Supported living
Choosing where to live and who to live with is something many people take for granted. But it’s a fundamental part of feeling in control of your life.
We support learning disabled people to live however and wherever they choose. This often means helping them move from residential care or family homes into their own place or a house shared with friends. We can then provide support in a way that suits each individual. That may mean round the clock care, dropping in to help with shopping and cooking, or perhaps helping with the bills.
Finding a home
Moving into your own home for the first time?
We’ll support you in finding suitable housing with local housing associations or private landlords. Suitable housing means something that already meets your needs or something that can easily be adapted to meet them.
We’ll also help to make sure you understand the details of your tenancy agreements and rent. We can support you to move, and to work out what support you’ll need to live in your own home.
Housing
We have a dedicated housing department that manages our supported living tenancies. They also act as a management agency for third party landlords.
We can lease properties from Private Landlords and Housing Associations. This allows us to offer them as supported living services for people we support.
We can also purpose-build houses for specialist services. Examples of these include:
-
Ryeford Court, our autism- and dementia-friendly service in Gloucestershire;
-
Corunna Close, our Prader Willi service in Cambridgeshire.
We can also support learning disabled people and their families to lease directly from a Housing Association or a Private Landlord. Our regional teams can give advice about what’s affordable if the person can claim housing benefit.
Staffing
Finding the right support staff is important. It’s not just about finding someone who does a good job. It’s about finding someone who shares the same interests as the person they’re supporting – someone that you’ll like spending time with.
We make sure that our staff are fully trained in person-centred active support. This means they’ll be able to help you enjoy higher levels of inclusion, independence and choice. It’s a style of support that we know leads to great outcomes for the people we work with.
Personal care
We’re registered as a domiciliary care provider, meaning we can provide personal care in people’s own homes. We take the standard of care and support we offer very seriously. This is why we run all our supported living accommodation to meet the standards set out by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), who regulate care provision in England.
See the ratings our registered services have received from the CQC.
Independence
We’re always looking for opportunities to increase independence and safety in the lives of the people we support. This may include using personalised technology. For example, a gadget that reminds you to close the fridge door, or a fingerprint lock that means you don’t have to worry about forgetting your keys.
Our experience shows us that when the people we support are able to do things without help, they feel more in control of their lives. As a result, they have greater wellbeing and they’re more likely to become active members of their community.
Involvement
We should all have a say in the decisions that affect our lives. But learning disabled adults are often overlooked. That’s why our approach to involvement is underpinned by our commitment to putting the people we support at the heart of everything we do.
For us, involvement means:
-
Making sure that you shape your own support. This means having more control over your life and experiencing more inclusion, independence, and choice.
-
Providing opportunities for you to shape our services and the organisation. We involve you in the recruitment and training of our staff and volunteers. This is through services such as our local and national speak out groups – ‘Voices to be Heard’. We also involve you through feedback and consultations. And by working with you on fundraising events and opportunities.
-
Strengthening your voice so that you’re at the centre of our campaigns and policy work. You can influence important decisions in your community and across the country. ‘Voices to be Heard’ has helped with our Walk in Our Shoes Network, responses to government consultations, and discussions with Ministers. They’ve even given evidence to the United Nations to show how the UK is working on the Convention for the Rights of People with Disabilities.
-
Supporting opportunities for self empowerment. We want learning disabled people to lead our involvement as much as possible.