Supported Living
Get a person-centred care support in the comfort of your own home
Exclusive Care Services provide innovative and person-centred support enabling people with autism, learning disabilities, and mental health illness and challenging behaviour to live as independent as possible within their homes and in the local community to fulfil their potential.
What is supported living?
Supported living is a service designed to help people with a wide range of support needs retain their independence by being supported in their own home. People in supported living have their own tenancy and are responsible for their own bills and cost of living. This may include full or part furnishing and repairing any damage – exact details will vary locally. To afford these, the person may be entitled to a wide range of benefits and grants. In single person supported living, they will also have their own front door.
In Supported Living, support provision is not dependent on provision of housing (and vice versa.) So if the support provider changes, this doesn’t affect the tenancy. The person has security of tenure in line with their tenancy agreement – they can only be made to leave under certain circumstances, usually by order of a court.
What is the difference between supported living and residential care?
Supported living is suited to people who require support to gain more independence to help them live in their own home. Whereas, residential care is better suited for people who require specialist care around the clock.
People in supported living are responsible for their own bills and cost of living. To afford this, the person may be entitled to a wide range of benefits such as:
- Housing Benefit (HB)
- Personal Independence Payments (PIP)
- Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- Mobility Allowance
- Attendance Allowance (AA.)
In supported living, people pay for their own holidays, including additional staff costs. Like anyone else, people in supported living pay their own domestic bills and shopping costs, together with costs incurred by staff in the course of the support they provide – such as bus fares and activities.
Supported living isn’t necessarily more expensive overall, but because families are often involved in seeing and managing the money for the first time, it can look quite alarming to those who have been used to the ‘all-inclusive’ deal in a care home.
What are the advantages of supported living?
The benefits of supported living are the choice, control and enfranchisement that come from holding one’s own tenancy and – in a single person service – one’s own front door.
In particular, by separating a person’s support and housing provider, the housing will remain constant even if a person’s support provider changes. That is essential; no-one should be forced to endure low quality support in order to keep living in their home.
Supported Living arrangements, where the person’s rights are protected by their tenancy agreement, often offer greater security of tenure compared to residency in a care home which typically comes with 28-day notice periods. That said, this security does depend on the terms of the tenancy agreement. With more and more supported living services being found through the private rented market rather than social housing, the old idea of a ‘home for life’ is dwindling.
Who is supported living suitable for?
Supported living used to be thought of as primarily for more able people and those who wish to live alone. Whilst both those groups of people can certainly benefit from supported living, so can people with more complex needs, and those who prefer to live with housemates. Both supported living and registered care can provide support 24/7 support if required; we support many people with profound and multiple learning disabilities and complex needs in supported living environments.
We also support people in smaller care homes and larger supported living services as well as the opposite. The decision about whether someone lives alone or with housemates should be based on their assessed needs, personal wishes, compatibility and the opportunity to pool budgets to deliver shared support.
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