About Shared Lives Plus
In addition to being the UK network for Homeshare with 23 organisations across the UK, Shared Lives Plus is the voice for the UK’s Shared Lives sector with 150 scheme members and 5000 Shared Lives carer members.
Whilst Shared Lives and Homeshare are distinct forms of support, they share a number of values and objectives including; facilitating mutual support, reducing isolation and the belief that person-centred support in the home and the community plays a key role in preventing the problems, poor outcomes, and often high costs of either late intervention, or poorly designed institutional care.
They share some key differences too, as Homeshare is not regulated unlike Shared Lives which is a regulated care service by the Care Quality Commission in England and similar bodies in the other nations of the UK. Homesharing occurs in the home of the individual seeking that bit of extra help to live independently whereas Shared Lives always takes place in the home of the Shared Lives carer.
The values they share include:
- People being in control of their lives and services
- Being valued by their communities and feeling like they belong
- Pursuing ordinary lives within their chosen families and relationships
Shared Lives Plus works with its members to:
- Provide resources, training, access to insurance and one-to-one support
- Enable members to talk to, support and learn from each other
- Ensure that members can act as a network to influence national and local decision makers and the development of a more personalised social care system
- Raise awareness of the value of members’ work
- Commission research and strengthen the evidence base for our work
Shared Lives Plus is funded by its membership, and a number of specific project grants including the UK Government, the Welsh Government, NHS England, Big Lottery Fund Accelerating Ideas, Nesta, Lloyds Bank Foundation of England and Wales, Pears, and Dunhill Medical Trust.
