‘We’ve gone from an empty nest to an active, lively household. The gift of seeing Chloe and Natasha grow into happy adults keep us going.’
Dave, Shared Lives carer, Staffordshire
What do Shared Lives carers do?
As a Shared Lives carer, it’s your job to support people to meet their goals, in whatever ways they need you to. You can either support someone while they live in your house with you and your family, or you can support someone during the day only.
You might be supporting someone to:
- Do practical things in everyday life like washing, going to the loo or eating
- Look after their finances
- Look after their baby
- Get involved in their community
- Make new friends
- Travel the world
- Manage anxiety
- Get into education
- Learn how to bake
- Get their dream job
- Start a new life addiction-free
- Go out on their own for the first time
- The possibilities are as unique as each of the people we support.
Do Shared Lives carers have to provide personal care support?
Personal care support involves things like supporting someone to brush their hair, to wash, to go to the loo and other parts of taking care of ourselves like these. Not everyone who uses Shared Lives needs personal care support. You can decide if you’d be willing to learn how to provide personal care. Anyone who feels they want to provide this support as part of their service as a carer will be fully trained by us.
If personal care support isn’t something you want to provide as a carer, that’s absolutely fine. You’ll be self-employed and it’s up to you what service you provide and who you support.
We match the people we support with our carers carefully, so we’ll take this into consideration.
A job that fits around your life
Being a Shared Lives carer is really flexible. You can support up to three people, working hours that suit you and that fits around your family. You can usually work as a carer alongside another job if you want to. Some carers start of supporting one person alongside another non-caring job, love being a Shared Lives carer and then gradually increase their hours supporting other people until they’re a full-time Shared Lives carer.
Interested in becoming a Shared Lives carer? Let your local team call you for a quick chat
