The Role of Adult Social Care in Supporting People with Learning Disabilities Who Rent Their Own Homes in England

Context: Evidence suggests that very few people with learning disabilities in England rent their own homes through the private or social housing rental sector. This is despite the fact that this group of people routinely say they would like more choice and control over where they live. We hypothesise that support from adult social care may benefit people to take up and sustain tenancies in this sector. Objective(s): This paper draws on original and empirical research with people with learning disabilities who do rent, and who are at the margins of social care eligibility, to understand more about their support needs from adult social care in relation to renting a home. Method(s): Qualitative, on-line interviews with 35 people with learning disabilities who rent their own homes in England. Findings: Renting a place to live was working relatively well for the people in the study. There were, however, some important and often unmet needs in relation to managing a tenancy. The amount of social care support people received relating to their housing and tenancy varied with no apparent reason for the variation. Some people described a decline in support and others referenced the cost of social care support charges. Housing and social care support was only very rarely joined up. The paper suggests that there is a potentially untapped source of housing options in the rented sector, but that social care support could play a greater role in supporting renters over time. Limitations: We did not manage to recruit many people who rented in the private rented sector compared with renting from social housing organisations. Our recruitment resulted in a majority of white respondents and a more diverse group would have been beneficial. Most of our respondents were recruited via self-advocacy organisations and it is conceivable that their links with groups that offered support meant that their experiences might not be representative of the wider population of people with learning disabilities. Implications: Choice about where to live – and where to call home is as important as ever but barriers remain for people with learning disabilities. We suggest that there is an important and preventative role for adult social care in offering, even sometimes quite small, packages of support to enter into and maintain a tenancy agreement.