Learning disabilities support
Support for adults with a learning disability.
We support adults with learning disabilities — including those with profound and multiple needs, and those whose learning disability sits alongside autism, physical health needs or behaviour that others have found hard to support — to live as full and independent a life as possible, in their own home and their own community.
When families and professionals reach us
When support has become about keeping someone safe — and stopped being about helping them grow.
Many families and commissioners come to us when a service has begun doing things for the person rather than with them. Perhaps support has become little more than supervision. Perhaps health needs have been missed. Perhaps a placement feels too institutional, or too far from home. Perhaps a young adult is moving on from the family home or stepping down from a residential setting, and everyone wants the next chapter to be better than the last.
These are the situations where Care Horizons is often asked to step in.
A different starting point
A learning disability is not a ceiling.
With the right support, adults with learning disabilities keep learning, make choices and do more for themselves. Support that does too much, too quickly, quietly creates dependence. Support that does too little leaves people unsafe and isolated. The skill is in the middle — knowing when to help, when to wait, and how to hand each step back to the person.
We start from what someone can do, and build outwards — patiently, and for as long as it takes.
How we work
Build independence. Protect health. Keep the person in charge.
Active support, not “doing for”
We support people to do things themselves — step by step, with just enough help — rather than doing it for them. Every task done together is a skill kept.
Communication on their terms
We learn how each person communicates — words, signs, pictures, objects or behaviour — and adapt to them, rather than expecting them to adapt to us.
Health that doesn’t get missed
People with learning disabilities face real, well-documented health inequalities. We stay alert to them — supporting annual health checks and hospital passports, reasonable adjustments at appointments, and active work with GPs, hospital teams and learning disability nurses.
Choice, capacity and dignity
We work to Mental Capacity Act principles: presume capability, support each decision, and keep practice least-restrictive. The person’s preferences lead.
A small, consistent team
The same two or three workers stay in place — long enough to know the person, their routines and the small things that make a day go well.
From a few hours to 24/7
Support is matched to need and steps up or down as life changes — see supported living and 24-hour & intensive support.
Who we support
We support adults (18 and over) across the full range of learning disability — often where it combines with autism, physical health needs or behaviour that others have found hard to support. We are frequently brought in at points of change:
We are not a “sit-with” minding service, and we do not run on agency staff. We are a long-term, relationship-based service that helps people build a life — not simply pass the time safely.
We don’t take every case. When we do, it is because we believe we can build a stable, skilled team around the person and stay for the long term.
What progress can look like
What a good life can look like.
For some people, progress means moving into their own home. For others it means travelling independently, managing money, finding work, building friendships, or becoming more involved in their community. For many families, it means simply knowing there is a stable support network in place for the future.
The destination looks different for every person. The principle is always the same: more choice, more confidence, and greater control over life.
Planning for the future
For many parents, the hardest conversation is not about today — it is about the future, and what happens when support can no longer come from family alone. Planning early creates more options and more stability than decisions made in crisis. See planning for the future.
What becomes possible
With the right support, life gets bigger
We never promise more than we can deliver — but when support is built around the person and held steady, this is the direction things tend to move.
More independence, new skills
Doing more for themselves — cooking, travelling, managing a routine — as confidence and capability grow.
Better health, fewer avoidable crises
Health needs caught early and acted on, reducing the avoidable admissions that people with learning disabilities too often face.
A real community life
Work, activities, friendships and relationships — a life connected to the world, not lived apart from it.
A settled, chosen home
The stability of staying put — keeping a home, a team and a routine that belong to the person, year after year.
What this looks like
Betty: from her parents’ home to her own front door.
Learning disability · independent living · details changed to protect privacy
Before
In her late thirties, Betty was still living with ageing parents who had begun to worry about what the future held. She was safe and loved — but everyone could see that “one day” was getting closer, and no one wanted that day to arrive as an emergency.
What we did
Rather than wait for a crisis, we planned a gradual move. We started small, then walked alongside Betty for eighteen months — money, routines, neighbours, and the practicalities of running her own home — handing each new skill back to her as she was ready.
What changed
Independence built steadily, and Betty made the move while her parents were still there to see it settle. The transition was a decision, not an emergency.
Today
Betty lives independently with the right support around her — and now mentors a younger person in our service.
Details changed to protect privacy; true to the work we do. More on our Real stories page.
What happens if you contact us
An honest, unhurried first step
We don’t take every case — and that is exactly what makes us right for the ones we do. Here is how it works.
A confidential conversation
Tell us about the person, what they can do, what they need, and what has happened with support so far.
We listen and gather the picture
We take time to understand the person — working with families, social workers, clinicians and anyone else already involved.
An honest decision and a plan
If we are the right fit, we build a skilled team around the person and commit for the long term. If we are not, we say so plainly and signpost honestly.
“The question is never whether someone can. It is what support they need to. Get that right, and people surprise everyone — including themselves.”
Vierka Hiscock, Director & Registered ManagerSupporting an adult with a learning disability?
Whether you are a family member planning the next step or a professional arranging support, the first conversation is confidential and commits you to nothing.
0117 405 4320 [email protected] Send a confidential message There is no call centre. Enquiries are handled by our Service Manager Joe Sparrow and Deputy Manager Jessica White, with Director Vierka Hiscock overseeing every case. We normally respond within one working day.Specialist support