Living Independently

Supported living

Supported Living and Supporting People Policy

What is meant by the term 'supported living'?
'It is a way of viewing and assisting people in ways that enable these individuals to receive the support they need and to live in the home they want'. (Klein J. 1992)

' ...a person with disability who requires long-term, publicly funded, organised assistance allies with an agency whose role is to arrange or provide whatever assistance is necessary for the person to live in a decent secure home of the person's own.' (O'Brien J. 1993)

This is not in fact how most individuals with a learning disability lead their lives. The majority still live at home with their parents or in some form of mainstream residential service. Some 1600 people still live in long-stay hospitals.

There has become an increased recognition that small group homes (and hostels) are not the widespread answer to community living that service providers believed just a few decades ago. Such provision was the main strategy of a national resettlement programme and successfully accommodated thousands of people away from long-stay hospitals. Many group homes can, however, reproduce a level of institutional living, which is similar to that criticised in residential care settings. In many places individuals with a learning disability can still experience only elementary choices and have few real options over what lifestyle they can adopt.

However, as services become more responsive, individuals with a learning disability are now acquiring more of a voice regarding their lives and opportunities are emerging to exert more self-determination. Where people live, and the manner in which they are supported, are important factors in ultimately being able to follow an inclusive lifestyle.

To develop Supported Living programmes, a move to a more individualised service is required. This service would set out to recognise the same choices which are important to all of us, such as: 

• Where we live
• With whom we live if we do not live alone
• How we live (our chosen lifestyle)
• Who helps and supports us
• Being safe

These choices are likely to sustain the sorts of personal aspiration and expectation that we all can identify with, such as:

• Wanting a home of our own
• Choosing the people (or person) with whom we live
• Wanting employment
• Having a regular and decent income (more than subsistence level)
• Having control over that income
• Following our own interests, recreation and lifestyle
• Feeling valued
• Choosing our own friends
• Living safely and secure in our environment

Central to helping individuals with a learning disability move towards achieving individualisation, is a process known as Person Centred Planning. The government recognises the importance of this approach in the white paper, 'Valuing People (2001)':

'A person-centred approach to planning means that planning should start with the individual (not with services), and take account of their wishes and aspirations. Person-centred planning is a mechanism for reflecting the needs and preferences of a person with a learning disability and covers such issues as housing, education, employment and leisure'. (A Person-Centred Approach to Planning - Valuing People 4.17)

'People with learning disabilities have little control over their lives, few receive direct payments, advocacy services are underdeveloped and people with learning disabilities are often not central to the planning process. The Government's objective is to enable people with learning disabilities to have as much choice and control as possible over their lives, and the services and support they receive'. (More Choice and Control for People with Learning Disabilities, Executive Summary p.4 - Valuing People.)

The opportunity to use innovation and flexibility, and generate a variety of types of assistance, is available in supported living options. The subjects are not trapped in rigid systems or routines of a mainstream service model of care. Historically, a person's service has been geared around what they cannot do. In a supported living approach, the focus is on what they can do supplying the extra support required to assist them to continue on and undertake what they want to do.

Moving towards using supported living concepts requires change to our current format of service. Changing the style of a service delivery brings with it a range of fresh challenges, including organisational, financial, philosophical, staff training, personnel/client relationship and risk assessment.

These challenges are not overcome without some setbacks and change does not take place overnight - but developments have to begin at some point. Some of the key features in such a service change are:

• Focusing on individuals, one person at a time. This is done using a person centred approach (Person Centred Planning), creating a service around an individual rather than slotting them into an existing vacancy.
• Separate providers for housing and accommodation and day-to-day support. This gives opportunity to be flexible, particularly about support provision. For example, should any agency wish to withdraw from providing a support service for whatever reason, the individual does not automatically lose their accommodation
• People actively choosing. Choosing where they live, how they live and with whom they live
• Supported living is for everyone. People should not necessarily be screened out of the programme because they show challenging behaviour or have complex support needs. The creativity is in getting the support right
• Enabling community access. As patterns of discrimination have excluded people with learning disabilities from many aspects of community life, we have to be proactive in the creation of opportunities and to support them when participating in new experiences. As well as the natural benefits of participating in mainstream activities, there would be the hope of building new friendships with local citizens, rather than just with the staff who are ultimately paid to be there

Peter Kinsella's work 'Individual Service Design - A Practice Guide' (2000) describes how to achieve an individualised service. The proposals complement Person Centred Planning (PCP) approaches and offer practical advice on how to identify housing options the and support needs of a person, and how to plan for their supported living.

See also sections on - Person Centred Planning (link).
-Values and Valuing People (link)

The Supporting People Programme
This concept began in 1996 when a judicial review roled that housing benefit was being misused by being spent to cover care and support costs, when it should only be paying for 'bricks and mortar'.

The Supporting People Programme was devised and launched by the government in April 2003. It has been the particular brief of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (in England). The policy is being implemented across England, Scotland and Wales with national variations resulting from devolution. The programme will move through a three-year transitional period, towards housing benefit being spent only on what it was designed for, whilst care costs are split off and funded separately.

The programme currently provides housing related support to over 1.2 million vulnerable people. Such support helps to prevent problems that can often lead to hospitalisation, institutional care or homelessness and can help in a transition to independent living for those leaving institutional care. There are currently over 6,000 providers of such housing-related support.

The programme works with all potentially vulnerable members of our society who include:

• The homeless
• Individuals with a physical or sensory disability
• Elderly people
• Those at risk of domestic violence
• Individuals with a learning disability
• Young people at risk
• People with alcohol or drug-related problems
• People with HIV and AIDS
• Teenage parents
• Travelling people
• Ex-offenders and people at risk of offending

What form does housing-related support take?
The purpose of housing-related support is to develop and maintain a person's capacity to live independently in their accommodation. This could be done through such things as:

• Help to access appropriate housing and other benefits
• Assistance with development of the necessary skills to look after a home and maintain a tenancy
• Advice on maintenance and home improvement
• Assistance with maintenance
• Provision of a community alarm service
• Provision of a support service on either a short or long-term basis

The programme recognises it is not always easy to separate what may be provided to vulnerable people as 'housing-related support' from what may be funded as 'mainstream care and support'. It leaves this open to local discretion between the various agencies.

How is the Supporting People Programme funded?
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister allocates a Supporting People Grant to the 150 administering authorities who are responsible for implementing the programme in their local area. Administering authorities contract local providers and partner organisations to provide the Supporting People Services.

The administering authorities are guided and advised in the Supporting People Strategy by a commissioning body, which is a partnership of local housing providers, social care, health and probation agencies.

Further information:
Supporting People Free Literature service
P.O. Box 236
Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7NB
Tel: 0870 1226 236
Fax: 0870 1226 237
Help line: 020 7944 2556
www.spkweb.org.uk