Supported housing may be threatened

Guidance on the impact of care standards on
supported housing arrangements for people with learning
difficulties is imminent as the government looks to stem growing
service users’ and supported housing providers’ concerns about a
return to residential care.

Service providers and people with
learning difficulties fear that implementation of the Care
Standards Act 2000 could end the move towards supported housing
arrangements, under which people with learning difficulties are
entitled to benefits and have more control over their
lives.

Co-chairperson of the learning
disability task force, Chris Davies, told delegates that the
National Care Standards Commission had issued its inspectors with
guidance on implementing the act within the past few weeks, and
suggested that supported housing providers discuss queries with
their local NCSC manager.

However, he warned that they “may
find they are reluctant to commit themselves”.

Davies
said he hoped the new guidance would separate schemes offering
proper supported housing arrangements from those schemes which had
just tried to push for benefits income without changing from the
residential care homes they were before.

“We
need to tread the line between catching those schemes and pushing
back into care people who genuinely enjoy more control over their
lives,” he said.

Davies
promised that the task force would pursue the matter further if the
guidance failed to come up with a satisfactory outcome.