Question about finding supported living for my daughter

[Violet50]

Hello, my 21 year old daughter wants to live in a residential setting. How do you go about finding out about places for young adults and is this something that is funded by the council? She has MLD and severe visual impairment.

Thanks, Kate

[sidarnio]

Hi, My daughter who is 22 has moderate to severe LD and a visual impairment and she has just moved into a self contained supported living flat in a new build complex, we live in York. She does need a lot of support to cook and maintain her flat and isn't able to go out without support. It hasn't been an easy journey, we asked the council over 2 years ago for suitable accommodation. The council seem to prefer family to look after their child rather than provide accommodation for them. In the end we had to say that 'we were no longer willing or able to look after our daughter' which means they have a duty to provide supported accommodation.

[Rupertthebear in reply to sidarnio]

This is what I am saying , I don’t mind doing some of the caring in his flat if he had one but can’t afford to keep him in a flat on which I pay rent solely myself! So I. The end he would go into supported living which is a bigger expense for the council!! Why is there no common sense with people making the decisions!

[BenjiB]

my son, 23 has just moved into residential. The social worker put us in touch with the placement team. They put out a pen picture of our son to all providers around the country. If one came back to her she passed the details onto us. I ruled out loads due to location or the size of the place. The ones we liked the look of i phoned and spoke to the manager. If we thought a place was suitable we visited. It took almost a year but we found a perfect place and he moved at the beginning of September.

[Rupertthebear in reply to BenjiB]

Hi Benji that sounds great !

Does he live all by himself ? How much support can you give him . I don’t want my one to feel abandoned .

[BenjiB in reply to Rupertthebear]

No he lives with 5 others in a residential care home. He needs full support and is 2:1 - 80% of the time.

It’s a beautiful place. We chose it as it’s very safe, no nearby roads in case he did run off which is highly unlikely but you never know. It also has a private beach which he loves. I think because he was at residential college he got used to not seeing us except in the holidays. We did try at the start to visit him on weekends but he just thought he was coming home (he’s non verbal with very little understanding) so we just kept to the college holidays which worked. We are going to follow a similar pattern now so he’s coming home for a week next Friday. Then he’ll come for two weeks at Christmas etc. He has a very full timetable there. They swim, go bowling, the cinema, walks on the beach etc so he is always engaged and busy.

My friends son has a supported living flat with 1:1 support and she visits all the time so there are different services to support individual needs. My advice is to look at as many as possible. Before the placement team became involved with my son, I looked at lots of places myself that I’d found on the internet and arranged visits.

We didn’t look at supported living as my son lacks capacity so we would need to obtain deputyship through the Court of Protection so we could sign the lease, which would take too long. Also there’s the admin involved with supported living liking paying bills etc which I don’t want to do.

[Rupertthebear in reply to BenjiB]

many thanks it’s very informative .

[tiggybenny in reply to BenjiB]

Hi BenjiB, could I ask what area your son is ? my Son is supported living but I don't think this is the best placement for him, any info would be great. thanks

[Violet50]

thank you for all your replies. I have finally got an appointment with a social worker next week so hopefully start the process 😊