Who can be a Shared Lives carer

You don’t need any qualifications or experience to be a Shared Lives carer. It doesn't matter what walk of life you're from. We're looking for people who want to make a difference to someone's life.

You'll need to have a spare room available, be patient, have a flexible approach to working and be happy to share your home.

You don't need any experience of working in care. Our Shared Lives team will provide you with full training and all the support you need to be a carer.

For long term placements, short breaks or emergency care you'll need to provide:

• a comfortable, furnished bedroom for the person to have sole use of during their stay
• use of communal areas of your house such as living room, kitchen, bathroom, garden areas
• a healthy varied diet including meals, snacks and drinks
• some support with day to day living, laundry, personal care

Your home

You do not have to own your own home to be a Shared Lives Carer. You can have any style of home, as long as it meets our fire, health and safety requirements and is in good repair and decoration.

When you apply to become a carer you'll need to have lived at your current address for a specific length of time before you can make an application. You'll need to give details of your mortgage provider or landlord so that we can carry out checks as part of the application process.

We are particularly keen to hear from you if you have ground floor accommodation and if you live in a property that has already been adapted.

If you're providing short breaks you do not need any adaptations. If a person lives with you long term your Shared Lives worker will discuss and arrange any adaptations necessary.

Insurance

You'll need to arrange Domestic and Public Liability Insurance to the value of £2 million. We can advise you about how to arrange this.