D R M INDEPENDENT LIVING
Why Reside is committed to helping people with the Transforming Care Plan As a not-for-profit housing association, Reside is values-led and committed to providing housing solutions for tenants with complex support needs… THE majority of Reside’s tenants have complex needs and it works closely with local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and National Health Service England (NHSE) as part of the Government’s national Transforming Care Plan to enable independent living. Set up in 2012 following the Winterbourne View scandal, Transforming Care is a programme that aims to help people with complex needs move out of inpatient care and into supported living. “In the past it was difficult to find appropriate housing for people with complex needs due to a lack of options, so hospital and institutional care tended to be the only solution. One of the things Transforming Care helps do is address this by providing capital funding to buy housing,” explains Reside’s Business Development Director, Steve Harris. For Reside, the process of acquiring property, making adaptations and securing the grant funding for a potential tenant takes around six months. In the first instance, either a Support Provider, NHSE or a CCG will contact Reside to discuss viability. Reside will work with the prospective tenant and family or advocate, and professional partners to draw up a Project Initiation Document (PID) to apply for the grant. Following approval, a property will be bought and a project manager appointed who will be the operational lead in making sure that adaptations and works to the identified property are specified and delivered. “Families and potential tenants are
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of course crucial in this process to ensure we’re going to deliver what they need. We’ll also involve support providers in this process, as they need to know about the property and advise us on the design and adaptations that may be needed to improve the support offered,” explains Steve Harris.
“OUR MOST SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY IS THE LATEST IN THE NORTH EAST FOR A YOUNG MAN WITH AUTISM.”
young man with autism and a learning disability,” says Steve Harris. Fred Grand, NHSE Regional Housing Lead (North East & North Cumbria) commissioned Reside to deliver this project. He says: “In my opinion, this project has been one of the best examples of how transforming care works. This young man, who has only just turned 18, has gone from three years’ seclusion in a hospital setting to a supported living arrangement in an adapted property. With specialist support from the support provider, Orbis, he has reconnected with his family, and started to connect with his community with supported trips to the beach and playing five-a-side football. It’s a dramatic transformation and shows how a combination of the right accommodation and the right support provider has been a success.”
Au t h o r: Res i d e H ou s i n g We b s i te: r es i d e hou s i n g.com Tw i t te r: @ Res i d e H ou s i n g L i n ke d I n: Res i d e H ou s i n g As s oc i a t i o n Ltd
Reside has been working with the Transforming Care programme for around two years and it has completed on four properties in this time and has another three in the pipeline. “To date, our most successful property is the latest in the North East for a
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