Ms Fiona Larthwell:

Our comments relate to the points about the housing assistance payment, HAP, and the rental accommodation scheme, RAS. With regard to the signposting and communication with residents, it is a very interesting idea and something the Department of Health would be in favour of. When schemes are operated by local authorities, there are far more opportunities to ensure those safeguarding touchpoints are included and that everything everybody is doing has the consent and preference of the resident at its heart. That is really important. The difficulties arise because, as I know from real life, the HAP can be a bit longer term and approximately one eighth of residents pass within six months, more than a quarter do not stay longer than a year and at least two thirds spend less than three years in the scheme. Something that also involves inheritors would therefore probably have to be looked at. There may also be interaction with the nursing home loan. Approximately one quarter of the people in the scheme who have a house have a nursing home loan, which is secured against the house and becomes due once a person passes away. Those kinds of implications would also have to be thought about but it is something we would be quite interested in.