young people here because we have a good relationship with the district council," says Sice.

Although running successfully now, the scheme was not without its difficulties at the start. Staffing levels were initially a problem, says David Trevanion, Flagship's operations director of care and support. He says: "The main problem was paying for the cost of the staff, and it remained so until the rules were changed and we were able to apply for more staff funding through transitional housing benefit [see Heart Supported Housing, below].

There doesn’t seem to be any support in the community any more. I feel like everyone in the village is a newcomer

Mary, home visit service user

"When Heart was first set up, we were only able to appoint a small number of staff to cover 11 schemes across two counties.

"We have since decided to concentrate an increased level of staffing – currently 17 people across nine schemes – and have been able to recruit the additional staff because of Supporting People."

Homeward bound
Of course, it's not just the young in rural areas who may be in need of support services. Flagship also runs a home visiting service in the Breckland district of Norfolk through Peddars Way Housing Association, a member of the Flagship group (see "Home visits", above right). Peddars Way launched the scheme four years ago and suffered the same initial problems as Heart, although it is now using transitional housing benefit.

The Norfolk-wide home visit scheme provides 287 elderly residents with emergency support and staff who can liaise with relatives, plus access to doctors, social services and other council departments. It also provides information and advice on the services or benefits residents are entitled to.

Mary*, 82, has lived in her house in Beachamwell, near Swaffham, Norfolk, since she was five. She led an active, independent life and was still able to drive her car until seven years ago, when arthritis made her virtually housebound. The isolation of being in the country means that she has little contact with other people, so the home visits provided by Peddars Way provide welcome company, as well as help sorting out her paperwork and bills.

Although Mary's friends and family help out a lot – her sister-in-law does her shopping and washing and a neighbour collects her pension – like many elderly people, the problem for her is a more general lack of support from the wider community. The village is now occupied by a large number of young families and her great-nieces and great-nephews have moved away.

She says: "There doesn't seem to be any support in the community anymore. I feel like everybody in the village is a newcomer.

"I used to work in the local post office and I was there for 21 years – at that time I knew everyone who lived here, now I don't know anyone. It's quite a lonely existence."

The supported housing schemes are a lifeline for people like Mary and Steve. Without them young people could find themselves sleeping rough, unable to travel to the facilities they need because these can be as far as 20 miles away (see "Rural homelessness", page 32), and the elderly could have no choice but to give up their homes and move into residential care.