Draft Market Development Plan – Accommodation for People with a Learning Disability

This is an easy read plan. You can also read the longer plan which has lots more information in it. If you would like the longer plan please follow the link below:

Market development plan for learning disabilities accommodation consultation

If you see any words that are bold and underlined you can read a bit more about what they mean in the glossary at the end of this document.

Background

Sheffield City Council’s Cabinet approved the Commissioning Strategy for Services for People with a Learning Disability and their Families 2015 – 2018 in December 2014.It talked about lots of things we want to do to make lives better. Some of these things were about housing. We are now working on a more detailed plan about housing. This is called the market development plan.

The number of adults with a learning disability is growing and their needs are more complex. About 60% of all people with a learning disability receiving adult social care live away from their family. At the moment there is not much choice of housing. It can be difficult for some people to find the right house. This can mean that people have to leave Sheffield to find the right type of house to live in. Some of our housing is poor quality. Sometimes people need to wait a long time when they need to move house.

What do local people want?

People now have higher expectations of an independent life in their community. People have said:

That they want us to make sure housing is well-matched to what people want.

That we need to make sure people living in shared housing are happy and able to live well together.

That urgent need for housing must be taken into account.

When we asked people what type of housing and support they preferred, lots of them told us they would choose supported living. Supported living is for adults with a learning disability who would like to live independently in their own home.

People also felt there was a need for a better choice of supported living houses for people with lower level needs.

People with a learning disability and their carers say they want to be able to access other forms of housing with support if it meets their needs better. For example, nursing care for people with a learning disability and dementia, or Extra Care Housing for older people with a learning disability.

People with more complex needs or additional disabilities, including people with autism, may need housing that is designed or adapted for their unique needs.

Where people live now

In Sheffield, people with a learning disability who live away from their families live in lots of different kinds of housing.

General needs social rented housing (Council and Housing Association owned housing1)

Around 400 people with a learning disability live in council homes. Some older people with learning disabilities live in Extra Care or sheltered housing. Social housing is often better quality and people have tenancy rights.Private rented housing

We have 162 units in 50 properties which are rented out by private landlords. Some are of poor quality.Network schemes

26 people live in network schemes, where people live in their own houses within a short distance of one another and have some help with getting involved in their local area.

Sharing Lives placements

28 people live in long term Sharing Lives placements, where an adult who needs support moves in with an approved carer and shares in family life.

1 Numbers in general needs housing association tenancies currently unknown.

Supported living schemes

366 people live in supported living schemes. Most of these are owned by housing associations. This means that people have tenancy rights. Much of the housing is shared, and the deregistration process will mean there are more shared supported living homes. These will need to be checked in the future to make sure they continue to be suitable. Sharing a property has benefits for some people. But sometimes people don’t like living together. This can mean they fall out with each other and one or more person has to leave.

Residential and nursing care

Some people live in residential and nursing care. We are busy changing 9 registered residential care homes into supported living.

Our plan for the future

Our plan for the future is that adults with learning disabilities will have the same choices of housing as everyone else.

People with a learning disability will have an independent life in local communities with access to lots of services, transport and activities.

We will have more homes for people to choose from, so that housing will meet the different needs of adults with a learning disability. We will make sure that people with a learning disability have the choice to live in different places across the city.Housing will be high quality, will offer dignity and privacy and will help people to be independent, safe and well. We will stop using housing that is poor quality.We want to provide the best value housing rather than use expensive residential and nursing homes. However, supported living is not suitable for everyone, so there will still be a need for some registered residential and nursing care in Sheffield.

We would like there to be more social housing tenancies available for people with a learning disability.

We will increase the number of Sharing Lives placements.

Some people with a learning disability and their families have said they are willing and able to buy their own home. We will make sure that good information and advice is available.We will build some new supported living schemes. When we build new houses we will make sure they are private but with some shared spaces for people to spend time together. There will be more housing designed for people who use wheelchairs and specialist equipment. We will look at issues such as the safety of the area, how close houses are to public transport, local shops, health and leisure services before we build new houses.

We will make sure that people are able to access housing that meets their needs when they need it.

Engagement and co-production

We have listened to what people have told us and used this to write our plan. The plan has also been written with people who work in children’s services, housing services

and health.Next stepsWe want you to tell us what you think about our plan. If we need to change the plan after what you have told us, we will. We will carry on talking to people with a learning disability and their families, and will listen carefully to what they tell us.The easy read version of the Accommodation Market Development Plan has been developed with Photosymbols.

Glossary

Difficult Word Explanation

Co-production When people have an equal role in saying how a service is delivered

Deregistration

This is when we remove a service or scheme from a register because it is no longer needed – such as the deregistration of some residential care homes into supported living

Extra Care HousingDesigned with the needs of frailer older people in mind and with care and support available on site

Process A range of actions undertaken in order to achieve a certain goal

Sheltered housing A type of housing for older or disabled people