Where Can an Adult with Learning Disabilities Live?

An adult with a learning disability can live in many different places. They may stay in the family home, rent or own their own home, live in supported housing, share with other people, use a Shared Lives arrangement or live in residential care. The harder question is where they are likely to live well. A property can meet every obvious requirement and still be wrong for the person, while someone who needs considerable support can live very successfully in an ordinary house or flat.

When looking at housing options for adults with learning disabilities, I would start with the person rather than the available property. Where do they want to live? Who would they like around them? What support do they need, and what matters in their ordinary week? These sound like straightforward questions. Under pressure, it is remarkably easy to start at the other end and ask what housing happens to be available.

Housing options for adults with learning disabilities

There is no neat housing ladder for people with learning disabilities. Someone does not have to progress from the family home to shared supported living and eventually to greater independence. People have different abilities, relationships, health needs, finances and expectations. Circumstances change too. Someone who needs substantial support at 20 may develop greater independence later, while another person may need more help as they get older.

The ⁠NHS guide to housing options explains several possibilities for disabled adults, including supported living and Shared Lives. NHS England also says in its ⁠guidance on housing for people with a learning disability and autistic people that people should have choice about where they live and who they live with, and that housing should meet their needs. The principle is simple enough. Keeping hold of it when there are funding decisions, vacancies, assessments and deadlines is harder.

Staying in the family home

There can be very good reasons for an adult to continue living with their family. They may be happy there, their relationships and routines may be established locally, and the support around them may work well. Moving out should not become some artificial test of adulthood or independence. The problem comes when staying at home continues because nobody has really talked about what happens next.

Parents get older. Health changes. Brothers and sisters develop lives of their own. A caring arrangement that has worked for twenty or thirty years can become difficult surprisingly quickly after illness, bereavement or another significant change. Families can then find themselves making a major housing decision at exactly the point when everyone is least able to deal with it. We look at this more fully in ⁠When Parents Can No Longer Care? Planning Ahead. Planning does not commit somebody to moving out. It buys time, and time usually gives people more choice.

Having your own home

Some adults with learning disabilities live in an ordinary rented or owned home. They may need occasional help, regular visiting support or a substantial package of care. This is where our language around independent living with a learning disability can become unhelpful, because independence does not mean doing everything yourself. None of us really lives like that.

Someone may need help with cooking, medication, money, personal care or getting out of the house and still have considerable independence. They may decide when they get up, what they eat, who visits, what is on television and whether they want company. Those apparently ordinary decisions are a large part of what having your own home means. We explored this in ⁠Can Autistic Adults Live Independently?, and the same lesson applies more widely. A diagnosis does not tell you how somebody should live. You need to know the person.

What does supported living actually mean?

This is where the terminology starts causing trouble. “Supported living” and “supported housing” are regularly used as though they mean exactly the same thing. Families can be forgiven for becoming confused because professionals are not always consistent either. Supported living for adults with learning disabilities usually means somebody has their own home and receives the care or support they need to live there. They might live alone or share with other people.

The ⁠NHS describes supported living services as accommodation with support that helps people live more independently. There is another distinction that matters in practice. The organisation responsible for somebody’s home can be different from the organisation providing their care. The Care Quality Commission explains this separation in its current ⁠guidance on personal care. In supported living, accommodation and personal care can be separate arrangements.

At Zetetick this is central to how we work. We provide and manage the home, while specialist care organisations provide the care and support. We work closely together because housing and care have to function alongside each other every day, but the responsibilities are different. I think that separation is important. Care arrangements sometimes change, and people should not casually lose their home because the organisation providing their care changes.

Supported housing can look very ordinary

People sometimes imagine supported housing for adults with learning disabilities as a special sort of building. Usually it is much less dramatic than that. It might be a flat, bungalow, terraced house or ordinary family-sized house on an ordinary street. Someone may live alone or two or three people may share. The property might need adaptations, space for overnight staff or a particular layout because of someone’s needs.

