Personalisation is a cornerstone of policy for supporting people with learning disabilities. This study set out to look at the nature, purposes and outcomes of personalised residential supports from the perspectives of people with disabilities, family members and service providers, with a view to developing a quality framework for future evaluation.
The researchers identified four criteria to aid the conception of support arrangements which were – a high degree of: individualisation; individual/family influence; informal relationships and person-centredness.
They collected data through a review of literature; case studies of six adults carried out over two years; a focus group of adults with learning disabilities and written surveys of 18 experts in personalised support arrangements (family members, service providers and policymakers.) The analysis of these datasets enabled the development of the quality framework
The analysis identified nine themes: assumptions, leadership, my home, one person at a time, planning, control, support, thriving and social inclusion.
The authors suggest that the framework they developed has relevance to all forms of supported accommodation and are hoping to further develop the framework to enable its use in evaluation of all residential support arrangements.
A quality framework for personalised residential supports for adults with developmental disabilities, Cocks, E & Boaden, R in Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 55: 720–731
This is highly topical for commissioners who are considering how best to design and monitor services and support for people whose behaviour challenges, as alternatives to services like those at Winterbourne View. Thanks, John!
Alison
Yes, it would seem that the tools are available to commission good quality supports and to appropriately monitor their delivery, but the challenge remains ensuring that people know about them and use them.
john