Guidance on developing and growing Shared Lives for people with a learning disability  

Shared Lives is a proven model of community based and relational support for people with a learning disability:

• Shared Lives offers exceptional, high-quality support and the CQC judges Shared Lives as the best quality social care service.
• Research conducted by Shared Lives Plus in 2024 shows that Shared Lives can save save £12,000 to £26,000 per person, per year for people with a learning disability compared to supported living or residential care.
• As with the previous Government, the current Government has backed Shared Lives as a model which “enshrine(s) ‘home first’ principles that enable people to live independently for longer”.
• Shared Lives carers and supported people also demonstrate the ways in which it enables people to live richer, fuller lives. People like Meg, Abby, Rachel, Heather and Geoff.

Despite being a proven model of support for people with a learning disability, there are a number of key barriers to developing Shared Lives:

• Financial pressures on services: Shared Lives often requires upfront investment and capacity to grow
• Time pressures: Building up any service requires an investment of time, including recruitment and onboarding of new Shared Lives carers and the process of matching carers and supported people – a key quality element of the model
• Lack of awareness: Growing awareness and understanding of the model in a sector with challenges in staff turnover.

This guidance sets out six strategic and operational building blocks to be considered blocks for growing a robust Shared Lives service for people with a learning disability.

1. Joined up working with local leaders

Strong, collaborative leadership from Shared Lives schemes and senior local leaders provides an essential underpinning to Shared Lives development, including from children’s services leaders. Read more..

2. Effective partnerships with relevant teams and individuals

To flourish, a Shared Lives service needs to be embedded within the local adult social care sector and increasingly within children’s social care, rather than being regarded as an outlier. Read more..

3. Social workers who are familiar with Shared Lives approaches

Skilled and knowledgeable social workers across children’s and adult services are vital to appropriate referrals, and to helping supported people through the matching process. Read more..

4. A high performing Shared Lives team

A high performing, effective Shared Lives team is pivotal in creating and maintaining sustainable Shared Lives arrangements. This includes the development of a team with the right mix of skills and attitudes, as well as an appropriate level of capacity within the team. Read more..

5. Well supported Shared Lives carers

It is good practice for Shared Lives carers to be paid a fair fee which reflects the challenging work that they do.  Shared Lives carers also have paid breaks, be encouraged by the scheme to take these and be able to access the  range of training opportunities, and peer support. Read more..

6. Consistent Shared Lives carer recruitment

A consistent flow of new Shared Lives carers into a Shared Lives scheme is an essential building block in any strategy to grow Shared Lives, with a range of methods, messaging and channels utilised to support Shared Lives carer recruitment. Read more..

For tailored support on developing and growing your Shared Lives service, contact our Strategic Advice team, and find out how we can help you to grow Shared Lives in your local area.

Other relevant quick links:

• Social workers resources
• Better outcomes for less
• Supporting Adult Social Care Innovation (SASCI)
• The challenge of scaling-up social work innovations: A case study of Shared Lives schemes in England – The British Journal of Social Work
• SCIE website