Invaluable campaign – fee reviews for Shared Lives carers

#Invaluable started in 2018 to call for fairer carer fees for Shared Lives carers.

Many Shared Lives carers commit to sharing all of their lives – taking on a responsibility that is a paid way of life rather than just a job. Their dedication in this deserves to be rewarded. They create outcomes in mental and physical health that are proportionally greater than the resources they require.

The difference you make
Shared Lives carers do amazing work and enrich the lives of the individuals they support as well as the communities they live in.

This year, our #Invaluable campaign is for the value of Shared Lives carers to be recognised nationally and in your communities.

Fairness for Shared Lives carers

We call on all schemes to meet with Shared Lives carers to co-design their own local Shared Lives charter, which describes what a good scheme, which values its carers, looks like.

We call on local authorities to include Shared Lives carers as part of their wider social care pay review processes (see briefing pack below). Even though they are self-employed, the work they do is categorically a part of social care – so including them in social care pay reviews is a matter of basic fairness. In some cases, Shared Lives carers haven’t had a pay increase in 10 years. We know public services haven’t had pay rises, and only some had pay rises in line with inflation. Investing in Shared Lives carers, will enable more people to enjoy Shared Lives and eventually create a social care system that is more effective and more human.

“Social care’s birthday present looks like continued cuts”, blog by Alex Fox, CEO