Nottinghamshire Council saving more than £37,000 a week by moving dozens of vulnerable adults out of residential care

Figures released for the authority’s adult social care and health select committee meeting on June 3 have shown the council is saving just shy of £2m a year after 56 people were helped to move from residential care into supported living homes.

Supported living accommodation is mainly for adults, under the age of 65, who often have a learning disability, autism or a mental health condition and require some assistance to help them live independently.

But the whole purpose of this type of accommodation is to help these adults keep a certain level of independence by having their own tenancy – while still receiving personalised support – and to cut down on an ‘over-reliance’ on residential care.

There are 1,031 people living in supported living properties across the county and 555 under-65s in residential care.

Speaking at the meeting, Katy Ball, the council’s service director for commissioning, said the importance of supported living for vulnerable adults is the element of ‘having your own front door’ and said the authority has been ‘over-reliant’ on residential care for ‘some years’.

Between April 2024 and March 2026, 56 adults had been helped to move from residential care into supported living accommodation, with the authority stating the efforts have saved it £37,435.60 a week – the equivalent of around £1.9 million in a year.

Adding on to this, Ms Ball said more than 100 people under the age of 65 had moved into supported living over the past year in total, including from residential care.

She continued: “We didn’t have that available before, it means they now have their own front door, much more independence and some of them have a goal to eventually, with support, move back into general-needs housing.”

Meeting documents shared some feedback from those who had moved into a supported-living home, with one person saying being in their own home meant they ‘have choices’ and another saying they were ‘proud’ that living more independently was a possibility.

Another said: “I started off in hospital and then moved to supported living in Mansfield.

"It’s good to have a tenancy agreement – I’ve got my own living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom now.”

The authority says the demand for supported living and supported accommodation in Nottinghamshire will ‘rise significantly’ by 2030, with forecasts showing an overall increase of five to 10 per cent, with larger rises in Mansfield and Ashfield.

It already has more than 100 of these types of homes ‘in the pipeline’ to help with the increase in demand, but projections are showing the authority needs an additional 300 over the next five years.