New homes for adults with learning disabilities to be built in Shropshire

Two new ‘Supported Living” homes are to be built in Shropshire to help adults with learning disabilities live their life in their own community. 

Shropshire Council’s Cabinet has approved plans to build the two bungalows in Market Drayton and Shrewsbury with funding from the Development Trust, a national charity. 

The bungalows will provide homes for six people with learning disabilities who currently live in residential placements outside Shropshire, which is costly for the council and discouraged by national good practice. 

A recently published report, called the Winterbourne View Concordat, recommended that adults with learning disabilities who are currently cared for outside their home county should live within their own communities close to friends and family wherever possible. 

Supported Living accommodation provided by the council, which is often built using capital funding by national charities like the Development Trust, is an effective way of doing that. 

In recent years, the Development Trust has invested considerable amounts of money in Shropshire to help provide a range of quality services for adults and children with a learning disability. 

These include respite homes Bradbury House and Barleyfields, residential care home Bradbury Lodge, and Supported Living bungalows in Oswestry, Shrewsbury and Shifnal, as well as another one being built in Shrewsbury. 

Lee Chapman, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for adult services – transformation and safeguarding, said:

“Supporting people with learning disabilities to live within their own communities is a really good way to encourage independence and help people lead a normal life as much as possible. 

“Supported Living accommodation provides social inclusion and independence, and has been recognised nationally as a positive way of encouraging people to develop their own skills rather than being in a residential home. 

“Shropshire Council is considered to be a leader in supporting people in this way, and I am proud that we are continuing to enable more people to live in the county instead of being away from Shropshire and their communities.” 

The report was approved by Cabinet members at their meeting on Wednesday 16 October 2013 and it can be viewed as Item 10 on the agenda by clicking here.