MJ Awards nominations - Adult social care specialist accommodation programme

Making sure residents requiring additional support can live in a place they call home and have a choice over where and with whom they live is at the heart of our ambitious adult social care specialist accommodation (ASCSA) programme. 

The scheme aims to match these residents with the right accommodation to meet their specific needs and improve their quality of life, as well as offering them secure long-term affordable housing solutions. 

ASCSA uses a community-based supported housing approach which seeks to provide specialist housing within existing communities to make sure residents can live full and active lives as part of their community, helping tackle loneliness and isolation, as well as encouraging increased participation in work and education.

This community-based approach has also been shown to help give residents increased confidence and autonomy as well as helping reduce challenging behaviour. 

Supporting independence

By supporting these residents to live more independently the council is also helping to reduce the cost of providing the service, by reducing or delaying, and in some cases preventing, their need to access higher levels of ongoing care. 

Since launching the ASCSA programme the council and its wholly owned registered provider Loddon Homes, have been working with care partners, Optalis, Arusha, Dimensions and CareTech to successfully deliver six specialist accommodation projects across the borough. 

These are made up of a range of properties from small homes to apartment blocks to support some of our most vulnerable residents in Wokingham Borough, such as: residents with physical or learning disabilities, residents with complex behaviours, the elderly with learning disabilities, young adults transitioning from children’s services, and residents with mental health needs.

The programme has been funded and delivered with a range of grants as well as by using S106 developer contributions for affordable housing.

In addition to bringing together services from across the council, the project has also been delivered in partnership with the local NHS services and external stakeholders like Persimmons Homes who helped deliver the specialist accommodation at Hatch Farm.  

'Helping turn people's live around'

“This is a fantastic programme which is really helping turn people’s lives around. Making sure they have a say in the decisions which affect them and have access to the additional resources they need," said Cllr Stephen Conway, leader of the council and executive member for housing.

“We’re also pleased to have secured funding from the LGA Housing Advisors Programme to help us review the lessons-learnt from this programme so we can continue to grow the scheme and help share best practice with others.” 

A new resident who recently moved into Hatch Farm, said: “I put in to move out. I came to have a look. I have lived at hostels before, but they have a lot of rules and I had nothing but problems.

"Now I have my own place, it’s my house, my rules. Now I go out, I walk to the shops, we also go out for meals and get takeaways. I’m planning with my staff to go bowling. It’s quite a good place, I enjoy it here.”