My son with Down Syndrome wants to move into supported accommodation locally with his 2 friends. He is familiar with area: he can catch specific local buses, walk everywhere ie to gym and special needs club, and dance. As parents we own a private house locally that we can rent to a housing association who will deal with housing benefit etc and could organise care package. The council has said no and that ‘they are not setting up any further supported housings through families’ properties’ indicating that our son must go into supported living in another area away from everything he knows locally and is familiar with.
Can the council do this? Can my son not choose where he live? The council says they will only ‘support C in the home with drop in support’ ! Is there a process to appeal this?
Do it, I would say. Once he is in a house that has been let on a long lease to a housing association they will have to meet his needs where he is.
Supported living is not a service. It is home care services delivered into a place where a person lives.
The question whether a person is able to choose where he lives however is a many layered question.
If he needs a tenancy, he will have to SIGN a tenancy. He will need a deputy if he does not have capacity to understand the basics of a tenancy, but one does not need a LOT of capacity to understand the basics. If he has some capacity he could appoint a relative as a power of attorney holder for finance and property.
Regarding this aspect of the situation: The Council says they will only ‘support C in the home with drop in support’! Is there a process to appeal this?
Yes, judicial review, for which he would need to qualify for legal aid, with under £3K in savings.
Alternatively by way of the Monitoring Officer. Every council’s chief governance officer, with a statutory duty to investigate any allegation of contravention of enactment or rules of law.
The above position would be an arbitrary fetter of discretion, unless they have another way to offer that would be able to be justified as therapeutically appropriate, compliant with human rights, the mental capacity Act, etc etc etc.
Nobody can be expected to do well by being moved out of area, and to make that the only offer when this is something that can be done is likely to be regarded as overlooking human rights to respect for private and family life.
The council would not be able to oblige the landlord of wherever the alternative is to offer C a tenancy anyway. Supported living accommodation is not something that is generally provided directly by any social services department. It is facilitated, by signposting to a tenancy where the council has heard of a vacancy or has nomination rights for whatever reason – I can’t imagine why they would, out of county.
It’s different if they are saying he needs to be in a care home, please note. That IS a service, it is a placement that it is within their gift to make and to insist on if they can justify it. Alternatively, by way of a complaint and then to the Ombudsman, but I would have thought that this would be too slow for the situation you find yourself in.
What your son CANNOT insist upon is care from any particular provider, if you want him to have a commissioned service. But he could have a direct payment through an Authorised Person if he lacks capacity to have a direct payment in his own name, and there is no reason why you cannot be his Authorised Person. The important thing is the size of the budget, and it must be needs driven, not service led or arbitrarily capped.