Community-based day activities and supports for people with learning disabilities: How we can help people to 'have a good day?

SCIE Guide 16

Published: June 2007

About this guide

Introduction

This guide is about what services can do to ensure that people with learning disabilities 'have a good day'. It is about:

• building community opportunities and support so that people can have ordinary daily lives
• day service modernisation
• community-based services
• employment, lifelong learning, leisure, relationships . and more.

It includes:

• research evidence
• policy
• examples of good practice
• checklists
• practical hints and tips
• suggestions about where to get more information.

Who the guide is for

The guide includes material for:

• planners, commissioners and care managers
• managers of services, and
• people in direct support and community building roles.

The guide can be accessed as a whole or in bite-sized chunks. Because it is in electronic format you can easily access and download the sections most relevant to the role that you occupy.

What the guide does not cover

Throughout the guide we have tried not to 're-invent the wheel': where good guidance is already available we simply point it out and give details about how you can access it. Most sections have a list of useful links and resources.

We have included some material on direct payments, individual budgets and learning from the In Control pilot sites (only just emerging) - but it is limited. These are extremely important drivers in the process of change, but we cannot do full justice to them in this guide. We recommend strongly that, as an accompaniment to this guide, you access relevant websites and publications that have these as their primary focus.

Approach to diversity

Many sections of the guide contain ideas and suggestions about how to respond effectively to the wide diversity of people's needs. There is particular consideration of people with higher support needs, people from black and minority ethnic communities and younger people in transition. We have deliberately incorporated material throughout to reinforce that diversity should be considered at every stage of planning and delivering support and services.

There is also, though, a specific section that focuses on opportunities for all (Key task 9). Although the section is primarily aimed at commissioners and managers there are links and references at the end that will be of interest to everyone.

Using this guide

The SCIE website is divided into three columns: the left, middle and right columns. The sections of the guide are listed in the left hand column. Click on these to access the material in each section. Within each section there are subsections covering relevant topics. You can skip to any of the subsections by clicking on the navigation buttons in the right hand column. All of the links are in blue. The right hand column also has links to a PDF of the guide so that you can print it out or to other relevant information.

How you can help

SCIE welcomes comments on any aspect of the guide, which will inform future updates. We are also very interested in collecting further examples of good practice. Please send us your feedback.

Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks to everyone out there working in the services and support agencies that are mentioned in this guide. This guide would be nothing without the examples drawn from their practice. Keep up the good work.

Thanks also to the Having a good day team who undertook the research work underpinning this guide. Full acknowledgment of their contribution is given in the Having a good day knowledge review.

Finally, sincere thanks to Philip Jones and Shirish Gandhi at SCIE for their extremely helpful advice and support during the production of this guide.