We are recruiting Shared Lives carers

Could you share your home, family life and activities you love doing with an adult who needs extra support due to age, illness or disability? We are looking for people to join our Shared Lives service as carers.

In Cheshire East our Shared Lives Team recruit both carers who want to provide family placements in their home, full time or for respite. We also have carers who work in the community.

Being a Shared Lives carer is rewarding and you can offer as much or little time as you can, you don't need any previous experience and we'll provide all the training you need.

Shared Lives has been a huge success nationally and the people who have support from Shared Lives carers say they feel more settled, valued and make friends more easily than with traditional types of care. Our service is relationship based and the people we support and our carers feel that the service is about much more than traditional care.

We want to make the service available to more people and you could help us by becoming a Shared Lives carer.

What Shared Lives is

The Shared Lives concept is similar to foster care for adults, where carers share their home and family life with an adult who needs help or support to live well.

People you support could come from any background and everyone needs a different level of care. Some people just require advice and guidance whilst others might want more direct support with daily tasks such as cooking, laundry and managing money or budgets. You could provide a fulltime family placement or respite nights in your own home.

We also recruit carers to provide support to people in the community, if you don’t want to provide live in support this may be a good alternative.

Who uses the Shared Lives service

The scheme is open to any adult who has a social care assessment that indicates they are eligible for, and would benefit from, the Shared Lives service. This includes adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, older people and/or mental health needs.

Who can be a Shared Lives carer

Our Shared Lives carers come from all walks of life and they do a superb job. They are friendly, have lots of enthusiasm for the people they look after and find it very rewarding.

If you have plenty of patience, flexibility, dedication and commitment you could join our team and become a Shared Lives carer.

What the work involves

This will depend upon the person you are supporting. You might need to assist with:

• accompanying people to appointments
• providing transport to leisure activities or work placements
• providing social support, shopping, lunch in the community
• holidays and outings
• encouraging them to get involved with their local community and increase social contact
• helping to manage finances and safekeeping of medication

Where carers are based

Shared Lives carers work from their own homes to provide day care, short term respite or long-term live-in arrangements for adults who have social care needs.

Our community carers can work in any part of the Cheshire East Borough. You decide where you want to work.

Support available to carers

If you are suitable, you'll be given all the training and support you need by our Shared Lives team. You will also get a financial allowance:

• for a full-time family placement, you will be paid either £388.50 or £416.50 per week
• for part time respite support you will be paid either £55.50 or £59.50 per night, this is all based on the needs of the person you are caring for
• for 3 hour sessions of community support you will be paid £34.32

We also pay mileage allowances.

Recruitment process

All of our carers go through a thorough assessment process which involves an application form, home visits (if you are providing support in your own home), and an interview with one of our team.

You may also be asked to complete the Care Certificate. Our approval panel will make the final decision. 

Who you will be caring for

All of our Shared Lives carers and the people they support are matched carefully to make sure that they feel comfortable with each other before agreeing to spend time together. Our team works really hard to identify shared interests, pets, hobbies and places that will help build a bond and rapport.

Sign up to become a Shared Lives carer

Take the next step today and enquire about becoming a Shared Lives carer in Cheshire East.

If you want to find out more about the service please give call our friendly team on 01260 375456, or email SharedLives@cheshireeast.gov.uk and we will be happy to help.