Shared Lives and Homeshare are highlighted as one of 12 options for local authorities to explore scaling up with support of the government’s new Accelerating Reform Fund of £42.6 million over the next two years.
They are long-standing innovative examples of the best of what social care or support services can offer, by being able to adapt to the needs of local areas, as well as being naturally person-centred options; giving people drawing on social care choice and control about who they live with and where they live, and able to adapt to the needs of local areas.
If you pick Shared Lives or Homeshare as one of the options you want to see grow, we can help you apply for the funds and provide support to help you deliver the ambition of growing Shared Lives and/or Homeshare in your local area.
“Finding Shared Lives, I haven’t looked back! Being part of family life feels normal now, which I never thought I would ever say. Being a role model and a big sister figure to the children, makes me feel so proud. It’s the small things like cooking together to sitting around at the dinner table, even having a little squabble now and then. I have become more relaxed into family life with people that care for me, they have taught me so much and eventually I will feel confident to live independently.”
– Heather, Shared Lives Ambassador
We have the skills and expertise to scale up Shared Lives and Homeshare in your area, whether you’ve got a small or large scheme, or one of the areas who want to set up a brand-new scheme. We draw on experience of Shared Lives schemes across the UK who support people with dementia, through offering unpaid carers respite, and enable independent older people to stay connected in their community through Homeshare where they can have companionable light-touch support at home.
“It will be difficult, but far from impossible, to grow Shared Lives. If we work together, share resources and learning, and are creative and brave with the money we have, we can continue to invest in and grow Shared Lives, to ensure that even more people benefit from one of the highest quality and safest forms of social care in the future.”
– Tandra Foster, Director of Integrated Adult Social Care, Devon County Council.
Our 35 years of expertise means that we can help make your adult social care fair and accessible so that more people can enjoy Shared Lives and Homeshare. We can help you identify the common barriers to growth such as awareness, referrals, carer recruitment, and internal processes which hamper your efforts, to unlock some of the most rewarding experiences for people drawing on social care, their communities, and your staff.
Our partnership and co-production approach means that we can work with regional ADASS networks across multiple local authorities, partners in Integrated Care Systems and NHS, local voluntary and community groups, and most importantly people drawing on social care and those supporting them.
Our nimble working means that we can help you develop your bid for the Accelerating Reform Fund for the EOI deadline at the start of January, aligning it to resources in the wider social care sector network to maximise your potential success.
Get in touch with us consultancy@sharedlivesplus.org.uk.
Find out more about experiences of local authorities working with us in the brochure below:
