Family Information | Accommodation

Accommodation

Moving home is a signiﬁcant life event and can cause a lot of stress and anxiety. To ensure a smooth move into new accommodation, it is always important to plan in advance, with support.

There are many options available for when you need accommodation. These include: independent accommodation, supported living, Shared Lives and residential care. More information on each of these options is available below.

What options are available?

Supported living

Supported living is accommodation with extra support for people with eligible adult social care needs. It provides more opportunities for independence and choice compared to residential care. You would have a tenancy agreement for the accommodation and choose a support provider.

This service would encourage you to gain or maintain as much independence as possible. Support can involve prompting or enabling you to carry out activities such as:

household tasks including laundry, budgeting, food shopping, cleaning, cooking
developing social skills and maintaining relationships
accessing employment, volunteering or other community groups
accessing the community through traveling with support or independently, including planning travel
tasks related to your health, support and beneﬁts including contacting other agencies, doctors, landlord
taking medicine as prescribed by health professionals
maintaining safety and security and preparing for any emergencies
trying new activities and encouraging independence

Support plans are individualised to ensure that your needs are supported adequately. Support is described as ‘onsite’ or ‘ﬂoating’. Onsite support is provided by a provider who is onsite (usually working out of a staff ofﬁce) and provides individual support. Floating support is provided by workers who arrives at the property to supply individual hours. There are many different types of supported living accommodation, these include:

Self-contained ﬂats with shared access to a communal space and onsite support, in addition to individual support. These schemes can have provision for daytime only support, sleep-in support or waking night support.
Self-contained ﬂats with individual ﬂoating support that are stand alone, in a cluster or near a scheme with onsite support.
A shared house with communal facilities, onsite and/or individual ﬂoating support.

Shared lives

Shared lives is a service offering young people the choice to live with a family that will provide their care and support. There are also opportunities for long term respite and day care/community support from the home of a shared lives carer.

Shared lives is a regulated service registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the carers undergo rigorous assessments before becoming self-employed shared lives carers. The carers come from all walks of life – they may be individuals, couples or families in the local community. They are supported in their roles by the dedicated shared lives team.

The shared lives team is responsible for assessing, monitoring, offering support, and providing training to all carers.

Residential care

Some young people may require a level of support that cannot be delivered in their own home or in a supported living setting. Residential care homes provide long-term care to adults who require a high level of continuous support within a care setting. Residential care homes provide accommodation and support with tasks of daily living such as washing, dressing, meals, taking medicines, going to the toilet.

We are committed to supporting people to stay in independent accommodation wherever possible but recognise that in some cases residential care may be more appropriate.

Independent accommodation

This is accommodation for people who may not have support needs. This can include accommodation that is:

purchased and owned by you
owned/rented by a family member
rented from the council or a housing association
rented from a private landlord

If you move into independent accommodation, you may be able to have support provided to you in your home. Currently, if you live in independent accommodation you can:

receive a direct payment so that you can choose the support provider
choose a support provider from the current Supported Living Framework (your social worker can help you choose a provider).

Who is involved?

The following may be able to help you consider your options.

Children’s services
Adult services – transition team
Supported living team
Shared lives team

When will this happen?

It is important to think about and discuss housing needs from age 14 onwards so you can start to think about what is best for you and what skills you will need. Remember that to take on a housing tenancy, you must be 18 years old or above. Also, adult residential care placements are only available to those aged 18 or above.

How does it work?

A social worker would work with you to assess which is the most appropriate accommodation to meet your needs. Specialist supported living or shared lives team members may also support you with the transition to these types of accommodation.

If you would like to live in independent accommodation, you will need to complete a housing application for Leicester City Council (or for another local council if you are living outside of Leicester) or for a housing association. You could also look for privately rented accommodation. Your family, social worker or other professionals working with you can support you in this.

What are the costs of moving into new accommodation?

Depending on the type of accommodation that you move in to, you are likely to have costs that you may not have had previously.

If you move into independent accommodation, supported living and shared lives where you take on a tenancy or license agreement, you will need to pay rent and utility bills. These could include gas, water, electricity and council tax. You may also have other costs such as for assistive technology, furniture, appliances, gardening and maintenance services or other service charges. You may also have to pay towards the cost of your care and support.

You may be eligible for housing beneﬁt to help towards the cost of rent so consider this when thinking about ﬁnding your own home.

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