United Response has built up proven expertise in supporting people with complex disabilities to move back into their communities.

Our Practice Development team has drawn on these experiences, looking at what works and what doesn’t, in order to summarise and share the lessons learnt within a collection of resources.

Distributed free-of-charge, the booklets are available to anyone involved in creating new services for people with substantial levels of challenging behaviour, from families and carers through to commissioners and service providers.

New Referral Checklist

The checklist details the eight phases needed to successfully move someone back into their community. This includes:

  • the development of partnership agreements between stakeholders with defined roles and responsibilities for before, during and after the move
  • service specification and service design
  • staff skills and knowledge
  • living environment
  • practice leadership.

Supporting people to move back from out of area

This resource provides an overview of United Response’s approach to supporting people to move on from long stay institutions and to live happily in their local community.


It includes case studies about people we have supported to move back from out of area.

Positive Behaviour Support and Active Support

Written by United Response, with support from the Tizard Centre and Avenues Trust, this booklet highlights the extent to which active support underpins the effective implementation of positive behaviour support.

It also provides tips on what to look for when commissioning services for people with learning disabilities.

Keep up to date with our Practice Development news

If you would like to receive updates about our support approaches, get exclusive first access to new resources and read what others in the social care sector are up to, sign up to receive our best practice newsletter, written by our expert practice development team.