Continuing the work of the Supported Living Improvement Coalition
In the first of a new blog series, Stefan Kallee, interim Deputy Director for People with a learning disability and autistic people, shares the latest on the work of the Supported Living Improvement Coalition and its network groups.
We’ve previously talked about our work as part of the Supported Living Improvement Coalition (the Coalition) through blogs and our State of Care reports. In the first of a short blog series, I’d like to update on the latest news from the Coalition.
As a reminder, we convened the Coalition because we had become increasingly concerned about the inconsistency in quality of supported living and its outcomes for people. Good community-based options are critical to making sure people receive the right care and support where they live. They also help prevent avoidable hospital admissions or discharge delays.
The Coalition was a group of many different stakeholders that came together with the aim of understanding and improving supported living services. People with lived experience of supported living were central to the Coalition, with other members including people who run or commission supported living services, charities, and organisations that represent people or providers.
We hosted the Coalition and its meetings throughout 2022. Our role as the host organisation ended in 2023, but this didn’t mean the end of the work of the Coalition. Three groups continued work as the Supported Living Improvement Network. These groups looked at:
- Supporting people well
- Housing matters
- Respectful and inclusive language
Towards the end of 2023, we came back together as a Coalition so that everyone could hear what the network groups had been working on. It also gave us at the Care Quality Commission the opportunity to share learning from some analysis we had done to understand the things that Coalition partners talked about during the meetings. That work highlighted 4 key factors that partners said affected quality in supported living. These were:
- Variation: a variable picture of supported living
- Sharing: sharing, learning, and working together
- Choice: being able to choose the care and support you want
- Relationships: support staff getting to know people
I’ll talk about these factors more in upcoming blogs.
In their updates at the meeting, the networks shared the areas of focus they’d identified. For the Supporting People Well network, these were:
- Legislation: Understanding what legislation means for people in Supported Living, as well as the impact of any legislative changes and helping everyone from people, families, professionals and support workers to make sense of guidance, policies and legislation.
- Sharing information and good practice: Raising standards by sharing information and good practice, identifying opportunities for training and development. This might also involve highlighting concerns about things that aren’t working well and offering alternative approaches or encouraging providers to work together or with other parts of the system.
- Networks and connections: Promoting the benefits of multi-agency and multi-disciplinary approaches and understanding the positive benefits of being part of a community.
- Sector intelligence: Understanding the whole picture, not just focusing on ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’. Being open-minded and inclusive to share good ideas with all parts of the sector, including those requiring improvement.
The Housing Matters network identified their priorities as:
- Campaigning for change
- Sharing good practice and information
- Connect with other relevant groups and projects
- Improve the overall housing offer for tenants
Since the Coalition meeting, the Supporting People Well and Housing Matters networks have decided to merge. This is in recognition that good housing and good support are mutually dependent, and that the interests and concerns of the two groups overlap. As a merged group, they will be looking more closely at creating the right culture within supported housing, and how good housing and good support can improve peoples’ lives. If you’re interested in joining the group, please contact Fred Grand.
The Respectful and Inclusive Language Network reflected on conversations they’d been having about the importance of the words we use and the impact they have. The group has developed a survey to help think about the words we use and how we can communicate better, with a view to sharing the findings with providers to support conversations with people.
While developing the survey, the group has also been gathering examples of good practice. They have identified some themes that good communication should be:
- Clear
- Easy to understand
- Considerate of reasonable adjustments
Since the meeting, the Respectful and Inclusive Language Network has launched the survey. You can share your views through the online form until 11 March. There is also Easy Read guidance to accompany the online form. If you’re interested in joining the network, please contact Adrian Hartley.
We’re really pleased to see such fantastic progress through the networks, and it was great to hear about their priorities and ambitions.
My next blog will start to look at the 4 factors Coalition partners said affected quality in supported living. As a reminder, these are: variation, sharing, choice and relationships. Do these factors resonate with you? What barriers and opportunities are linked to these factors which might impact quality in supported living?
Feel free to share any reflections on anything we’ve talked about in the blog on our online participation platform.
