Small Supports Programme

This means we build teams around a person in their own home, whether that is with their families or living independently.

People are recruited to work with an individual and have induction and development pathways that reflect the needs and wishes of the person they support. We don’t have “beds” or “vacancies” or a ready made way of doing something.

It also means we are committed to staying small, enabling us to have a close and responsive relationship with the people we support, individual team members, families and supporters. Decisions and creative solutions can be made where it matters, with the person and the people that know them well.

Small Supports is a national initiative and are small, local organisations who work with people with a learning disability and/or autism to help them live in their own home.

Supporting people with complicated lives, traumatic life histories, experiences of institutionalisation and complicated support needs. Supporting people ‘to move out of/or are at risk of being placed in’, a secure/forensic long-stay institution.

• The person and their loved ones are at the centre 
• A team of people recruited to support the person 
• A home of their own 
• Investment in positive and supportive relationships 
• A person-centred approach to safeguarding and risk
• Great outcomes for people and families
• Investing in the local area

www.ndti.org.uk/change-and-development/small-supports

Small Supports organisations provide support through a service designed around an individual. This bespoke support enables people to have their health needs met as well as their wants and wishes fulfilled. 

• From the first steps the person (and their chosen family and friends) enjoys as much control as possible and there is a commitment to this control growing.
• The starting point to developing great support is the person’s aspirations about where they want to live and the life they want to have; a conversation about support then follows from this.
• Supporters (staff) are recruited by and around the individual. They don’t work across services. Staff are not a substitute for friends, community peers, co-workers and neighbours.
• The person chooses where they live and who, if anyone, they live with. The person is the tenant or owner of their own home or perhaps they live with family. There is a clear separation of housing and support.
• Funding is sustainable and is designed and used around the individual.
• Small supports organisations stay with people. Change and challenges are expected so they don’t withdraw support or ‘sell’ services on.
• Small supports organisations are rooted in their local community – in their work, leadership, recruitment and actions.
• The organisations stay relatively small. Knowing each person well means not growing by more than three to five people a year and finding a natural size where people are known and valued, and the organisation is financially sustainable.
• Small supports organisations are developed around these practices. Taking some of these practices and making them aspirations within large, segregated services will not deliver the desired outcomes.