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Supported Living
Page contents:
> Introduction
> Outreach Services
> Multiple-Occupancy Houses
> Staff
> Person-Centred Planning
> How Support is Delivered
Introduction
The Cartref Homes Supported Living Scheme represents the final ‘piece of the jigsaw’ in our service provision for those service users progressing towards independent living.
The Supported Living Scheme aims to support young adults with learning disabilities to live in ordinary accommodation of their own by providing them individualised packages of support.
Support is available to service users living alone, with their families or as individual tenants living in multiple-occupancy houses.
The multiple-occupancy houses are owned by BRT Property services - landlords who have a strong commitment to the accommodation needs of people with special needs and with whom Cartref Homes have a positive and sensitive relationship. The tenant obtains an assured short-hold tenancy with the landlord. The tenancy is wholly independent of the support provided by Cartref Homes, thereby ensuring a healthy separation between accommodation and care.
Outreach Services
We are also able to provide Outreach support to service users who have obtained tenancies with other private landlords or housing associations or to individuals still living in the family home. These services are available in the Sittingbourne and Swale area as well as the neighbouring towns.
Multiple-Occupancy Houses
The multiple-occupancy houses are fully furnished households and offer tenancies for between 3 and 5 residents. These tenancies give opportunity for a more intensive delivery of care monitoring and emergency cover than would be found in Outreach Services due to a greater staff presence.
Each house has a dedicated staff room with office and sleep-in facilities to enable 24 hour cover and emergency support where the tenant’s support plan identifies such needs.
These tenancies often prove the ideal ‘staging post’ for service users to fine-tune their skills and competence before taking on a solo tenancy from another landlord.
Staff
The registered service manager - Jon Russell - leads a team that is carefully selected for its ability to meet the needs of service users living in their own accommodation. As such the members of this team are required to have a thorough knowledge of learning disability issues and/or significant experience of working with service users in a community setting. As with all parts of Cartref Homes services, particular effort has been expended in developing positive working relations with the wide range of professionals associated with the support of our service users. The Supported Living Scheme also benefits from access to the company’s sub-contracted clinical psychology support.
Person-Centred Planning
The Tenant’s Individual Support Plan (TISP), gives consideration to all those areas described as “eligible support activities” in the government’s white paper Valuing People and the Supporting People Strategy. Using these support activities as a guide the person-centred TISP is developed to assist service users to achieve competence in the essential areas of independent living.
- Help in setting up and maintaining home or tenancy
- Developing domestic / life skills
- Developing social skills / behaviour management
- Advice, advocacy and liaison
- Help in managing finances and benefit claims
- Emotional support, counselling and advice
- Help in gaining access to other services
- Help in establishing social contacts and activities
- Help in establishing personal safety and security
- Supervision and monitoring of health and well-being
- Supervising or monitoring medication, peer support and befriending
- Help finding other accommodation
- Help maintaining the safety and security of the dwelling
- Support in keeping own room clean
- Risk assessment
- Advice and support on minor repair work / improvements
- Management of handyperson services
- Help with shopping and errand running
- Access to local community organisations
- Security support related to racial harassment
- Culture specific counselling / emotional support
How Support is Delivered
The Tenant’s Individual Support Plan (TISP), overseen by a key-worker and incorporating the views of the service user and members of their support network, identifies the service user’s strengths and needs. Based on this assessment the service user receives a timetable / schedule of input that is designed to strike a balance between their need for support and care and their right to make life-style choices. The TISP is subjected to regular review to ensure that support remains relevant to the service user.