Minstead Trust Knowledge Transfer Partnership

Overview

This Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) brings together Minstead Trust and the University of Essex to co-produce, test out, and embed new ways of working that improve how adults with learning disabilities transition from the family home into supported accommodation, and how they are supported to live healthy, active and fulfilling lives.

The focus of the KTP is not only to understand current challenges, but to create practical, transferable and sustainable improvements in organisational practice, particularly in communication, relational decision-making, and co-produced support planning.

A central outcome of the project will be strengthened organisational capability within Minstead Trust to consistently deliver co-produced, relationship-centred supported accommodation services.

Why this KTP is needed

In line with wider demographic trends in the UK, adults with learning disabilities are living longer (Office for National Statistics, 2021). This is leading to increasing demand for adult social care, particularly for accommodation and supported living services. It is estimated that there will be a 30% rise in adults with learning disabilities aged 50+ requiring social care support in England, including support with housing and accommodation, as ageing family carers become less able to continue in their caring roles (Kruithof et al., 2021; Gilbert et al., 2007).

Despite this growing need, there remains limited research on how adults with learning disabilities experience different forms of accommodation support as they age, how these services can be improved, and how well future demand is being planned for at a commissioning level (Tiley et al., 2023). This is notable given that national guidance already recognises the importance of providing a range of housing and accommodation options that reflect individual preferences and support needs (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), 2018).

Alongside this, policy and practice in England increasingly emphasise co-production in adult social care. The Care Act (2014) provides the statutory framework for this, defining co-production as a way for people who use services, families, and professionals to work together to influence the design, commissioning, and delivery of care. In practice, co-production is about equal partnership working to create more effective, strengths-based and person-centred services. It is now widely used in service design, evaluation, and policy development, and is also increasingly applied within research (Beresford et al., 2021; Glynos & Speed, 2012). Previous work has also highlighted that co-production aligns closely with Participatory Action Research (PAR) approaches (Pettican et al., 2022).

In this context, the University of Essex and Minstead Trust established a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) in April 2025. Minstead Trust is a charity based in the South East of England that works with people with learning disabilities and their family carers to support independent and fulfilling lives. A key area of its work is supported accommodation, which includes a range of housing options with flexible support, from independent living with visiting support to settings with on-site or residential care.

Supported accommodation is shaped by ongoing relationships between adults with learning disabilities, family carers, and support staff. These relationships are central to how decisions are made and support is delivered. However, in practice, approaches to communication, planning, and support provision can vary, which can weaken shared decision-making and lead to inconsistency in how support is experienced. These challenges are not unique to Minstead Trust and reflect wider sector issues, including reduced participation in meaningful everyday activities, ongoing health inequalities experienced by people with learning disabilities (Chapman et al., 2024; University of Bristol Norah Fry Centre for Disability Studies, 2019), and pressures on family carers and the workforce (Institute of Public Care, 2020).

The overall aim of this KTP is to address these challenges by using a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach to co-produce new ways of working with adults with learning disabilities, family carers, and Minstead Trust staff, including support staff, managers, and leaders, to improve the experience and quality of supported accommodation transitions and ongoing support.

This work involves four groups working together on an equal basis: (1) adults with a learning disability, (2) family carers, (3) Minstead Trust support staff, and (4) Minstead Trust management and leadership staff. The approach is based on doing research with rather than on people, using cycles of planning, action, and reflection to understand and improve practice in real-world settings (Cornish et al., 2023; Grimwood, 2022).

This Knowledge Transfer Partnership responds to this agenda by focusing on how co-production can be embedded in everyday organisational practice, so that it becomes a consistent, practical and sustainable way of working across Minstead Trust services.

What this KTP will deliver

By the end of the partnership, Minstead Trust will have developed and embedded:

• A co-produced framework and practical strategies for supporting transitions into supported accommodation
• Improved shared decision-making and communication between adults with learning disabilities, family carers, and staff
• Stronger organisational capability and confidence in co-produced, relationship-centred practice
• A sustainable community of practice to support ongoing sharing of learning, consistency, and service improvement

These outcomes are designed to be practical, scalable, and transferable across services within and beyond Minstead Trust.

Further information about the project and its progress so far can be found by scrolling through the sections below.

Funding

This project is funded by Innovate UK as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between Minstead Trust and the University of Essex.

References

• Beresford, P., Farr, M, Hickey, G, Kaur, M, Ocloo, J, Tembo, D, Williams, O et al. (2021). The Challenges and Necessity of Co-Production: Introduction to. In: COVID-19 and Co-Production in Health and Social Care Research, Policy, and Practice: Volume 1: The Challenges and Necessity of Co-Production Vol. 1. eds. Bristol: Policy Press.
• Chapman HM, McMahon M, Kaley A, Mafuba K, O’Donovan MA (2024) (2014). Editorial: The case for more action and more research into healthcare provision and health inequalities for people with intellectual disabilities. British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 52(3), 437-442.
• Cornish, F. et al. (2023) ‘Participatory action research’, Nature Reviews Methods Primers. Springer US, 3(1), pp. 1–14.
• Gilbert A, Lankshear G, Petersen A (2007) Older family-carers’ views on the future accommodation needs of relatives who have an intellectual disability. International Journal of Social Welfare. 17: 54-64.
• Glynos J & Speed E. (2012). Varieties of co-production in public services: Time banks in a UK health policy context. Critical Policy Studies, 6(4), 402–433.
• Grimwood BSR (2022) Participatory Action Research: Democratising Knowledge for Social Justice. In: CW Johnson, DC Parry (eds) Fostering Social Justice through Qualitative Inquiry (2nd edition) New York: Routledge.
• Institute of Public Care (2020) Ordinary and unique lives for adults with a learning disability and/or autism: a six steps approach. Oxford: Oxford Brookes University. 
• Kruithof, K, IJzerman L, Nieuwenhuijse A, Huisman S, Schippers A, Willems D & Olsman E (2021) Siblings’ and parents’ perspectives on the future care for their family member with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities: A qualitative study, Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, 46:4, 351-361.
• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2018) Learning disabilities and behaviour that challenges: service design and delivery (NICE guidelines NG93). Accessed on: 06/02/2026.
• Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2021). Overview of the UK Population: January 2021. Accessed on: 23.03.2024
• Pettican, A., Goodman, B., Bryant, W., Beresford, P., Freeman, P., Gladwell, V., Kilbride, C. and Speed, E., (2022). Doing together: reflections on facilitating the co-production of participatory action research with marginalised populations. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health. 15 (2), 202-219
• Tiley E, Jordan J, Larkin M, Vseteckova J, Ryan S, Wallace L (2023) Transitions for older people with intellectual disabilities and behaviours that challenge others: A rapid scoping review. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities. 36(2), 205-410.
• University of Bristol Norah Fry Centre for Disability Studies. (2019). The Learning Disability Mortality Review (LeDeR) Programme: Annual Report 2019. Download the PDF.