Community partnerships ‘Go Dutch’ to seek brighter future for older residents

LEADING housing officials from Holland have visited some of Barnsley's most ground-breaking regeneration projects to see how their ideas are transforming parts of the Borough.

Senior staff from Dutch housing association Wocom visited sheltered schemes in Kendray and Grimethrope, where millions of pounds has been invested in improving housing for older residents.

The areas are being transformed by partnerships between Bramall, Chevin Housing Group and the organisation Berneslai Homes.

The visit was part of a fact finding mission to see how regeneration partnerships across Yorkshire tackle issues like anti-social behaviour and caring for older residents as well as improving homes and estates. One firsthand example was demonstrated by the visit to Kendray Bungalows in Croft Road, where 44 apartments were built as part of an extra care development for older residents.

With Holland widely recognised as Europe's most forward-thinking provider of social housing, local partnerships are also keen to learn how social issues are handled abroad.

Bramall Director John Wilcox said: "Organisations like Wocom have been providing social housing in Holland for many years. This was a real chance for us to find out more about how they do things.

"There have been many different and quite innovative ways of dealing with anti-social behaviour, supporting vulnerable residents and building stronger communities, to name a few examples. I'm not saying that this visit solved all the issues, but it has certainly given us some ideas which will be put to our partners across Yorkshire in the months ahead.

"However, it works both ways, with Wocom also taking some ideas back to Holland to develop over there."

The Kendray extra care scheme provides people with high quality, independent accommodation and offers them access to in house support.

David McKeown, Group Development and Regeneration Director of Chevin Housing Association said " We were excited to see the Dutch approach to caring for the elderly on our recent visit to Holland and hope that our visitors to Lavender Court find their visit equally stimulating. The quality of care offered by Chevin and its partners at Lavender Courthas already been recognised, and we hope that this visit will be a useful opportunity for Wocom to see first hand a development which we are particularly proud".