Become a carer for Shared Lives
Shared Lives is an arrangement where people who need support to live independently can live with individuals or families in their homes.
If you’d like to become a Shared Lives carer, you will get training and support from the Shared Lives scheme.
Shared Lives carers may provide:
- Long-term care – a placement for somebody to live with you in your own home as part of your family
- Respite care – a place to stay in your family home as a short break or holiday
- Flexible support – respite for a couple of hours or support for someone during the day
As a self employed Shared Lives carer, you will be paid for the care and support you provide and the room and board for the person who comes to stay with you.
Find out more about Shared Lives Plus
How to apply
Contact us if you’d like to become a Shared Lives carer by:
- Phoning 020 8921 6120
- Emailing shared-lives@royalgreenwich.gov.uk
After you’ve contacted us, we will:
- tell you a bit more about Shared Lives
- arrange a time to visit your home
- tell you if your home is suitable to have someone live with you
- make sure you and the person who will live with you are happy to continue
- send you an application pack which you need to complete and return within 4 weeks and ask you to sign consent forms
It’s important to place people with suitable families. This means the process can take a few months to complete after you’ve sent us your initial application.
We will tell you if we cannot continue with your application for any reason during the process.
After you apply
Once we have your application pack, we will start the assessment stage and assign you two team members who will:
- ask you some questions
- do some vetting and reference checks with you
- do a few interviews with you
We will tell you if we need more information from you or when you need to do tasks such as training.
The assessing officers will then work with you to write a report. They will then present this to the Shared Lives panel.
New carers will be approved for a one-year probationary period. In that year, you will need to complete the Care Award and any other essential training.