Hi.
I’m new here and am looking at finding a bespoke supported living placement for our 22 year old son. Social Services haven’t been able to find a suitable place for him yet.
I’m thinking of approaching the care providers directly to ask what supported living schemes they run. Does anyone have any experience of Supported Living care providers in Lancashire they would recommend?
hi there. The question is, why have social services not been able to find suitable accommodation? As far as I’m aware they have no responsibility to provide accommodation unless he is homeless and if there isn’t any social housing available he will not be a priority if he is living at home so it’s either a care home or a private landlord if the council will support it. I would approach the care providers but usually they stipulate that they provide the care as well as the accommodation which ties your son into the one care provider which might not suit your son if he already has carers supporting him. Do the research anyway. Good luck
Thank you for replying. He is at residential college at the moment so isn’t tied to any care agency at the moment. He just comes home for the holidays but we have said he can’t come home when he leaves college for good. His social worker and her manager seem to want to leave finding accommodation until a few months before he needs it which does not give time for his college to do a proper transition. I believe it can take more than a year to set up a bespoke care package for young people like our son with complex needs.
hi. If your son is at residential college now he may have 24/7 care so I would definitely push for everything to be in place once he leaves college as otherwise you might find him living with you. You would then have to make him homeless in order to get the support he needs - which you are not going to do obviously. As others have said it can take years to get things in place so I would get on with it now. Find what you want and push for it. My council are not proactive so I had to find everything out myself. You may be lucky and yours may give you some help. Good luck.
I think we’ll need it as with our council we’ve always had to fight for everything! Thanks for your support.
Hi. You probably are aware from other posts that if you have full health funding you may have an “easier” time finding a placement as it’s not coming out if the councils social care budget. If your son doesn’t have full funding expect resistance. Either way the more time to get things sorted the better it is for you and your son. The type of accommodation and care will depend on your sons needs. You started off by asking about supported living which is very different in all respects from a residential care home. Our son could not live on his own but nor did he want to live in a care home so supported living works very well for him but it is a bespoke package with the care agency being separate from the accommodation provider. We used Golden Lane Housing Ltd to find the accommodation for us. They used to be part of Mencap. Try contacting them as well and look up their website fir more ideas.
Unfortunately our son was turned down for CHC. I’ll look up Golden Lane Housing- thanks for the tip.
Hi there
It might be worth applying again for CHC funding, as my daughter was turned down for it at age 19. We weren't too bothered at the time as it was pre covid, she was still at home and the package of care met her needs.
When she was around age 23, the staff in her short term respite provision started informing the social worker that they could no longer meet her needs, as she required a waking night staff due to unpredictable sleep pattern.
Initially the social worker thought we would get 50% health funding, but although it took 9 months she was awarded 100% health funding. It meant we were able to have 8 weeks short break respite breaks and funding for 2:1 day care and social respite.
In July age 27, she moved into supported living with waking night staff plus 2:1 support in the community plus 1:1 in her flat. The best bit is there is no fairer charge so after her bills, food expenses and activities are paid, there is still a healthy budget for unexpected items, presents holidays etc.
It is worth asking your social worker for a re assessment.
We did ask the social worker but she said the last assessment was too recent. We will bear this in mind however as CHC seems to make a big difference. We will ask about this again. Thanks for your reply.
when I was looking for my son I did just that to start with. I looked at all the big companies like Voyage, The priory group, Mencap etc and just spent hours looking at the places and emailing those I felt were suitable. We were looking for residential care rather than supported living. When our care manager left a new one took over and we were put in touch with the placement team at our local council. They spoke to us about what we wanted and put a pen picture together, they then contacted all the places that had vacancies. We weren’t overly concerned if it was local just that the placement had to be right. Our son has very complex needs and challenging behaviour so I needed to be 100% sure those needs could be met. When providers got in touch with them they passed the info onto us and we either ruled it out or arranged a visit. It took a year but he moved onto a fabulous place last September.
Thanks for your reply. I’m so glad your son has found a great place to live. Our social worker has done a pen picture but said there was nothing available at the moment although they do agree he needs a bespoke care package. They seem to want to leave it all till a few months before he needs the accommodation (he’s at residential college at the moment). We feel it will take a long time to find accommodation and the process should start now.
Is the council placement team the same as a social worker or can you contact them separately?
yes my son was at residential college too. We started looking after Christmas in his last year. Visited a place in Devon that I loved and he was offered a place. All going well until May when the placement fell through as the manger became ill. We started looking again straight away and found the current placement after a few visits. We did a visit and then they spent the day at his college doing assessments. They offered him a place in July so we never had much chance to do transition visits but it all worked out well. He has a bespoke package, it’s in excess of £5k per week when fully staffed and over £6k when using agency staff which they’re having to do at present.
My son is funded by NHS continuing health care not social services so we don’t have a social worker as such. The placement team is just that, a team in charge of finding placements at the local council. Our care manager put us in touch but then left it to us to liaise with them. They were brilliant and even really advocated for us when funding was discussed.
College had a transition team too who were really helpful and we had transition meetings monthly from about October.
Glad it all worked out by July- it must have been a worrying time! I’ll see if we can contact the placement team directly to see if we get more joy from them. Thanks for your help.
do you mind me asking where I’m Devon? We are looking for my 22 year old son, we are just about to move to Devon (early summer) and have started the process of looking but it’s such a minefield
We are in a similar situation. Our son is at a residential college out of area, but this provision ends in July. He will be able to manage in a supported living environment, and wants to stay near the college to maintain the social links that he has with other students etc. Our London council have been unable to find anything in the area that he wants to live in, and have left it up to us to find something. They are also dodging providing a Care Act Assessment and Personal Budget, which makes finding carers to support my son in a (yet to be identified) property (which might be in one of 4 towns) even more difficult. We are likely to run out of time and have no opportunity for a transition plan to be executed. We are currently looking for privately rented accommodation, which we are likely to have to subsidise, as there are no housing providers operating in the area he wants to live in.
Local care providers might be able to give you leads on who provides accommodation to other people they care for.
Yes that’s a good point- we’ve been given a big list of care providers but it’s hard to know where to start. I’m sorry that you’re struggling to find accommodation for your son. You shouldn’t be put in this situation and it must be hugely worrying for you. Hope everything works out. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Experience of Supported Living
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Household Bills in supported living 
Supported living settling in
