Transcript

Hello and welcome. My name's Amy Louise Smith and I'm the Service Manager for the Shared Lives Scheme. I'm here today to tell you all about Shared Lives and I'm hoping that at the end of this presentation you'll have enough information and guidance on the scheme. The Shared Lives Service enables people to live as part of a family within a carer's home where they receive the practical and emotional support they need. Shared Lives is a little bit like fostering but for vulnerable adults over the age of 16 who want to live as independently as possible. Many people become an integral part of their carer's family, our longest placement that being of 25 years. What Shared Lives provides? Our Shared Lives carer either supports people while living in their home, long term, for short periods of time or to provide respite. They can also provide home from hospital placements and our Shared Days carers support someone for a few hours during the day. Who are our customers? Adults with learning difficulties, mental or physical health needs or who are elderly and require support and care to live as independently as possible within our community. They have a wide range of abilities and support needs. Some are fairly independent and only requiring guidance, reminders or explanations. Others need full assistance with day-to-day needs. What do Shared Lives carers do? Our Shared Lives carers support people to meet their goals in whatever ways they need. They supply board and lodgings and three meals a day. They supply board and lodgings and three meals a day. A furnished bedroom. Access to the whole house except others' bedrooms and any out-of-bound areas such as a work office. And they support with personal care, planning of activities, taking medication, laundry, budgeting, access to health and community, inclusivity in family life, companionship and ongoing relationships. Shared Days. Our Shared Days carers provide support and companionship to a vulnerable adult by helping them to access the local community and spend time in the carer's family home setting. It enables vulnerable people in the community to benefit from the person-centred ethos of our Shared Lives scheme. They connect with the carer and their family and have access to a wide range of person-centred activities. Our Shared Days focuses on empowering individuals to learn new skills, achieve their goals and forge meaningful relationships with people. Matching. All of our carers promote people's rights, choices and independence and enable the people they support to develop and maintain connections within their local community. Family inclusion is at the heart of Shared Lives setting us apart from other forms of placements. Customers are matched to a Shared Lives carer and their family who provide board, lodgings, care and support but also extended family-based relationships. What are carers paid? Carers receive a generous weekly fee depending on the level of support they provide. Our Shared Days carers are paid for the amount of time they support someone. These are either in slots of 2 hours, 4 hours or 6 hours per day. Carers are self-employed and eligible for tax breaks and they can claim mileage. Access to our Wiltshire Council's reward scheme and our blue light scheme is available. They will also acquire a membership of our Shared Lives Plus. How our carers are supported. The Shared Lives team are available during office hours Monday to Friday, 9am till 5pm. Our Learning Disability Provider Services provides an on-call cover for our out of hours support. Shared Lives officers act as a main point of contact and will complete a minimum of 5 home visits per year to support the carer and customer. We also hold a carer and customer forum held at least 3 times per year. We also provide peer support from other Shared Lives carers. Here is one of our carers, Cathy West, explaining why she enjoys being a Shared Lives carer. My name is Cathy West and I'm a Shared Lives carer. I love being a Shared Lives carer. I love sharing my life with the young people that live here. We do lots of things together as well as independently. Everybody is part of the family and the wider family. They're very accepted in my wider family. I love the interactions we have. I love to see their progression and their growth since they've come to live with me. I'm passionate about helping each individual reach their goals and to be able to surpass themselves and see their confidence grow. I absolutely love that. When they feel they can't do something, we look at our way around to see how we can achieve what they want to achieve in life. To me, that is just fabulous. Your support. We at Shared Lives Wiltshire are striving to recruit new carers and we need your help. To spread the word and highlight the wonderful work of our scheme, you can help us in many ways. Include us in your parish newsletters, recommend us to people you meet and give our contact details to those in need. We've now come to the end of our presentation and I'd like to thank you all for your time today. If you would like any further information around our scheme, please do visit our social media pages. Also, you can email us sharedlivesatwiltshire.gov.uk. Thank you.