Bexley Shared Lives

Located at Community Living And Support Scheme, Bexley Shared Lives serves Bexleyheath and the surrounding area as a registered supported living service, within the London region. The registered provider is London Borough of Bexley, the legal entity accountable to the regulator for the quality and safety of care delivered here.

Supported living enables adults with learning disabilities, autism, mental health needs or physical disabilities to live in their own homes — usually a rented flat or shared house — with care and support workers visiting or on site for anywhere from a few hours a week to 24 hours a day. Unlike a care home, the person holds their own tenancy: they choose who supports them, and housing and care are legally separate. Bexley Shared Lives is CQC-registered for the personal-care element of this support.

The model matters because it changes the power relationship. In supported living, support is built around the person's tenancy rights and choices — what time to get up, what to eat, who visits — and commissioners increasingly prefer it to residential care for working-age adults. Done well, it delivers genuine independence with a safety net; the quality of the provider determines which half of that sentence dominates.

The location is administered by Bexley in the London region, in a city with 40 registered healthcare providers of all types. Anyone pursuing council-funded care or community referrals will deal with services organised at this local-authority level.

The CQC's most recent recorded check of this location took place on 12 March 2019. Inspection reports are public documents, and the official record for this location is linked in the registration section below — reading the latest report is the single most reliable way to understand how the service performs day to day.

Supported living providers register for the groups they are trained and organised to support — the CQC record for Bexley Shared Lives lists:

Services for everyone

This provider is registered without population restrictions — its service is open to the general public rather than limited to specific age bands or clinical groups. In practice this is the standard registration for mainstream services such as dental practices, GP surgeries and diagnostic clinics.

Use these declarations actively: they tell you which providers are even eligible for your situation, and they give you the vocabulary for sharper questions. Needs that span more than one group deserve special attention — ask any prospective service how the care plan will address both together, and listen for specifics rather than reassurance.

Treat these declarations as the service's public promise — inspectors check against them, and you are entitled to ask exactly how each one shows up in staffing and daily practice.

Not every supported living service offers every service below at every site, so verify the specific treatment you need with Bexley Shared Lives when you book.

Daily living support

Help with cooking, shopping, budgeting, cleaning and correspondence — building skills rather than creating dependence.

Personal care

Where needed, support with washing, dressing and medication, delivered under the person's own roof and routine.

Community access

Support to work, volunteer, study, and take part in social activities — the outcomes commissioners actually measure.

Positive behaviour support

For people whose behaviour challenges, structured PBS plans that reduce restrictions rather than manage them indefinitely.

Tenancy support

Help maintaining the tenancy itself: understanding agreements, managing utilities, and liaising with landlords.

Health coordination

Support to attend GP, dental and hospital appointments, and annual health checks for people with learning disabilities.

24-hour and waking-night support

For those with higher needs, staff on site around the clock — while preserving the person's tenancy and choice.

Direct contact details for Bexley Shared Lives are held on the official CQC record linked below; your GP practice can also route a referral without you needing to phone.

Access to supported living with Bexley Shared Lives almost always runs through the local authority: an adult social care needs assessment establishes eligible needs, a support plan sets out hours and outcomes, and a personal budget funds it. Families can approach the provider directly to visit services and join waiting lists in parallel — vacancy timing depends on suitable housing being available, so early conversations pay off.

Self-funders and families holding direct payments can contract directly with the provider. Either way, insist on a proper matching process: a good provider will introduce the prospective tenant to housemates and staff, run trial visits, and be honest when a vacancy is a poor match. Rushed placements to fill voids are the sector's most common failure.

Housing is arranged separately — usually a housing association tenancy, sometimes a family-owned property. Check benefit implications carefully: housing costs are typically covered by Housing Benefit or Universal Credit housing element, and the tenancy must be genuine for those to apply.

Published opening hours for Bexley Shared Lives are not yet held on this profile — the register does not record them, and hours appear here once the provider claims and completes its listing. A quick phone call remains the definitive check, and it is worth making even where hours are published, since bank holidays and staffing can change a given day.

Timing your contact helps: midweek, mid-morning calls typically reach a human fastest, while Monday mornings — when the weekend's queries land all at once — are the hardest time to get through to any healthcare service.

