How to become a Shared Lives carer

You must:

• be contactable by the person you support as agreed, either in person, or by agreement through an additional carer
• be present at night in the home or inform Shared Lives co-ordinator of additional cover arrangements
• welcome friends and family visits by arrangement

In additional to this, you'll have to carry out a number of day-to-day responsibilities. These responsibilities are covered in your standard payment as a main carer.

Day-to-day responsibilities

This list describes the day-to-day responsibilities we expect for Shared Lives carers. It's not exhaustive, but offers an example of what we expect and form the essence and ethos of Croydon Shared Lives.

Prepare food 

You'll need to:

• ensure that the person you support is able to make hot and cold drinks and snacks, and have open access to the kitchen with or without supervision
• assist and guide the person you support to shop for food, prepare food and to make their own meals
• provide breakfast, lunch or packed lunch and evening meal, ensuring that at least one hot, nutritious, home cooked meal is provided daily

Help with medication and health appointments

You'll need to:

• prompt the person you support to take prescribed medication, whilst recognising and respecting that they are self-medicating and hold responsibility for their own medication and its storage
• assist the person you support with arranging general health appointments and provide reminders to attend, but not to escort them other than in emergencies and on specific agreed occasions

Help with risk assessments and how they make decisions

You'll need to:

• undertake ongoing risk assessments and risk management on the choices and decisions made by the person you support
• provide general counselling and reassurance on the day to day, and occasional additional emotional support of the person you support
• support the person you support to make choices and decisions, depending on their individual capacity to do so

Advise on personal hygiene

You'll need to:

• encourage and advise the person you support with personal hygiene, but not directly supervise this
• advise the person you support on appropriate clothing (they can normally dress themselves)
• encourage the person you support to attend to laundry, room cleaning and bed making, providing the laundry, cleaning appliances and materials required

Provide the right accommodation

You'll need to:

• provide a minimum of a single bed with bedding, bedside table, wardrobe, chest of drawers and easy chair in the room of each person you support
• provide a front door key for each person you support to access the home

Advice on their finances

You'll need to:

• advise the person you support on money and spending (they can normally manage their own money)
• support each person you support to read and understand mail and documents, if required, and help them access benefits, complete forms, open bank accounts etc
• keep clear records of all financial transactions between the person you support and yourself; arrangements for agreeing holidays and payments for holidays for the person you support are covered separately and will be explained by the Shared Lives co-ordinator

Advice on travel and community opportunities

You'll need to:

• support the person you support with travel training to new places if required to familiarise them with the journey; they will generally be able to travel independently
• support the person you support to access information regarding opportunities in the community for work, leisure, holidays, worship and education

Additional support needs

Some of the people referred for placement in the Shared Lives scheme may have additional care or support needs to those listed above. These will be identified by the manager or care co-ordinator at the point of referral, and will be specified in the service user’s support plan.

Their carers will get an additional fee, which will be agreed on before their placement starts.