We are delighted to be working in partnership with Shared Lives Plus to produce and disseminate additional resources to help local authorities and other partners to grow Shared Lives Plus across the UK.
The Department of Health and Social Care regards Shared Lives as a leading “innovation” that it wants to grow. The next steps to put People at the Heart of Care states: “Shared Lives Schemes have been scaled up across the country to offer greater flexibility and more community-based care.”
To support the growth of Shared Lives, the DHSC funded SCIE and Shared Lives Plus to develop a suite of training resources for social care professionals, independent providers and local authorities to raise awareness, knowledge, understanding and confidence in the outcomes and benefits of Shared Lives, care planning, supporting shared lives carers, safeguarding and referrals.
Commenting on this resource library, Lyn Romeo, Chief Social Worker for adults said:
I am really pleased that the Department of Health and Social Care was able to support Shared Lives Plus – the national charity which supports Shared Lives – and the Social Care Institute for Excellence to develop these new Shared Lives resources for social workers. I am a huge supporter of Shared Lives – it delivers excellent support to people and enables people to live good lives in a loving family home. As a social worker, I know however, that we have a huge role to play in supporting Shared Lives to flourish, and that we need to encourage more referrals into Shared Lives. These new resources were designed to raise the awareness, knowledge and skills of social workers of Shared Lives and support social care professionals to make good referrals and provide ongoing support.