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 paying rent. We can support you to move, and to work out what support you’ll need to live in your own home.
Housing
Hft has a dedicated housing department that manages our supported living tenancies. They also act as a management agency for third party landlords.
Hft can lease properties from Private Landlords and Housing Associations. This allows us to offer them as supported living services for people we support.
Hft can also purpose-build houses for specialist services. Examples of these include Ryeford Court, our autism- and dementia-friendly service in Gloucestershire, or 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 advise on what is affordable if the person is eligible to claim housing benefit.
Staffing
Finding the right staff is important. It’s not just about finding someone that does a good job. It’s about finding someone who shares the same interests as the person they’re supporting – someone that they’ll like spending time with.
We also make sure that our staff are fully trained in person-centred active support so that they’re able to help individuals 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 are 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 assistance, they feel more in control of their lives. As a result, 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:
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Enabling you to shape your own support. Having more control over your life and experiencing more inclusion, independence, and choice.
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Providing good 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.
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Strengthening your voice so that you are at the centre of our campaigns and policy work. This helps you influence important decisions in your community and across the country. Our speak out group, 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.
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Supporting opportunities for self empowerment. We want involvement to be led by learning disabled people as much as possible.