Date published: April 20, 2026
Hull Shared Lives drives growth through Accelerating Reform Fund
Hull Shared Lives has transformed its service and accelerated growth thanks to investment from the Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF). The ARF has brought significant new funding into adult social care, creating a valuable opportunity for Shared Lives schemes to strengthen foundations, scale up, and grow so more people can benefit from community-based support.
Hull Shared Lives increased referrals, expanded its carer cohort, and strengthened local relationships through a wide-ranging improvement project, helping to address previous challenges around low understanding of Shared Lives and the need to integrate with social work processes.
With support from partners across the North East Integrated Care Board (ICB) consortium, Hull Shared Lives focused on building stronger relationships with local leaders, increasing referrals, and recruiting more carers, while placing a renewed emphasis on co-production.
The scheme established new long-term and short-break arrangements, while referrals continue to steadily increase. A key part of this progress was improving links with social work teams, significantly raising its profile across the area.
Recruitment was also a major focus. As part of a coordinated North East campaign, Hull Shared Lives contributed to a regional approach to advertising and engagement, helping to generate new enquiries and applications. The campaign led to the recruitment of nine new Shared Lives carers, alongside growing interest from foster carers.
Alongside this, changes to training reduced approval times for new carers from six months to just 12 weeks, with most existing carers now up to date with essential learning due to more flexible, accessible training options.
Co-production remains central to the scheme’s approach. People supported by Shared Lives are actively involved in recruitment and service development, including sitting on interview panels and contributing to a dedicated forum shaping the future of the service.
“The ARF has enabled us to reinvigorate our Shared Lives scheme and enhance the offer that was in place. We have increased our staffing team by 40%, which has meant we can not only support more people, but have recruited additional Shared Lives carers who can support either on a permanent basis or respite. We now deliver the pre-approval training inhouse and have also increased the technology we offer to our Shared Lives carers enabling them to access training more easily.”
Read the full strategic spotlight to find out how Hull Shared Lives achieved this growth, increased understanding among local colleagues, and how the approach could be replicated in other areas.
Early analysis by Shared Lives Plus shows a strong link between ARF funding and sector growth.
Of the areas that saw increased participation in Shared Lives last year, 29 drew on ARF investment to expand their work. Together, these areas supported 317 additional people, accounting for 60% of all national growth. This early evidence demonstrates the impact of targeted national investment.
If you’re interested in our consultancy support to help establish, grow, or diversify Shared Lives in your area, contact our strategic advice team at consultancy@sharedlivesplus.org.uk or read more about our consultancy offer: Consultancy support – Shared Lives Plus and our recent support to schemes.
