Innovations that offer independent living to young adults with complex needs
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Version 0 of 1. Perched on a sofa in his modern first-floor flat in south Manchester, Khurram Hussain is in gregarious form as he waits for his brother to arrive so they can go out for supper. “I’ve been to the safari park … to Blackpool,” he says, flicking through photos on his tablet. He grins infectiously at his support worker, Wayne Archer, as a snap of the two of them slides on to the screen. “Pair of good-looking lads there, eh Wayne?” he chuckles. Life hasn’t always been so sociable for the 26-year-old, who has a learning disability and whose hyperactive, challenging behaviour meant he’d previously struggled in shared accommodation. But two-and-a-half years ago he became one of the first residents of Broom Lane, a specialist residential scheme for young adults with complex support needs. Owned by the housing association Great Places and managed by support provider City Care, the environment is designed to help the 19 residents – most of whom have autistic spectrum disorders and receive tailored, support around building life skills – live fuller, more independent lives. For the five people in Hussain’s block, with the most complex disorders, the accommodation includes integrated technology that works to reduce anxieties and instil routine into lives that were often previously chaotic. The total cost of two individuals’ annual care and support packages was cut from almost £500,000 to £240,000 At a glance the flat appears unremarkable, but Archer points out its box of tricks. Sandwiched between sound-deadening layers of glazing are blinds that open and close automatically, regulating “day” and “night” hours during a 24-hour period. Their timers harmonise with lighting that shifts colour and intensity, and ceiling-mounted speakers that pipe in music when it’s “getting-up time”. This may sound like living inside a glorified clock radio. But Diane Kieran, whose severely autistic son Bradley Cooper, also 26, is one of Hussain’s neighbours, is unequivocal about the benefits of such features. “They give him a clue as to when it’s time to get up and go to bed,” she says. “Lights come on as he enters a room – Bradley doesn’t have that thought process around switching them on – and also door frames are wider, because with his peripheral vision he’d knock into them. “He’s now sleeping every night. Previously it was erratic – he’d be up all night and sleeping all day, so never did anything,” Kieran continues. Before Cooper moved into his flat, she adds, his depression, seizures and introverted, aggressive behaviour raised fears that he was destined to end up in a secure unit. Now, he’s happy heading out to the local shops and inviting staff and other residents in for a cup of tea. Broom Lane was conceived at the tail-end of the last government, following conversations between City Care and Manchester city council about the lack of local services to support people whose autism caused challenging behaviour. Many, explains City Care principal service manager Paul Harrison, were being placed out-of-area or housed at dispersed sites with live-in support workers, at great expense. The potential to benefit individuals – albeit in limited numbers – and to save money in the long term by reducing their hours of staffed support, was clear, he says. With £1.2m available from the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, alongside £380,000 of Great Places’ money, the challenge was to put ideas into practice. Colin Usher, director of John McCall architects, which has a history of delivering special-needs housing, designed Broom Lane – winning two 2014 awards from the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors as a result. “It was a really enjoyable process – trying to get inside the minds of the specialists and the people they were focused on,” he recalls. Broom Lane is split into three distinct parts. As well as Hussain and Cooper’s block, there’s a shared house that features some self-contained kitchenettes – forming a “bridge” between communal and solo living – and another block for people who already have the skills to access the community independently. Over the past year £75,000 has been shaved off the cost of residents’ packages as they have become less reliant on staff Referrals may come from the council, for instance, when someone is looking to move from being supported by children’s services, or from a family home, into their own residential accommodation. Other residents were already being supported by City Care and were selected after an assessment that they would respond well to life there. Producing an environment that wasn’t “like an institute” was essential, according to Timothy Haynes, Broom Lane’s manager. “Where someone’s behaviour can cause a risk, as in a kitchen, instead of saying, ‘Right, we’ll deny access,’ we’d isolate individual switches, so cookers can’t be used at night when residents are unsupported.” Residents have their own electronic entry fobs – a source of pride for her son, says Kieran. Extra doorways create “circular” exit routes through living areas, so that staff needn’t cross people’s personal space if they become agitated and need time alone. Flats are soundproof, while fixtures and fittings are as robust as possible, with hazardous feature, such as radiators, removed or redesigned. Some communal areas are large and irregularly shaped, minimising the chance of individuals getting stressfully close to each other when waiting to go out. With the service now nearly three years old, Haynes says methods of evaluating its success are being explored. But there are already some tangible results. City Care’s director of health and social care, Phillip Jones, points to the total cost of two individuals’ annual care and support packages being cut from almost £500,000 to £240,000 on entering Broom Lane when it opened. Over the past year, he says, £75,000 has been shaved off the cost of all current residents’ packages as a result of individuals becoming less reliant on staff. A knock-on effect, Haynes adds, is that City Care has been able to continue gradually expanding services without adding to its staffing bill. Five residents have also entered paid employment for the first time – doubly useful when many have had their benefits cut. Two work at a cafe that City Care also runs, partly staffed by people it supports. Archer hopes a job could be a future aspiration for Hussain, who, he says, – like others in his block – is much more able to “be his own person” as a result of living in an environment that’s helped to reduce his challenging behaviour. There’s been interest in Broom Lane from other councils, notably neighbouring Stockport, with which City Care hopes to develop a similar scheme. As Great Places’ regional manager Jon Snape points out, budget cuts mean implementing similar projects is now “very challenging”. Yet the growing recognition that health and housing sectors must work more closely together to tackle these challenges is, he says, a positive development. Last month’s controversial announcement by George Osborne that £6bn of healthcare funds will be devolved to Greater Manchester is also causing excitement. “The key is to build on case studies and [develop the] evidence base,” says Snape. “[It means] having joined-up conversations with health and social care to understand how they could invest in something like this and get long-term savings.” Such conversations can’t come soon enough, says Kieran, whose teenage daughter also has autism. “I hope more places like this get built,” she concludes. “I see smiles and laughter, people saying ‘good morning’ and ‘there’s Bradley’s mum’. It’s like a normal block of flats – a friendly place – that’s how it should be.” |