Resilience of Shared Lives carers demonstrated in new State of nation Scotland report

Key findings:

• The re-opening of services in Scotland following the pandemic has continued to accelerate with an 82% increase in the numbers of people supported this year. This is 80% of the people supported pre-pandemic and we expect that in the coming year that the sector will pass pre-pandemic levels of support.
• The total number of people supported during this year was 572. This includes, for the first time, data from a long existing scheme in Glasgow.
• Of the people supported, 15% receive help due to dementia or a need associated with old age, 47% because they live with autism or a learning disability, 3% because they live with mental ill-health, and 35% were transitioning from the care system.
• There are 519 Shared lives carers providing support in Scotland, associated with 15 Shared Lives schemes. The schemes employ 37 staff to support the Shared Lives arrangements.
• Shared Lives remains a highly costeffective form of adult social care. An independent review found that Shared Lives resulted in an average saving of between £8k and £30k per annum, depending on the person’s support needs and local alternative services.

Summary

The Shared Lives sector in Scotland has had a positive year. The contraction in services during the pandemic has been reversed,
services have re-opened, processes adapted, more Shared Lives carers recruited, and there are plans for more growth.

The resilience of Shared Lives carers has shone through as they continued to provide support to vulnerable people, even as other services fall away. The data in this report paints a picture of a small, resourceful and, above all, resilient Shared Lives sector rooted in bespoke, person-centred care. It shows that Shared Lives remains strong, even in the face of recent challenges, and that it still has significant scope for growth with investment and support. The data shows that short-break and day-support services have gone most of the way to re-opening, but the narrative behind the data is that interventions are happening later, with smaller packages of care being available for people.

Shared Lives schemes have adopted creative approaches to enable Shared Lives carers to continue their support, many recruitment and assessment processes have moved online, support has been delivered outside and online, support groups are now more digitally active than ever before. Changes that were forced upon the sector have altered practice permanently and made the sector more flexible and resilient.