Looking for Shared Lives support?

Information about the West Berkshire Shared Lives Scheme, how you can get referred and a link to our CQC report.

Shared Lives aims to offer support to people aged 16 or over with different needs and skills. It involves sharing family life with a Shared Lives Carer in their family home. The Shared Lives Carer offers care, support and the chance to become part of their family life.

This could be for:

a few hours in the day
overnight
a weekend or a short break
a long term placement

Who can use the scheme

To access the Shared Lives Scheme, you first need to have a care and support needs assessment. This is where a social care worker will ask questions about you and the support you need. This assessment will work out whether you're eligible for Shared Lives support.

Getting a referral

After your care and support needs assessment, if you are assessed as having an eligible need, your allocated care manager can submit a referral on your behalf to the Shared Lives Scheme.

If you would like to get a referral but you do not have an allocated care manager, contact us using our Adult Social Care online enquiry form.

Further information and Easy Read guides

You can find further information about Shared Lives in the following documents:

Guide to West Berkshire Council Shared Lives - Easy Read [5MB] - this includes information on who pays for Shared Lives support and finding the right family for you
West Berkshire Shared Lives GDPR Guide - Easy Read [2MB]

What people think of the Shared Lives Scheme

Leigh gets support from the Shared Lives Scheme and she answered some questions for us:

What do you think of Shared Lives?

I have been with Shared Lives for 21 years and I love living with my carers. I really couldn't be happier.

What do you think of the Shared Lives service user meetings?

I really like the meetings because I get to see all my friends which is really important to me; being able to stay in touch with them, especially during Covid-19, helped me a lot, as a lot of my activities were cancelled and I missed seeing everyone, so loved meeting up on Zoom and seeing everyone.

What do you think of the speakers that join the service user meetings?

I like meeting new people and finding out new things. I liked Isabel King who came and spoke to us about Ascend. She gave us information about volunteering and the help she could give me with my benefits which can sometimes be confusing. I also look forward to seeing the Shared Lives staff, Lisa and Becky and Sadie, who run the service user group.