Living without fear and finding independence

Supported living offers the opportunity for people with a wide range of support needs to be able to live in their own home. Support is provided in the home and out in the community to enable the person to maximise their independence and to build a life that matches their vision for their future. This also includes finding opportunities to work or to volunteer, and maintaining key relationships in their life. Getting on with life should be a normal thing for the people we support.

When done well, we think Supported Living should look like anyone else’s home and not like a care setting. Our staff are well aware that they are coming into someone else’s home and that our role is to help facilitate, improve and enrich people’s lives. 

We aim to empower and advocate so that people feel stable and confident. As far as possible we make sure service users are empowered by understainding their responsibilities as tenants, and how they may maintain their tenancies. We work with them to understand opportunities when they apply.

Supported Living separates the two functions of accommodation and of support. People who receive support from CLIA Care have tenancies with FLTS Property Services Limited.

Our services are typically five-bedroom houses in South West London, where each person has their own bedrooms, and other facilities are shared. Accommodation comes furnished.

Our service users have their own plans for the week, though they come together at a couple of points for some much-enjoyed group activities. Right from the beginning, we work with people and their families to make sure that housemates are well matched and would be likely to form bonds and common areas of interest.  As part of this, we arrange for day visits, lunches and tea mornings, and then sleep-overs so that the person coming has an opportunity to see if this is a good fit for them. We think this is very important in order to get things right from the beginning.

Services are staffed on a twenty four hour basis, and tenants have their own front door keys to come and go as they need.

CLIA Care is also able to provide support if a person chooses to live by themselves. Support would again be based on need, and the person would have the key to their own front door.

Expenses and Benefits

People in Supported Living have their own tenancy and they are responsible for paying their rent, their own bills and general living expenses. Supported Living moves away from institutionalised settings where all living expenses are bundled together and charged for as a ‘service’ such as in a residential home. We will help the person using the service and their family to realise the best way of managing the tenancy, and the resources available to them.

The person may be entitled to benefits that cover all of these costs. The person should have enough money to live on, to be able access opportunities, and to save for example, for a holiday.

There are a wide range of benefits for people who are not working (or on a low income) include Housing Benefit, Personal Independence Payments (including a Daily Living element and Mobility element), or Employment and Support Allowance.

Managing Finances

Financial arrangements are a bit more complicated in Supported Living than in residential home services. Funding through benefits is split up into different areas such as Housing, Living costs, travel costs etc. For families who may in the past have been used to the local authority paying one all inclusive fee for a residential service, this may come as something new and may be challenging to manage. At the outset, we will help a person and their family to fully understand the costs involved and how they may budget for those costs.

At CLIA Care, in partnership with social care services, we support families to identify the best way forward. If a person needs help with managing their money, it is the person/ party who has been given the role of Financial Appointee who is in charge of the finances and helps to make sure they are used and managed in the best way. Other options open to a person and their family are for the local authority to become the financial appointee, or possibly for the provider to become the financial appointee.

(Decisions are guided by the principles of the Mental Capacity Act, 2005. The Mental Capacity Act allows a person to appoint someone else to make decisions for them in the future, should they lack the capacity to do this themselves. The best interest’s principle in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (the Act) states that any act done or decision made on behalf of an adult lacking capacity must be in their best interests).

 The role of Advocating

Rather than speak on their behalf, the role of a person who advocates for someone with support needs is to make sure that the person’s voice and opinion are heard to the fullest extent. The advocate makes sure that the person develops the confidence, skills and ability to voice their concerns, needs and choices.

 If a person is supported to express themselves in this area, this provides the best chance for rights, choices and wishes to be protected and to be exercised in a person’s life. A person should be able to express their views, challenge decisions, and make changes in their lives.

We think it is important that a person not feel alone when dealing with professionals or dealing with processes (legal or otherwise). Through the network, (including family, social services, us as a provider, and any other agencies) we support the person to have the best opportunity to decide who they would like to make sure is involved in supporting them. As a starting point, we promote and encourage the person to build a really strong sense of self to help shape their future.