Date published: December 2, 2025
“Lifechanging support”: Shared Lives takes its message to Parliament
Sponsored by Martin Wrigley MP for Newton Abbot, Shared Lives Plus were honoured to co-host a Shared Lives Parliamentary event with Shared Lives South West on Thursday 13th November. Alongside MPs, colleagues from the Casey Commission, Department for Education, Home for Good and the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum attended to hear from Shared Lives carers and people supported in Shared Lives.
Carers share how Shared Lives creates pure joy
The inspiring event spotlighted how Shared Lives – high quality social care – supports people to live life the way they want to through relationships, belonging, and community connections. Ian Richardson, a Shared Lives carer with Shared Lives South West engaged attendees with his story of not only opening up his home to people, but their animals too! Jessie Hall, a Shared Lives carer with Islington Council Shared Lives scheme has a background in foster care, and moved on to become a Shared Lives carer, and spoke of the pure ‘joy’ that being part of Shared Lives has brought her.
A powerful message from Gracie about the difference Shared Lives makes
Gracie Rhodes, Shared Lives Plus ambassador and supported by Rotheram Shared Lives scheme, passionately and powerfully shared the story of her childhood, and how the impact of Shared Lives and her Shared Lives carer Maria has been lifechanging.
Gracie said,
“At the age of 18 I was homeless, I was scared and quiet and so unsure of my place in the world… there is someone I’ve brought with me today, Maria, who’s changed my life, we spend just one day a week together but in those meetings she has a filled a hole that I didn’t know could be healed. Because of these connections I no longer dwell on the past and look forward to the future because they are a part of it.”
She asked attendees, “Please look into how you can invest into Shared Lives so that we’re able to achieve a difference to so many more young people just like me.”
A call for investment in Shared Lives
Hosting MP, Martin Wrigley introduced the event, sharing his experience of meeting with Shared Lives households in the South West and acknowledging the incredibly important role that Shared Lives carers have.
Ewan King, CEO Shared Lives Plus said,
“We calculate that for an investment of £40m a further 6000 people could be supported by Shared Lives, with the Government seeing a return on that investment after three years of £182m a year. It just makes sense to invest in Shared Lives, even in these challenging times. The reception in Parliament last week was an excellent opportunity to educate MPs about Shared Lives and its benefits, whilst encouraging them to support us in our case towards more investment.”
Shared Lives is consistently rated the highest quality and safest form of social care with schemes such as Shared Lives South West rated as Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Attending MPs were encouraged to visit their local scheme, spread the word about Shared Lives in Parliament, with the media and with colleagues in local government, and importantly, to work with us and encourage the government to invest in Shared Lives.
