Project background

During the 3 years of this action research project, which was funded by the Mental Health Foundation and Baily Thomas Trust, we learned various ways to support people with complex learning disabilities to be more included in community life.

With our 4 voluntary sector partner organisations (Tamarisk Trust, Brandon Trust, Morrison Trust and Grapevine) we were able to support 34 people with complex support needs to be more included in their communities rather than relying on ‘traditional’ services.

How much of a difference did the project make?

Approximately half of those taking part achieved at least one of the goals that they had set themselves at the beginning. Some of these were big changes, such as moving home, getting a new PA or starting up a business. For others the changes were smaller in scale, but no less significant to them personally, such as joining a gym or going to a lunch club once a week. Other outcomes were just as important – people feeling more relaxed, being more confident, having more control over decisions that affect them, just being happier with life!

Some of the key achievements included:

Less reliance upon specialist learning disability services
Person centred approaches and techniques led to greater job satisfaction amongst support staff, more choice and control for people at the centre of the process and greater involvement of family and other non-paid friends
Circles of support, where utilised, proved to be a cost effective way of coordinating planning and action for and around an individual
Community connectors had a key role in making it happen for people in the project
Developing individualised services in the community that are about ‘relationships’ rather than activities or buildings.

Some of the outcomes achieved were:

Moving from group residential service to own home
Having a tenancy in a supported living arrangement
Setting up a neighbourhood magazine exchange
Running a café
Getting a personal assistant
Taking on an ambassadorial role for a sports club
Joining a steel band
Joining a gym
Attending an over 50’s club
An improved benefit income
Becoming a community warden
Delivering leaflets for a restaurant

So what else have we learned from the project?

Circles of support are a really effective way of planning and making things happen for people. Lots of the good outcomes for people came from families and non-paid supporters working together, sometimes with help and advice from others with special skills, such as someone who knows about self-employment.
Having your own money (an Individual Budget) can be a good way to improve people’s choice, control and flexibility, but this requires enthusiastic and knowledgeable care managers to make it happen.
The project showed that it is important for support services to measure their effectiveness through outcome measures based upon what people with high support needs want to achieve.
Commissioners and care managers did not recognise the potential demand for community connecting services and organisations providing these services rely upon irregular funding to keep them going.
Sustaining the work of the community connectors relied upon the creativity and flexibility of day-to-day support staff, but this could only happen where managers allowed them to take risks and were supportive of the ideas behind Life in the Community.