A first appointment at a supported living service is part assessment, part administration — and you control how productive the assessment half is.

Bring the paperwork that saves repeating yourself: a list of current medications with doses (a photo of the boxes works), any relevant hospital letters or test results, your NHS number if you know it, and glasses or hearing aids if you use them. If the appointment concerns someone you care for, bring evidence of any legal authority you hold — power of attorney documents change what staff can lawfully discuss with you.

Expect the first appointment to include identity and history checks, a discussion of what you need, and an examination or assessment appropriate to the service. Be direct about two things in particular: everything you are taking (including over-the-counter and herbal products), and what outcome you actually want — clinicians plan differently for "I want to be seen quickly" versus "I want the most thorough option".

Before you leave, make sure three questions have answers: what happens next, who does it, and when. Vague follow-up arrangements are where care most often goes adrift; a specific next step — a booked review, a named referral, a results date with a way to chase it — is the mark of a well-run service, and it is entirely reasonable to ask for it explicitly.

Support costs are usually funded through a local-authority personal budget following assessment, with the person contributing according to a financial assessment of income and benefits (capital thresholds mirror other social care). Housing costs sit separately and are normally met through Housing Benefit for eligible tenants; day-to-day living costs come from the person's benefits or income, exactly as for any tenant.

For people with the most complex needs, joint NHS/social-care funding or full NHS Continuing Healthcare may apply. Ask the social worker to be explicit about which budget funds which element — disputes between health and social care funders should never delay support, and families are entitled to see the support plan and costings.

The service operates from Community Living And Support Scheme,Civic Offices, 2 Watling Street,Bexleyheath in Bexleyheath — postcode DA6 7AT, within the DA6 district. For turn-by-turn directions, the full postcode is the reliable input for any navigation app — or use the Google Maps link for this exact location.

Planning the journey is worth two minutes at booking time: ask whether parking is available on site or nearby if driving, and use the postcode in any journey planner for buses and trains. If you have mobility needs, say so when booking — services can advise on step-free access and the nearest accessible parking or drop-off point.

Think about journey frequency before fixating on any single provider: a one-off assessment justifies travel, but ongoing care multiplies every mile. With 40 providers of all types across Bexleyheath, most neighbourhoods — including DA6 — have credible options within a short journey.

Anyone with access requirements — mobility, sensory or communication — should mention them at booking. Registered providers are legally required to make reasonable adjustments, and doing so is routine when the service knows before you arrive.

If this location is not convenient, the nearest comparable alternative is Advance Bexley, Kent and East London Domicilary Care and Supported Living Services, roughly 0.8 miles away — the nearby providers section below lists more options with distances.

The right questions do more than fill an appointment — they reveal how a supported living service thinks. These are the ones that earn their place:

1. Who exactly will provide my care, and what is their professional registration?
2. What are the realistic timescales — first appointment, results, and treatment?
3. What will this cost in total, and what could add to that figure later?
4. What are the alternatives, including doing nothing for now?
5. How do you handle problems out of hours, and who do I contact?
6. What should I expect to feel or notice afterwards, and what would be a warning sign?
7. How will you keep my GP informed, and what gets written to my record?
8. If my needs change, how quickly can the plan change with them?

A good service treats this list as routine; defensiveness anywhere on it tells you something the inspection report may not.

CQC registration is the legal baseline for operating a service like this one; the value for you sits in the public record built on top of it — inspection reports, ratings and enforcement history.

The CQC inspects against five questions — is the service safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led — and publishes its findings. For Bexley Shared Lives, the registered provider is London Borough of Bexley. The most recent recorded check took place on 12 March 2019. The official CQC record for this location carries the current registration status, ratings where awarded, and every published inspection report.

The rating scale runs Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, Inadequate — and context matters when reading it. Good is the expected standard, not a consolation prize; Outstanding is genuinely rare and usually reflects exceptional leadership culture rather than better equipment. A Requires Improvement rating deserves a closer look at which of the five questions dragged it down: a responsive shortfall (waiting times, complaint handling) is a different risk from a safe shortfall (medicines, staffing). Some location types are inspected without ratings at all, so an unrated service is not a warning sign in itself.

