Small Supports

About Small Supports

Small Supports is a project led by Stoke-on-Trent City Council focusing on supporting local people to register as a small supports social care provider delivering bespoke support services in the city.

In recent years, the demand for care providers in the city has increased. This has resulted in a shortage of care providers, leaving many individuals that require care without adequate support.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is committed to empowering human rights, and Small Supports is no exception. The project is designed to ensure that individuals who require care and support receive it in a dignified and respectful manner.

We are looking for passionate individuals who want to make a difference by helping others to live independently. The project will empower people to take control of their lives, promoting independence and choice, and encouraging local people to give back to their communities by becoming care providers.

The Small Supports approach will not only improve the quality of care for those in need but will also boost the local economy by creating job opportunities. It offers flexible working hours for those who wish to become a care provider and help support people in their local community. 

As a Small Supports Provider, you must follow the nine core priorities:

1. From the first steps the person (and their chosen family and friends) has as much control as possible and there is a commitment to this control growing.
   
2. The starting point to developing great support is the person's aspirations about where they want to live and the life they want to have; conversation about support then follows from this. Compromising on control and aspirations is when things start to go wrong.
   
3. Supporters (staff) are recruited by and around the individual. They don't work across services. Staff are not a substitute for friends, community peers, co-workers and neighbours.
   
4. The individual chooses where they live and who, if anyone, they live with. The individual is the tenant or owner of their own home or perhaps live with family. There is a clear separation of housing and support.
   
5. Funding is sustainable and is designed and used around the individual.
   
6. Small Supports organisations stay with people. Change and challenges are expected so they don't withdraw support or ‘sell' services on.
   
7. In their work, leadership, recruitment and actions, Small Supports organisations are rooted in their local community.
   
8. The organisations stay relatively small. Knowing each person well means not growing by more than three to five people a year and finding a natural size where people are known and valued, and the organisation is financially sustainable.
   
9. Small Supports organisations are developed around these practices. Taking some of these practices and making them aspirations within large, segregated services will not deliver the desired outcomes.

Our aim

• To provide opportunities where residents can start their own care business which consists of bespoke social care
  
• Build a network of passionate people with a key focus on transforming adult social care
  
• Providing support to interested individuals who meet the criteria to run their own supported living service.
  
• Understand the foundations and core principles that enable small supports to be impactful
  
• Seek out and empower people to establish and sustain new small support organisations
  
• Work with people and families to understand their experiences and aspirations and then develop a person-centred support plan around them