Do you remember your first move away from the family home? For many young people, this is a thrilling time when they get to set up their own flat, choose their own flat-mates and budget their own money. However, If you’re a young person with disabilities your choice of where to live and who to live with are likely to be much more limited and are often geared towards older people.
Independence for young people with disabilities
This can lead to poor outcomes. Research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that ‘many young disabled people have no experience of an independent social life and few opportunities to make friends; they spend most of their time with family or paid carers and have no independent access to transport, telecommunications, or personal assistance over which they have choice and control’.*
Shaftesbury Ivy Lodge is one of our services which reverses this trend. Home to six young people, who are living away from home for the first time, this home enables each individual to develop skills for life, build confidence and have fun as a young person with their own life to lead.
Shaftesbury Ivy Lodge
Scott and Dennis are both sociable and chatty, and have made remarkable progress towards living more independently and are enjoying life since they moved into Ivy Lodge. ‘Dennis has come on in leaps and bounds in confidence,’ says Shaftesbury Area Manager Ceri. ‘With support from staff, he’s doing better with his personal care and learning all the time about looking after the home and his money.’
Dennis, whose week includes Maths and English lessons, and volunteering at a local café, is proud of his greater independence. ‘I feel I’m making progress. My dad used to keep my money for me, but now I’m learning about what I have to spend. I try to budget for my food shop – I can go over a bit because budgeting is hard.’ The Ivy Lodge housemates sometimes cook dinner for each other ‘so I’ll buy enough and we share the cost’, Dennis says, adding that ‘spag bol’ is a favourite.
The impact of our support
When Scott first arrived at lvy Lodge, he stayed in his pyjamas all day, struggled with personal care and remained in his room much of the time. ‘He’s a completely different person now,’ says Ceri. He gets himself up and gets his own breakfast. His week includes a voluntary job at a charity shop – he’s very active and a lovely young man.’ ‘He’s more comfortable now and the others have been friendly, so Scott has built relationships,’ says enabling support worker Mayowa. ‘Recently he’s been the one saying “let’s play a game!”’
Work experience for young people with disabilities
Living at Ivy Lodge has given the two men the opportunity to train at local charity The CRUMBS Project, which provides employment training for adults with disabilities. Working in CRUMBS’ fully professional kitchen, which stocks and services an onsite café, Scott and Dennis are now competent in food prep and front-of-house work. ‘We help with lots of things – it’s interesting,’ says Dennis. ‘I get to meet and talk to people. We make and serve cakes, bread, and wedding and birthday cakes. I can walk here and it’s been really good. And if there’s leftovers, we get to take them home!’
Helping life to add up
Back at Ivy Lodge, a games night reveals a competitive streak in some, with a lot of good-natured joking around. Housemate Axl reveals a new side to his shy personality, getting fully and vocally involved and definitely out to win. ‘Living with other people at Ivy Lodge is really nice,’ says Dennis. We play video games like Fortnite. Sometimes in the summer I might say shall we go into Winton or out for a drink? My friends here, like Steph and James, have been helping me lots.’
What is supported living?
Supported living is defined as ‘schemes that provide personal care to people as part of the support that they need to live in their own homes. The personal care is provided under separate contractual arrangements to those for the person’s housing’. Care Quality Commission.
Shaftesbury’s unique support
Staff member Mayowa joined Shaftesbury last year and is struck by what she’s finding at Ivy Lodge: ‘Shaftesbury is great at supporting people and is quite different to other facilities I’ve come across. They support each person to make choices of their own and a person’s wellbeing is paramount – what everyone is always looking out for.’
‘For Shaftesbury, having a vibrant mix of services is really important,’ says Deputy Director of Care Operations Stuart Dryden. ‘In supported living, people enjoy the same rights and responsibilities over their property as other people in the community. For many people this enables them to have more security in their own home and more financial independence. Supported living services are designed around the needs of the people we support, meaning that accommodation and care services are bespoke to the person and change as the person’s needs change.’
We work to create a life that adds up to living well. Choice for each person we support is paramount, says Stuart: ‘Whilst we fully expect to continue to deliver our brilliant residential care services, we have enthusiastically responded to the growing demand from funders and the people we support to provide more supported living services. In 2025, we have new supported living services coming onstream in north-east England and in Shrewsbury.’
*https://www.jrf.org.uk/moving-into-adulthood-young-disabled-people-moving-into-adulthood