Date published: April 27, 2023
Shared Lives Plus Welcome A Time To Act, a new paper from ADASS on reform to adult social care which calls for the growth of Shared Lives.
Yesterday, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) launched its roadmap for reforming care and support in England – A Time to Act: A Roadmap for Supporting Care and Support Reform in England. Shared Lives Plus strongly endorses the messages contained in this roadmap, which contains an important collation of the many visions articulated by groups trying to support and reform social care so that it enables people to live the ordinary lives we all deserve.
We are delighted to see that this report endorses the Social Care Future Vision:
‘We all want to live in the place we call home, with the people and things that we love, in communities where we look out for one another, doing what matters to us.’
The roadmap distils a clear and comprehensive set of areas for action, from reimagining care and support with people who draw on it, through building community capacity for wellbeing and prevention, to better support for carers.
We strongly agree, especially with the call to commission more capacity in household and community-based support options such as Shared Lives.
Shared Lives has been proven to be the safest and highest quality form of social care, and to offer excellent value for money compared to more traditional and institutional care models. Yet it accounts for just under 1% of the total social care provision in the UK, far too small for a model of such potential.
We call on Directors of Service, commissioners and referral partners to realise this potential and grow their Shared Lives to its potential.
Shared Lives, like other social care services, can only continue to support people to live well if it is properly resourced and its workforce are properly rewarded and supported. One of Shared Lives’ key strengths is that it is a rewarding way of life for both the people it supports and the people who share their lives and homes with them.
We call on Directors of Service in each area to engage with the lessons drawn from our fee comparison and cost of living research to ensure that fee levels and break and respite provision for Shared Lives carers are equitable in all UK areas.
We welcome discussion with ADASS, Local and Central Government leaders to explore ways in which Shared Lives can play a role in the re-designed care system outlined in the ADASS roadmap and in the Government’s Vision of People at the Heart of Care.
This post was updated on 30/1/24 to better reflect use of language around carer fees.
