Market overview: supported living
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Overview
Supported Living services in Bradford are available for adults with a range of different social care needs, including severe and enduring mental health issues, learning disabilities, neurodiversity, autism, physical disability, or sensory impairment.
Supported Living services range from low to high levels of support, including care and support for complex needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Services are delivered where people live – this might be a family home, owned or privately rented accommodation, or in specialist Support Living accommodation. Supported Living Services include:
- Practical support, including support with personal care.
- Emotional support.
- Help with accessing services.
- Help to participate in community life and social activities.
Supported Living is an important way in which we support people to live happy, healthy lives as independently as they are able.
Current situation
Supported Living services are commissioned via Provider Lists. Organisations must apply to join the Provider Lists and meet the set level of experience and quality. Being on a Provider List does not guarantee that organisations will receive work in Bradford. The Provider Lists give people needing support, their families or representatives and the social workers supporting them, choice over provider and ensures we have a range of provision across the whole District.
In July 2025, the weekly cost of Supported Living services was approx. £872,000. On average there are approx. 1,000 people using Supported Living services each month. This number has remain relatively stable over the last few years.
The graph below shows the number of people using Supported Living services.
Around 65% of our services support people with Learning Disabilities, 30% people with mental health needs and 5% people with physical disabilities.
Between July 2024 and June 2025, there was on average ten new Learning Disability placements a month, split equally between community-based packages and packages in specialist 24-hour Supported Living accommodation.
There was on average, less than one new Physical Disability placements a month.
We have 49 organisations on the Provider List for these areas. We are not looking to further grow the market at this time in terms of support providers.
For our Mental Health Supported Living services, there was an average of nine new placements a month. Approximately 75% of the new placements were community-based packages and 25% were packages in specialist 24-hour Supported Living accommodation.
We have 34 organisations on the Provider List.
For all support areas, although we have a good range of support providers we need to grow our accommodation offer, including the range of tenancy options available to people with low levels of need, and accommodation for people with more complex needs.
We are also seeking general, overall improvements to quality in Supported Living with a focus on record keeping, basic care and management oversight. A specific Supporting Living Quality Forum for the sector has been established to help strengthen the quality and service improvement agenda going forward. The Forum aims to provide an opportunity for organisations to learn from each other and share good practice.
Future demand
Looking forward over the next two years, we expect the number of people within our Supported Living services to remain stable. We are working in way that focuses on strength-based assessments and community-led support, which we expect may lead to reductions in the hours of support needed by people in our Supported Living services.
We do however expect there to be on-going demand for accommodation, with a particular focus on self-contained flats with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room. We are interested in working with development partners around this. Developers can express an interest via our Supported Housing page.
In our mental health services specifically, we will be looking to expand our specialist offers around:
- Transitions services for young people transitioning to adults with complex emotional needs or unstable personality disorder once they turn 18 within the district.
- Support for people with a dual diagnosis of Mental Health and autism related conditions.
- Placements where people have a mental illness and care and support is needed to meet their physical and sensory needs where staff are trained British Sign Language.
Commissioning intentions
Our Provider Lists are open to new applicants, with set points at which applications will be evaluated:
- For Learning Disability, Autism, Physical Disability and Sensory Impairment services: Public quote/tender - Provider List for Supported Living Services in the Bradford District (eu-supply.com). The evaluation points generally take place annually with the next expected in expected to be October 2026.
- For Mental Health services: Public quote/tender - Mental Health Supported Living Services Provider List for the Bradford District. The evaluation points generally take place annually with the next expected in expected to be April 2026.
A full service review of both Provider Lists, including needs and gap analysis, co-production with people who use services and speaking to the market to gather their views is expected to take place in 2027-28.
Contact details
For more information and support, or for providers who would like to informally discuss their service and opportunities available, please contact [email protected]
The Service Manager for Joint Commissioning for this area is Angela Taylor.
Commissioning Managers for this area are:
- For Learning Disability, Autism, Physical Disability and Sensory Impairment services – Rob Lake
- For Mental Health services – Kalsoom Iqbal