In November, Suzie Franklin released a book called ‘Personalisation In Practice; supporting Young People with disabilities through the transition to Adulthood’, aimed at supporting and guiding families through the cross-over period of services and also to guide people through Individual Budgets and encourage person-centred planning. The book, co-written with Helen Sanderson, is based on Suzie’s own experience with her daughter Jennie, from college to setting her up in her own part-mortgaged flat, using an Individual Budget and Person Centred Planning. Suzie, Jennie and their circle of support decided to employ Independent Options to set up the service, but were heavily involved in the planning and recruitment. This doesn’t discredit the good work our support staff have done, and continue to do, in Jennie’s Service and so we spoke to the manager who was involved, and her experiences and thoughts about being engaged in something so innovative. Joanna who managed the service at the time of being set up said; ‘Independent Options had a long history of working with the families of the people we support but we had never worked so intensively with a family. Suzie really wanted to be involved in everything, especially at the start which was great as she is the Jennie expert, which put us all in a great starting position for setting up the support package. From working with Jennie and Suzie, I would always encourage and enable families to be more involved. Individuals and family members will have a wealth of information, advice and tips on how best to support them which is a great head start when beginning to support individuals and facilitates a much smoother transition for them.’ The setting up of Jennie’s Service was not without issues though as Joanna tells us; ‘recruitment didn’t go well initially, we couldn’t find people with the right qualities. The advert was personalised and talked about working for Jennie, and I am unsure if, because this was new, people were nervous of applying to work with one individual and didn’t recognise that they would still have the security of working with an established charity.’ But there was plenty of happy memories for Joanna and her staff, as she reminisces; ‘I wish I had written them down as my memory is not working that well but there have been lots, of course first and foremost seeing Jennie happy with her team, and watching her grow from a teenager to a young lady.’  As our Supported Living service continues to expand and develop, with two new tenancies just opened, there’s always advice to be given to families looking into Supported Living as an option for their loved ones; ‘Don’t think about what you don’t know, think about what you do know. You know your relative, you know what their needs are and what will work and won’t. Be open to other ideas though as us humans have a habit of surprising each other!  Start a Person centred Plan, you don’t need a special format (though the book has lots of great ideas for things you could include in it) just start with the most important things and let it grow, it won’t be done in a day, a week, or a month, but it should grow with your relative. You can use this plan when applying for a personal budget and to inform any support team who work with your relative.   It’s never too early to start planning, good support packages take time to plan, having an individual budget that you are happy with will take time, and then you need time to think about who you want to support your relative and to work with a provider organisation to plan the support service. Independent Options’ housing specialist works with families to find appropriate accommodation. With Jennie he was lucky and found somewhere perfect quickly however it can take time, so again be prepared to start the process early.’ if you or any of your loved ones feel you might benefit from our supported living services please feel free to get in touch.