In January 2022 Homeshare UK and Shared Lives Plus hosted the first Your Voice Forum, an opportunity for our Homeshare Network/Shared Lives Scheme members to share their insight and expertise to help shape the future of Homeshare UK and Shared Lives Plus.
Interim CEO Jayne Wilson outlines our key priorities highlighted at the Your Voice forum.
As an organisation we are in a strong place and have started looking at our priorities for over the next 12 months – as we recruit a new CEO.
In order to highlight the huge difference that Homeshare UK, Shared Lives Plus and Family by Family make we’ve started the year by delving into the key areas of work we are delivering in each of our programmes.
Support and Improvement
The support we provide our network/schemes helps them to deliver the high quality and personalised service which is what makes Homeshare and Shared Lives so unique – it’s at the heart of what we do and always will be.
Over the coming months we plan to improve what we offer as part of our network membership, such as providing additional services including:
- Reviewing our guidance often and providing any additional information the networks may require
- Launching training for Homeshare and Shared Lives Plus
- Further development of the recruitment portal for Shared Lives Schemes
Growth and Development
Whether its Homeshare, Shared Lives or Family by Family, as an organisation and team we all want to grow and develop the work we do.
We have a big opportunity to highlight the work of Homeshare and Shared Lives with our inclusion in the white paper. At the beginning of January we met with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) new models team to start analysing how we can be a part of the reforms of social care.
Homeshare UK now has a dedicated communications and marketing officer to support the network alongside our new projects involving delivering Homeshare in the North East and West, as well as a new Franchise model. Due to recent investment, we are also developing an outcomes tool and CRM for Homeshare, together with an online application process for Householders and Homesharers.
Advocacy and Influencing
Our network and scheme members value the way in which our previous CEO networked to produce connections and raise the profile of Homeshare and Shared Lives across the UK.
Now we are moving into this transitional period, we are looking at how we can sustain advocacy and influencing using different approaches, including removing social barriers into the Homeshare programme through our Clarion Housing Group funded work.
Infrastructure
We are a fast growing organisation especially with the recent investment in Homeshare UK. However, we recognise our key aim is to serve our networks to grow and develop as we do.
This is an exciting time to be a part of Homeshare UK and Shared Lives Plus and following feedback from our first Your Voice forum, going forward we will set up Homeshare UK network specific Your Voice meetings on a quarterly basis.