Investing in Small Supports for sustainable person-centred care

Our experience has shown what it takes to successfully establish Small Supports organisations that deliver highly skilled, round-the-clock support (when needed), and local support for people with learning disabilities and autistic people. Some may be at risk of admission to mental health in-patient services and others may already be there, awaiting discharge.

Whether you’re shaping your ICB-wide strategy or focusing on your local authority area transformation, we can support you with:

• The challenges of market shaping.
• Setting up and developing support that ensures people can live at home.
• Reducing the numbers of people who are sent out of the area.

Explore our evidence base:

These reports show that while Small Supports are not a quick fix, they offer proven long-term benefits, better lives, better outcomes, and better value.

• Leeds evaluation report

A detailed evaluation from a two years of partnership with Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire ICB. Link to resource page

• Plymouth deep dive 

Long-term life and economic outcomes of Small Supports in Plymouth. Link to resource page.

These reports show that while Small Supports are not a quick fix, they offer proven long-term benefits, better lives, better outcomes, and better value.

Our support

• Scaled to the size of the area that wants to take forward the Small Supports programme.
• Commissioning, funding and ensuring contracts are all supportive of individual commissioning, including the use of direct payments and third-party budget arrangements (including Individual Service Funds).
• Advertising, recruiting and supporting potential new small support providers to understand the work they will need to undertake.
• Providing mentoring from existing successful small support organisations and supporting new organisations through the registration process with CQC.
• Specific support in the development of Individual Service/Life Design.
• Training and information about small supports and the person-centred foundations of this support for a range of audiences, including multi-disciplinary teams, social work teams, families and the wider workforce.
• Expertise in housing solutions and connections with networks that bring together support providers and investors.
• Monthly calls and an annual residential bringing together existing and new sites with small support organisations.
• A huge bank of online resources and learning from our work over the past few years.