Reach: Support for living an ordinary life

Reach: Support for living an ordinary life is a resource and set of standards to encourage people to explore what support for living an ordinary life looks like. It was first launched by Paradigm in 2002 and revised in 2013 by Sally Warren, Alicia Wood, Sarah Maguire and Choice Support Quality Checkers.  

Reach is not an assessment. If changes are needed in a person’s life Reach helps you agree the desired changes, plan and take action together. 

Reach is not a model. No two lives should be the same.

Reach assists support providers and commissioners to meet their responsibilities to the people they support and the relevant regulatory bodies. 

Reach standards

Reach defines what support for living is through a set of 11 standards:

1. I choose who I live with
2. I choose where I live
3. I have my own home
4. I choose how I am supported
5. I choose who supports me
6. I get good support
7. I choose my friends and relationships
8. I choose how to be healthy and safe
9. I choose how I am part of the community
10. I have the same rights and responsibilities as other citizens
11. I get help to make changes in my life

People use Reach for a number of reasons

Reach can be used by:

• anyone who receives support in order to live an ordinary life. They may be living in their family home or their own home with the support that they want. It is up to the individual who they live with, whether that be alone, with family or with friends.
• the families and friends of individuals who receive support to find out if the support they are getting is as good as it should be.
• supporters and their team (if you have a personal budget or Direct Payment) to find out if the support they are getting is as good as it should be
• people living in a residential care home who have been thinking of change.  Reach can be a good way to help people, their family, friends and providers work out what they would need to be doing to move towards an ordinary lifeorganisations that support individuals in order to help people improve the support they receive.
• the people who fund support to find out how good an individual’s support is.
• The Reach Standards can be included in an individual’s Support Plan.
• the organisations that are responsible for monitoring the organisations who provide an individual’s support.

For more information visit the Paradigm website.