2. Kathryn Morgan
Development Officer
Shared Lives Plus, Wales.

3. What Shared Lives
means to me

4. Safer, better, lower cost
Where I live now is the best place I have ever lived. I have my freedom but I know people care about me and I feel safe.
Achieves great outcomes like (lots of!) new friends.
Government inspectors say Shared Lives is consistently better and safer.
£26,000 a year lower cost per person.
I love everything about my life: now I feel like I belong to a family.

5. I love everything about my life: now I feel like I belong to a family.
What Shared Lives means
to me
Shared Lives is when you live with a family or one carer in their home and they help and support you with what you need.
Where I live now is the best place I have ever lived. I have my freedom but I know people care about me and I feel safe.
A chance to have a life with their family.
I love everything about my life: now I feel like I belong to a family.
When I moved into shared lives my carers saved my life, I was depressed and being bullied before I went to live with them. Now I feel so much better.
From a report by Your Voice Counts 2015.

6. Safer, better, lower cost
Achieves great outcomes like (lots of!) new friends.
Government inspectors say Shared Lives is consistently better and safer.
£26,000 a year lower cost per person.

7. Disability support in the UK
(big) care homes are still the norm for older people.
Group homes and a few (smaller) institutions
Supported living in your own home
Living with your own family (often with little support)
and increasingly Shared Lives….
Disability support in the UK

8. Older people’s support
The most difficult times for a generation:
Unprecedented cuts to services and more to come.
NHS (illness treatment) protected, but not social care
And even well funded & run services can’t create good lives
A good life comes from friends, family and a purpose

9. Care and support in the UK
The UK has tried to ‘personalise’ support
We’ve learned some powerful lessons we want to share
A good life is about friends, family, purpose, love.
Personalisation: lessons from social care, RSA:

10. Sharing home and family life.
Long Term/Live-in arrangments
Short Term
Day Support
“You see people grow - they blossom.”

11. The Shared Lives carer role
Sharing home & family life
Family & friends help out
Build community networks
Love
Personal
Unpaid
Professional
Paid
Self-employed
Trained & paid
Four weeks of breaks
Professional personal care

12. Assessment, approval and matching
Rigorous 3-6 month assessment and approval process.
Looks for skills, values, attitudes and knowledge.
Considers housing and rest of household.
Shared Lives Haringey
Initial meeting
Application & interview
ID & DBS, references
Training pre & post approval
Approval process
Approval panel

13. Shared Lives carer family
Shared Lives matching
Shared Lives carer family Me
Matching takes time, but pays huge dividends.
Short breaks can be part of matching.
“It’s like extending your own family.”
“The whole village is helping but in a natural way.”
Shared Lives carer
My family
Paper matching
Involve family
Meeting
Activities
Overnight, Weekend
Trial period

14. Alison and Chris
The three words that I believe sum up Chris’ move here are probably the same as in many other Shared Lives homes – freedom, normality and belonging.
Chris asks us things, tells us things, seeks advice, ignores advice, makes us laugh, infuriates us, socialises with us, spends time alone, cooks the dinner, refuses to cook the dinner and has good days, bad days and days in between.
Normal family life. And from this stems greater freedom underpinned by a greater sense of belonging. If and when he moves on for whatever reason then he will go with our blessing, but for the time being he is one of our family, this is his home and this is where he belongs.
Shared Lives Carer

15. Peter and Allan
‘Peter’, who I support several days a week, is a similar age to me and he has learning, physical and communication difficulties. I really enjoy being in his company and I think he feels the same. I encourage Peter to decide what he wants to do and get great satisfaction seeing him making good sound decisions. Peter visits my home and has got to know Moira, my boys and my sister and Mum. I was impressed at how Peter engaged my youngest son Aaron, bringing Aaron out of his shell. Allan, retired police officer and Shared Lives carer.

16. Going the extra mile
Shared Lives carers regard the individual as ‘family’, which can mean helping them achieve more. Shared Lives carer Marie says:
Matthew is a lovely young man who loves to socialise. Matthew has always wanted to go out to work and with help and a lot of applications for different jobs he got a job at the Hilton. It was very hard at first when Mat was applying for jobs as he had a lot of rejections. I contacted all his job applications and asked them for “feed back”. I told him to keep trying and he was successful in his second interview with the Hilton where he is a housekeeper.. He has made many friends and has nights out with work mates. He is a reliable well thought of young man and has grown in confidence and self-esteem.

17. Safer, better, lower cost
Lower cost of care.
Great outcomes
34% of service users had
made five or more new friends.

18. Shared Lives: Day Support
Day support in the Shared Lives Carer’s home and the local community.
Matching process ensures provider and client compatible.
A Shared Lives carer supports up to 3 people at a time.
Maintaining skills: cooking, gardening, eating together.
Consistent, familiar setting.
A break for family carers (carer’s grant funded).

19. Shared Lives: short breaks
Lynne: “My dad was his usual self on our return and slotted straight back in as though he hadn't been away. When he went to a care home before, he came back quiet, withdrawn, unable to do things - some things were lost forever.”
Karen: “It was an absolute pleasure to be matched with Harold. He instantly became part of the family”
PossAbilities, Rochdale

20. Home Hospital Shared Lives carer Home from hospital care
Consistent, familiar homely support.
Each time an older person goes into hospital they are less likely to return to their own home.
Home
Hospital
Shared Lives carer

21. Payment for care includes 4 weeks’ paid breaks p.a.
How the funding flows
Payment for care includes 4 weeks’ paid breaks p.a. 2?
Disability benefits
Council or NHS
Shared Lives scheme
Shared Lives carer
John 1
Housing benefit
1 coordinator to 25 supported individuals (live-in).
Recruiting, training, supporting Shared
Lives carers.
Staff team & office 3?

22. Savings Source Investing in Shared Lives Social Finance July 2013
• Average net savings from a long-term Shared Lives arrangement per-person per year are £26,000 (learning disabilities) and £8,000 (mental health).
• Expanding a scheme by 75 arrangements requires
around £250,000 of up-front investment and generates savings of £1.5 million p.a. at capacity.
Source Investing in Shared Lives
Social Finance July 2013

23. Our national role Connect people & families
Peer networks
Peer networks
Support Shared Lives carers
Support
local
schemes
Shared Lives Plus
Raise awareness & influence
Protect the values & ethos
Advice skills & learning
Innovation research & grants
Families
Awareness

24. We support innovation Mental health support Older people & dementia
Out of hospital
Shared Lives
Parent & child
Transitions & young adults
Offenderssubstance misuse
Domestic violence
Families
Awareness

25. Homeshare Householder (free spare room + shared facilities)
matched with
Homesharer (10 hrs/wk support + companionship)
in return for
Independence & safe, affordable accommodation for an agreed period.

26. UK Shared Lives: the future
Our vision is for Shared Lives to become a movement for shared living
Seeing capability and potential, not just need
Valuing ‘informal’ support as well as paid support
Arranging support around family and self-care
All services can and should connect people
Tackling isolation and loneliness
Small and personal on a massive scale

27. https://youtu.be/o1qi6WWi9ew