Comparing Housing and Support Models for Adults with Learning Disabilities

Background:

Nearly £3 billion a year is spent by councils on supported living and residential care for adults with learning disabilities. For adults with learning disabilities who need support and a place to live, the two most common forms of support are either residential care or housing with support (sometimes called ‘supported living’). Despite the large amounts of public money being spent, we know very little about how good supported living/residential care services are, and how much they really cost.

There is a need for good, up-to-date evidence on the quality and costs of supported living and residential care services to people who can make good use of it, including the government, people who commission social care services, organisations who provide housing support for adults with learning disabilities, self-advocacy groups and family groups, and the Care Quality Commission.

The Research:

By working with a sample of commissioners and providers of residential care and supported living services, we will compare outcomes and costs in order to try and answer the following key questions:

• Do people living in ‘supported living’ actually have more rights than people living in residential care?
• What are the qualitative differences and what bearing do these have on outcomes for individuals?
• What is it that service commissioners and providers are doing that does or does not help create the conditions for these differences (or similarities)?
• What are the average per capita costs of the two types of accommodation and how do these relate to right, choice, control and life outcomes – comparing people with broadly similar support needs?

This crowdfunded research aims to start to provide evidence to support more informed decision-making by commissioners about the provision of housing and support for adults with learning disabilities.

Crowdfunded by:

The organisations that have contributed funding to this work are:

• Avenues Trust
• Care Management Group (CMG)
• Community Integrated Care (CIC)
• Dimensions
• Imagine Act and Succeed
• Royal Mencap Society and Golden Lane Housing
• National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi)
• SeeAbility
• Torbay Council

For more information contact Anna Marriott.