MRAssociates — Glossary

Supported living tends to refer to care, support or supervision (support for short) provided in a person’s own home - normally the home that s/he plans to occupy indefinitely. The support service is typically tailored to suit the needs of the person receiving it.

Supported living is not exactly the same as supported accommodation: a lot of supported accommodation is designed to cater for a class of persons (often referred to as the “client group”) without having specific individuals in mind and there is an expectation that people will move on to live independently - for example a hostel providing short term accommodation for single homeless people is a common example of supported accommodation.

There is some overlap between supported living and supported accommodation. Often a person with a learning disability will occupy the same rented accommodation for many years (perhaps even for life) and the accommodation is built or acquired with the individual in mind - the support provider, the local authority funding or commissioning the support service and the landlord all work in close cooperation. This can be described as both supported living and supported accommodation because it has characteristics of both.