Extra Care Housing
Section 01Service definition
Extra care housing provides self-contained accommodation with on-site care and support available. Residents hold tenancies or leases on individual flats within a purpose-built scheme, with a care team based on site to deliver personal care, community activities, and responsive support. The model is positioned between domiciliary care and residential care, offering the independence of living in your own home with the security of on-site care availability.
Commissioners define extra care as housing with care rather than a care home. This distinction affects how the service is regulated, funded, and evaluated.
Section 02Typical client cohort
Extra care typically serves older adults who wish to maintain independence but require access to on-site care. This includes people with moderate care needs, couples where one partner has care needs, people living with early to moderate dementia, and individuals stepping down from residential care. Local authority nomination rights usually govern allocation to extra care tenancies.
Section 03Commissioning and procurement context
Extra care is commissioned by local authorities, often in partnership with housing associations that develop and manage the buildings. The care element is typically tendered separately from the housing management, meaning care providers bid for the care contract within a scheme owned and managed by another organisation. Some tenders combine housing and care, but separation is more common.
Section 04Core service requirements
Specifications for extra care focus on responsive care delivery, community engagement and activities, flexible care packages, coordination with housing management, and how the service promotes wellbeing and prevents escalation of need. Commissioners expect to see how core care hours are allocated, how additional care is provided on a flexible basis, and how the on-site team integrates with the wider scheme.
Coordinating On-Site Care. Covers how care is scheduled and delivered within the scheme, how emergency calls are managed, and how the care team operates alongside the housing management team.
Promoting Community Within the Scheme. Addresses how the provider facilitates social activities, communal dining where applicable, and how isolated residents are identified and engaged.
Flexible Care Delivery. Details how care packages are adjusted as needs change, how the service responds to deterioration or crisis, and how step-up and step-down care is managed.
Section 05Regulatory and compliance framework
CQC registration is required for the personal care element. The housing element is not CQC regulated but must comply with housing standards and regulations. Inspection focuses on care quality within the scheme, including how care is coordinated, how on-site presence is used, and how the service responds to unplanned needs.
Section 06Key operational challenges
Staffing includes on-site carers, a scheme coordinator, and senior care staff. Night cover may be provided through waking night staff, sleep-in arrangements, or technology-enabled care depending on the scheme. Training requirements include dementia awareness, falls prevention, and emergency response.
Common failures include treating extra care as residential care, weak community and activity provision, failure to demonstrate partnership with the housing provider, and inability to articulate how flexibility works in practice.
Section 07How we approach this setting
We frame extra care responses around the dual identity of the service: a home with care available, not a care home. Responses emphasise how independence is preserved, how the community within the scheme is nurtured, and how care delivery is responsive and flexible rather than routine-driven.
Section 08Typical starting points we handle
First-time bidders entering this setting, scaling providers expanding across districts, established providers seeking score improvement, and providers building the evidence base required for competitive frameworks.
Section 09Outcomes achieved
KPIs include response times to emergency and non-emergency calls, care plan compliance, resident satisfaction, hospital admission rates, falls incidence, and participation in community activities.
Starting point → Outcome
Section 10Related case examples
The case studies below match this care setting and demonstrate the operational evidence base behind successful submissions.
Section 11Working with an extra care housing consultant
Extra care housing tenders sit at the boundary of three commissioning conversations: registered care, supported housing, and housing-related support. Local authorities run these procurements through adult social care teams, housing teams, or jointly through integrated commissioning. The provider that brings extra care housing consultants who understand all three angles wins more often.
Our extra care housing consultancy covers the operational disciplines that determine score on live frameworks: shift design that protects person-centred night cover, voids management that holds occupancy through cohort transitions, planned and unplanned move-in management, supported decision making under the Mental Capacity Act 2005\'s 5 statutory principles, and the resident involvement structures that local authorities increasingly score under co-production weightings.
As specialist extra care housing consultants, we have written submissions for extra care frameworks across local authority commissioning, housing association tendering, and integrated care board procurement. We know which scoring weights move when the cohort skews towards older adults, when it skews towards working-age physical disability, and when the scheme operates a dementia-care wing alongside general extra care apartments. Each cohort changes the evidence we draw on, the case examples we reference, and the regulatory framing we use.
If you are bidding on an extra care housing framework in the next 90 days, our bid writing service and pre-submission review are calibrated for exactly this work. Related case examples: Bedford Borough Council Supported Living Framework and Dorset Council Care, Support, Housing and Community Safety Framework.
Section 12Where this applies
The primary partnership is with the housing provider. Beyond this, extra care services integrate with GPs, community health teams, day services, voluntary sector organisations, and local authority commissioning teams.
Extra care is site-specific. Delivery considerations relate to the scheme location, local population demographics, proximity to community resources, and the specific building design and facilities.
Section 13Frequently asked questions
What does an extra care housing consultant actually do on a tender?
We read the specification, map every scored question to a paragraph in the response, draft each answer to mirror the evaluation criteria, and embed the operational evidence (named systems, dated case examples, statutory references) that moves answers into the 4 of 5 to 5 of 5 band. For extra care specifically that means handling the housing-and-care interface in scoring categories like resident voice, voids management, support planning, and integration with district nursing, GP services and community mental health.
How is extra care housing tendering different from residential care tendering?
Extra care is regulated as supported housing with care attached, not as a registered care home. The CQC scope sits on the care element only, not the building. Commissioners score the housing management, tenancy rights, voids strategy and resident involvement alongside the care quality. A residential-care-shaped bid will not score on extra care scoring frameworks.
Do you write extra care bids for housing associations as well as care providers?
Yes. We have written extra care submissions for care providers operating on housing association schemes, for housing associations bidding for the care contract directly, and for joint ventures between the two. The scoring still hinges on the same evidence patterns; the corporate framing differs.
What if our extra care scheme is in design or pre-opening?
We write pre-opening bids regularly. Commissioners accept evidence from comparable schemes, planned staffing models, and provider-level operational track record. The work focuses on demonstrating that the scheme will be operational, regulated and resident-ready by mobilisation. Our readiness audit service is built for this case.
How quickly can you turn around an extra care housing tender?
A full submission with 8 to 15 quality questions typically takes 10 to 15 working days from kick-off to upload-ready document. Pre-submission review is 3 to 5 working days. We accommodate urgent bids where capacity allows.