Supported living in Dorset / Hants / Buckinghamshire

[jollyfarmer]

Hi, Does anyone know of any good supported living providers Dorset / Hants / Buckinghamshire areas . I'm looking for any decent providers who can support a young adult with Autism

[White25]

Hi, I have heard of REACH in Buckinghamshire, I believe they are good.

[jollyfarmer in reply to White25]

Great, thanks for your reply I will look into that

[BenjiB]

Look at the big groups like Voyage care, Cygnet, Choices etc. my son is in the process of moving now college is finished and we’ve opted for residential care and I just don’t want the hassle of supported living

We used the placement team at our local council and they set up a request and it goes out to all the places that have vacancies. A pen picture is sent and then they contacted the team if they felt they could meet need.

[jollyfarmer in reply to BenjiB]

Thanks so much for your reply. I will certainly have look at those.I'm finding that my LA placement team are only looking in our LA area & I want something that can meet our YP's needs rather than just something in area

What did you think is "hassle" about Supported living ?

[BenjiB in reply to jollyfarmer]

I don’t feel the placement in supported living is as secure as with residential care, we’ve just had a bad time with my nephew in supported living when the house decided to give him notice and they actually gave the letter to him and didn’t even contact my sister in law. She had no idea. 48 hours notice no contact made with family or social worker. He is moderately autistic and has no idea about these things. Also my sister in law had to sort out his part of the bills each month etc. if someone doesn’t have capacity you’d also have to get deputyship for finances so you can sift the tenancy agreement.

Yes my friend had the same issue in that they wouldn’t look outside of the LA. Its ridiculous and not very inclusive. My argument was that my son is a person on his own right and that he shouldn’t be limited to living in the place his parents pay council tax. It makes absolutely no sense. Especially as after 18 parents have no legal rights without deputyship anyway!

My son was originally going to a place in Devon, we come under Hampshire but it fell through last minute and he’s now going to the Isle of Wight so has ended up in our local authority. I’m not sure how that impacts us though if we want to move!

[jollyfarmer in reply to BenjiB]

Thanks for this. We have seen a place in Devon very recently. It seems to be that although the YP over 18 has the same rights to choose where they live as any other person, local authorities argue about who will fund it. ( I'm not scared off by

that one )The law on this seems very regularly ignored. We are looking in Dorset / Hampshire ideally, because the kind of opportunities that our YP can engage with are more frequently available there, & we have contacts in the area.

[Eeviee]

Hi. I don’t want to contradict anyone else’s experience but in our case my son has been in a few residential schools far away from us and lived in their care home and I never found it very satisfactory. My husband and I always had to monitor the situation and at times we were in despair at the constantly changing staff and lack of care he received. Now our son lives in supported living nearby, in a house of our choosing with carers of our choosing. We still need to monitor but to a much lesser degree snd overall we and our son are all much happier.

[jollyfarmer in reply to Eeviee]

Thanks very much Eeviee. It's so good to have people to discuss this with- new to me, but very helpful to hear all your various experiences. We too have had, and continue to have, a great many issues with fleeting staffing at our current residential educational placement- far from home and has been exhausting to constantly monitor- as you say. Did you choose your carers at supported living ?

[Eeviee in reply to jollyfarmer]

Yes that’s right. That’s not to say it is easy to get what you want but we were fortunate to have a good care agency close to where we live.

[BenjiB]

One of the other places we were looking at was Camphill communities. Their places are really lovely and I love the community feel of them. They are owned by the same organisation that owned the college our son went to in Ringwood.

[jollyfarmer in reply to BenjiB]

Yep, we agree with you about Camphill, seen Devon, Sussex, & Milton Keynes communities. We are also ex SR !

[BenjiB in reply to jollyfarmer]

Well what a small world! Has your YP just left this year?

[jollyfarmer in reply to BenjiB]

No left in 2019

[BenjiB in reply to jollyfarmer]

Oh ok. College were really good helping with finding somewhere. We were all sorted back in January but the placement fell through as the place is closing down (apparently) so it’s been a bit if a rush to find somewhere new and fit in transition. I’m incredibly stressed about it all and haven’t slept in the last two weeks! We were very spoilt with SR! Was your young person in Westmount?

[jollyfarmer in reply to BenjiB]

Oh no, that's so bad. Is it a care home closing down ? Have you secured an alternative ? Settings like SR have additional difficulties recruiting and retaining staff because it's a rural area and often care / support staff can't drive. Apparently SR are closed to residential applications for 2023. Camphill communities now have diminished volunteer support worker flow from overseas as well. No, not Westmount !

[BenjiB in reply to jollyfarmer]

Yes we’ve secured a new place on the Isle of Wight. He moves next Monday. Scary times!

Yes, there are no new residential students this year either, staffing has been a problem but they’ve dealt with it well. And yes due to Brexit they’ve lost the access to volunteers. Such a shame it’s a beautiful setting and our son has flourished there. It’s been a long 6 weeks this summer. I’m excited and terrified in equal measures!

[jollyfarmer]

That's good news- I have everything crossed for you on Isle of Wight.

[class9F]

Our son is in a residential care home run by Dolphin Homes in Hampshire. They are expanding into supported living and our son will be moving into one of their supported living places as soon as it’s finished. They have experience of autism and challenging behaviour as well as physical disabilities. They do however have the same issues as all care providers with recruiting and retaining care staff. Having said that their training seems to be very thorough and the senior house staff keep a very close eye on things. Might be worth contacting them to see if they have anything coming available. I think the flats in the setting my son is moving to are all allocated but there are other settings they are in the process of setting up

[jollyfarmer in reply to class9F]

Ok, thanks very much for the lead- I will certainly look at Dolphin.