Shared Lives care proves stable and resilient in new State of Shared Lives in England report

Key findings:

• Shared Lives continues to enable the best outcomes for people who need support. In October 2022, CQC rated Shared Lives schemes as 97% good or outstanding. This is an improvement of +3% in our outstanding schemes in the last year.
• The number of people being supported has shrunk slightly by -160 (-2%)
• The number of Shared Lives carers has increased by 262 (+3.5%)
• The total number of the Shared Lives scheme workforce remains stable, with a 12% turnover amongst scheme workers. While this presents a challenge to schemes, it is significantly lower than the 29% staff turnover across the wider social care sector.
• Shared Lives remains a highly cost-effective form of adult social care. An independent review found that in England and Wales, 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

Within a challenging social care environment, our report based on data from nearly all Shared Lives services in England 2021-22, shows that local services and carers who deliver Shared Lives care have faced the same challenges as the wider care sector: the pandemic and cost of living crisis. Shared Lives Plus continues to advocate for respite and day services to restart, as well as inclusion in adult social care pay and fee reviews.

These challenges across the social care sector were highlighted by the recent CQC State of Care Report. The report found that, due to the challenges of  staff recruitment and retention, there are now significant rates of unmet and under-met care needs.

However, after a slight dip last year, data from Shared Lives schemes shows that Shared Lives care remains resilient even in the current climate. The number of Shared Lives carers has increased by 3.5% which stands in stark contrast to the wider social care sector, where care work vacancies have increased by 52%, the highest rate on record. Shared Lives also compares favourably when it comes to staff turnover, which stands at 12% amongst scheme workers, significantly lower than the 29% staff turnover across the wider social care sector.

Even in the current climate Shared Lives carers are still able to maintain very high standards of support. The CQC continues to rate Shared Lives as the highest form of care in England, with 97% of schemes being rated good or outstanding.

The fantastic outcomes that Shared Lives can produce are demonstrated by Mollie’s story, which featured in the Government’s white paper about new innovative forms of adult social care this time last year. Mollie is supported by her carer Mae, an arrangement facilitated by the Shared Lives South West scheme.

For Mollie, the value of Shared Lives is that it enables people like her to choose “what they do with their lives and how they choose to live it.” As Mollie shows, the concept of Shared Lives is simple; it is a person-centred model which matches people who need support with those who can give it, enabling them to live as well as they can within the community.

Despite these successes, for such a high-quality model the size of Shared Lives remains far too small: in terms of people supported Shared Lives still only accounts for just under 1% of long-term social care in the UK, and just over 0.5% of the social care workforce.

Given the current state of the care sector, as outlined by the CQC, it is vitally important that new and innovative models of care are given the chance to grow. Shared Lives should be at the forefront of this growth.

This, alongside the fact that Shared Lives remains highly cost effective, means Shared Lives is ready for expansion. An independent review found that in England and Wales, 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.

Thanks to the involvement of 123 Shared Lives schemes across England, this year’s report provides the highest quality and most detailed statistics from a State of Sector to date and we will use it to inform our work with local authorities and members.

Reports from Shared Lives schemes across the UK, in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are planned for December 2022.

This post was updated on 30/1/24 to better reflect use of language around carer fees.