Supported Living

Supported living helps people who want to live independently in their own home but who still need help with a range of tasks.

What is supported living?

Key features include:

Provision of housing or accommodation for people. This can be in shared housing, individual flats or other tenancy based housing, including general needs or normal private housing
Provision of care to meet assessed needs. This might range from a few hours to full 24/7 care provision. It can include where people have very high needs and require more than one staff to support them
Provision of advice and support about finances and/or benefits
With supported living schemes there may also be core support carers available across a 24/7 period for ad hoc support. This might be to respond to requests from tenants, whether for extra care and support, or for emergencies such as injury, incidents or mental health crises

Evidence shows that people in supported housing / supported living are more likely:

to meet their goals for independence
have greater presence in their community

Dudley vision

Our vision is to ensure people with learning disabilities and or autism are enabled and supported to lead fulfilling lives that meet their needs and outcomes.

Dudley is particularly focused on promoting strength-based approaches to both assessment and the delivery of care and support where required and reduce the overreliance on paid service and traditional restrictive models of care such as residential care.
Promoting independence and self-determination with a wider range of opportunities and services is a key strategic commissioning priority.

We plan to:

support young people as they prepare for adulthood to have opportunities locally:
- accessing education
- vocational services
- employment support
- living independently support
- fulfil their needs and aspirations
- live the life they choose
ensure the provision of appropriate accommodation and support for all people, including as people age so they may remain in their homes and retain their independence for as long as possible

We follow the REACH standards

Types of supported living

Individual apartment
Apartments as part of a small supported living scheme (usually between 6-15 apartments)
Shared apartment (with one or two people)
Shared house (with up to three people)
Individual bungalow
Bungalow as part of a cluster of bungalows / supported living scheme
Home ownership - flat / bungalow / house
Shared ownership - flat / bungalow / house
Council flat
Council house
Private rental - flat / bungalow / house

Supported Living vs Residential Care Homes

People living in Supported Living	People in Residential Care Homes
Are tenants who have their own front door	Do not have their own front door
Choose who they live with, if anyone	Cannot choose who they live with
Are supported to have their benefits and finances maximised	Have very little personal finances
Have more disposable income to choose how they want to live	Have very little choice how their care and support is organised
Can choose who supports them and how, and can change the provider that supports them without losing their home	Cannot choose who supports them and cannot change the organisation that delivers their care
Can choose when to get up and when to go to bed	Are limited in their choice of when to get up and when to go to bed
Can choose what to eat and when	Are limited in their choices
Can choose who visits them and when	Cannot choose who enters their home and when

Myths

These are some common misconceptions:

Supported living is only for people with low level needs
People in supported living have periods where they have no support and are isolated
Supported living is preferred by councils because it is cheaper
Supported living is only for people who have full mental capacity and can manage their own finances
Supported living accommodation is in small flats and in run down areas

None of these are true.