This is where the difference between a suitable property and a suitable home starts to show. We have looked at properties that make complete sense on paper. Right number of bedrooms, right area, affordable rent, enough room for staff and nothing obviously wrong with them. Then you think about the person and something doesn’t quite fit.

Perhaps the road is too noisy. Someone who gets up repeatedly during the night might have a bedroom next to a person who needs uninterrupted sleep. A lovely rural property can leave somebody isolated if the things that make up their life are the café, bus route, family and familiar shops three miles away. None of that is particularly sophisticated housing theory. It is what you notice when you stop looking only at the building.

Who somebody lives with matters

Sharing a home can work extremely well. People can have companionship while retaining their own space, and some people actively want to share and enjoy the rhythm of another person being around. But having the same diagnosis does not make two people suitable housemates. That sounds obvious, yet the pressure to find housing can push compatibility surprisingly far down the list.

Two people may both have a learning disability and need similar levels of support while wanting completely different lives. One may like noise, visitors and a television on most of the evening. Another may find that unbearable. One person may go to bed early while another walks around at night. Someone may want company over dinner while the other wants to eat alone. You cannot eliminate every disagreement between people who share a home, nor should you try. People without learning disabilities annoy their housemates too.

What matters is whether the arrangement has a reasonable chance of working. That means understanding people rather than matching labels. Living alone brings different questions. Someone may have much greater privacy and control but need more thought around social contact, staffing and location. If they rely on support to get out, a poorly located property can quietly reduce their world. There isn’t a universal better option. There is a better option for the person.

Shared Lives and residential care are different choices

Supported living is not the answer for everybody, and we should be careful about pretending it is. Shared Lives offers a different arrangement in which an adult is matched with an approved Shared Lives carer and may live as part of their household. For someone who values that kind of family environment and consistency, it can work very well. It is quite different from holding a tenancy in a separate supported home.

Residential care is different again. Accommodation and care are generally provided together. The ⁠CQC explains the distinction between accommodation provided together with personal or nursing care and arrangements where housing and personal care are separate. For some people residential care is the right answer. For others, having a tenancy and receiving care separately offers greater control over their home.

I would be wary of deciding between these choices simply by asking which one sounds more independent. The label tells you something about the arrangement, but it does not tell you what someone’s Tuesday afternoon will be like. Look at the life somebody will actually have. That is a much better test.

How do you work out what home is right?

Start with an ordinary week. Where does the person go? Who do they see? What do they enjoy? What makes them anxious? Do they use buses or walk to places? How close do they want to be to family? Do they enjoy other people around them or need somewhere quiet to retreat? These questions begin to tell you what sort of location and property might actually work.

Then think about the support. What happens at night? Is there waking-night support or a sleep-in arrangement? Does the property need adaptations? Is there enough room for staff without the home beginning to feel like their workplace? There are practical questions as well. Who holds the tenancy and manages repairs? What happens if the person’s needs change, and can the property adapt with them? It is also worth understanding what happens if the care provider changes. These are fairly ordinary questions, but they can make a considerable difference later.

A social care assessment may form part of the process. In England, local authorities assess adults who appear to have care and support needs. ⁠GOV.UK explains how to request a needs assessment and what to expect. If housing is now being actively considered, our guide to ⁠how to find supported housing in England explains where to start and who may need to become involved.

Be careful when everybody needs an answer quickly

Some of the most difficult housing decisions happen when there is pressure. A family may be exhausted. Someone may need to leave hospital. A current arrangement may have broken down, or a care package may be ready but there is nowhere suitable for it to operate. Then somebody finds a vacancy and, understandably, everyone wants it to work. Sometimes it does. The risk is that urgency makes people stop asking questions they would normally ask, particularly when the alternative is having no immediate answer at all.

Who else lives there? What happens at difficult times of day? Will the care package actually work in this property? Can someone get to the places that matter to them? Is the tenancy likely to last? Does the person even like the house? These are not awkward questions delaying a solution. They are part of deciding whether the proposed solution is any good.

