In December 2022 Southern Housing was created following a merger of Optivo and Southern Housing Group. Bringing together two large organisations and seeking to harmonise the services for older people including sheltered housing and extra care housing was going to be challenging, particularly as the roles and service model was different. As Optivo was accredited with erosh Independent Living Standards it was agreed the accreditation would provide a framework to assist with the process of merging two services.

The assessment took place across all of the regions from Kent to the Isle of Wight and up to the Midlands, with a combination of visits and some remote meetings. Although the service is still progressing through a harmonisation process, the quality of the service was observed by the assessors and the standards met. The accreditation was awarded from March 2024.

This summary only covers a fraction of what has taken place to merge and update the services and erosh are delighted to be hosting an event on Friday 12th July at 2pm in partnership with Southern Housing where we will provide further details on how the erosh Independent Living Standards framework assisted the merger process.

Our event in partnership with Southern Housing will provide the opportunity to find out more about the key process, lessons learnt, areas of good practice and what the new service offer looks like.

You will hear from:

• Charlotte Rook – Head of Independent Living, Southern Housing
• Naomi Keyte – Director of Care and Independent Living, Southern Housing
• Kelly Collett and Chrissy Ellis from the Service Improvement team, Southern Housing
• Steve Rafferty Erosh Director of Independent Living Standards, erosh

Who can attend? anyone who is interested in the erosh Independent Living Standards. (You don’t have to be an erosh member to gain the Independent Living Standards accreditation)

Where is it? This is a virtual event and will be hosted via Microsoft Teams

When is it? Friday 12th July @ 2-4pm

Cost? Free

Click here to book your place via our Eventbrite booking page.