6 Where do people with learning disabilities live?

In 2015, there were 124,000 people receiving long-term support from a local authority in England because they had a learning disability. We know where they live because the state has some responsibility for them. However, we don’t know about the others – no one is counting them.

Because they need support, many of the 124,000 people live in locations where they can access help, from family or from paid staff.

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Figure _unit2.6.1 Figure 4 Where people with learning disabilities live in England

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Graphic showing where people with learning disabilities lived in England in 2015.

• 44,785 (36%) lived in their family home
• 23,215 (19%) lived in a registered care home with 24-hour staffing
• 23,075 (19%) were in ‘supported living’. They might live alone, with a partner, or with other people. They get support, but not all the time.
• 12,425 (10%) own or rent their own home.
• 8,240 (7%) live with a family who are paid to provide a home, known as ‘Shared Lives’
• 1,195 (1%) live in sheltered housing.

Figure 4 Where people with learning disabilities live in England

You may have noticed that these figures only add up to 92%, which means we do not have details for where the remaining 8% of people live.

In the next activity you will compare the data from England with that of Wales.

In this section you have considered how many people have a learning disability, and the sorts of places where they might live as adults.

Given the relatively small number of people with a learning disability supported by local councils (remember there are over one million people living with a learning disability in England), you might wonder why bother to use labels at all. It is this that you will come to next.