At Zetetick, we would rather identify a poor match before somebody moves in. Saying that is easier than doing it when a family desperately needs an answer, but a failed move can be far more disruptive. The ⁠supported housing referral process should therefore tell us considerably more than somebody’s diagnosis and required number of care hours. We need to understand the person, the proposed home, the care arrangements and, where people will share, the other tenants.

There are occasions when the right answer is that a particular property will not work. That can be disappointing, particularly after a long search. It may also prevent a much bigger problem six months later. Moving home is significant for anybody, and repeated moves can be especially difficult for someone whose sense of security depends heavily on familiar people, routines and surroundings.

Finding a home rather than filling a vacancy

There is a habit in health, housing and social care of talking about “placements”. I understand why. It is useful professional shorthand, but I don’t particularly like it because a placement sounds like somewhere we put somebody. A home belongs to them. That difference in language points to a bigger difference in thinking.

Housing professionals will quite properly consider rent, tenancy, repairs, property standards and whether the accommodation can be sustained. Care professionals need to think about staffing, risk and support. Families may be thinking about safety, happiness and whether their son or daughter will cope. The person living there experiences all of those things together. They don’t experience a housing solution on Monday and a care package on Tuesday. They experience their life.

That is why Zetetick works closely with care partners when looking at housing. The care organisation knows how the person’s support needs to work each day. We concentrate on the home, tenancy and housing management. Social workers, commissioners, health professionals and families may all bring knowledge that changes the decision. The best conversations tend to happen when those different perspectives are brought together early enough to make a difference.

Nobody gets every housing decision right. Anyone who has worked in this area for long enough knows that. People change, relationships change and sometimes something that looked sensible simply doesn’t work as expected. What we can do is ask better questions before somebody moves, be clear about who is responsible for what and pay attention when something does not look right.

If you are looking for a home for an adult with a learning disability, you do not need to arrive with every answer. A much better starting point is a clear understanding of the person and the life the housing needs to support. If you are ready to discuss a particular person, you can ⁠make a referral to Zetetick Housing. You can also call us on 0800 03 08 009 or email [email protected].

Finding somewhere available is part of the job. The better test comes later, when the move is no longer new and everyone has settled back into ordinary life. Does the home still work on an ordinary Tuesday morning? Does the person have the privacy, support, relationships and choices they need? If the answer is yes, we probably asked some of the right questions at the beginning.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can an adult with a learning disability live on their own?

Yes. Some adults with learning disabilities live alone with little formal support, while others have regular or substantial care in their own home. The amount of support somebody needs does not by itself determine whether they can live alone. The important questions are what the person wants, what they can manage and whether the right support can be provided safely and sustainably.

Does supported living mean sharing a house?

No. Someone receiving supported living services may live alone or share with other people. If sharing is proposed, compatibility between the people living together deserves proper consideration. Similar care needs or diagnoses do not necessarily mean people will enjoy living together.

Who decides where an adult with a learning disability lives?

The adult should be central to decisions about their home. Depending on the circumstances, family members, social workers, care providers, housing providers and health professionals may also contribute knowledge and support. Where there are questions about mental capacity, the appropriate legal decision-making process must be followed.

How do I start looking for a suitable home?

Adult Social Care or an existing social worker can be a useful starting point, particularly where somebody’s care and support needs need assessing. Families and professionals can also approach specialist housing providers. Zetetick accepts referrals from social workers, commissioners, care providers, health teams and other professionals.

Is supported living always better than residential care?

No. They are different arrangements and either may be appropriate. The decision should reflect the person’s wishes, needs, preferred living arrangements and the support they require. Looking at what everyday life will actually be like for the person is more useful than assuming one model is automatically better.

Related articles:

School’s Out – Housing Options for People with Complex Needs How the Supported Housing Referral Process Works Can Autistic Adults Live Independently?