Reading a report efficiently: start with the well-led section (it predicts everything else), then safe. Look at the direction of travel across the last two inspections rather than a single snapshot, and treat "requires improvement" with a credible action plan differently from the same rating with repeated findings. If anything in a report concerns you, raising it with the service directly is both fair and revealing — well-run providers answer plainly.

Every patient of a CQC-registered service holds a set of enforceable rights, and knowing them changes how confidently you can act when something is not right.

You are entitled to informed consent — a genuine explanation of options, risks and alternatives before treatment, in language you understand, with interpreters provided where needed. You have a right of access to your own records under UK GDPR, free of charge in most cases, within a month of asking. And under the Equality Act, providers must make reasonable adjustments for disability — from step-free access to communication formats — as a legal duty, not a favour.

If care falls short, complain in stages: first to the provider itself (every registered service must operate an accessible complaints procedure and respond within a defined timescale); then, for NHS-funded care, to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman — or for privately funded care, to the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service where the provider subscribes. Local authority-funded social care complaints escalate to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

Two further channels matter. The CQC does not investigate individual complaints, but it wants to hear about poor care — reports feed directly into inspection planning, and you can tell it anything in confidence via its website. And if you need help making a complaint about NHS care, every area has a statutory independent advocacy service that is free to use; your council can point you to the current provider.

Bexleyheath has 40 CQC-registered healthcare providers in total, of which 5 are supported living services — so genuine comparison is possible before you commit. The full Bexleyheath directory and the local supported living listing let you shortlist alongside this profile.

Comparing the 5 supported living providers around Bexleyheath, look past glossy person-centred language and ask for evidence: staff turnover figures, how many tenants have moved toward greater independence, and a copy of a (redacted) support plan to judge quality. Visit at unstructured times, talk to tenants and families, and check the CQC report — the caring and responsive domains reveal whether choice is real or theoretical.

Where is Bexley Shared Lives located?

Bexley Shared Lives is at Community Living And Support Scheme,Civic Offices, 2 Watling Street,Bexleyheath, DA6 7AT, in Bexleyheath (London region). The full postcode works in any sat-nav or journey planner.

How do I contact Bexley Shared Lives?

Contact details are held on the official CQC record linked from this page, and your GP practice can route referrals directly. We display phone and website details as soon as they are available from the register.

Is Bexley Shared Lives regulated?

Yes — it is registered with the Care Quality Commission (location ID 1-1537335586) under the registered provider London Borough of Bexley. Registration is a legal requirement for delivering this type of care in England and brings ongoing inspection.

When was Bexley Shared Lives last checked by the CQC?

The most recent check recorded on the register took place on 12 March 2019. The full inspection history is on the official CQC record linked from this page.

What are the nearest alternatives to Bexley Shared Lives?

The closest comparable providers are Advance Bexley, Kent and East London Domicilary Care and Supported Living Services (0.8 miles), Linarome Ltd - Regina's Place (0.9 miles), Genesis Health and Social Care Services Limited (1.6 miles). Each has a full profile on this site with contact details and registration information.

How is supported living different from a care home?

In supported living you hold your own tenancy and choose your support provider; housing and care are legally separate, and you can change one without losing the other. In a care home, accommodation and care come as one regulated package.

Who pays for supported living?

Support hours are usually funded via a local-authority personal budget after assessment (means-tested contribution may apply); rent is typically covered by Housing Benefit or Universal Credit; living costs come from the person's own income and benefits.

Can someone with very complex needs live in supported living?

Yes — 24-hour and waking-night models support people with significant needs, sometimes NHS-funded. Success depends on honest matching, environment design and staff skill, so scrutinise the provider's experience with similar needs.

Does Bexley Shared Lives treat NHS or private patients?

The public register does not record funding routes, and many providers serve both. Phone the service for the current position — NHS availability in particular changes as capacity fills and reopens, so today's answer beats anything a directory can cache.

Where does the information on this page come from?

Core details — name, address, registration, provider and specialisms — come from the Care Quality Commission register (Open Government Licence v3.0) and are refreshed monthly. Guidance sections reflect how services of this type work across the UK. Always confirm time-sensitive details such as opening hours directly with the provider.