Our Shared Lives Carers come from all walks of life. You don’t need any qualifications or experience, you just need to have some spare time or the ability to share your home to make a real difference to someone's life.
What do I need?
- Be over the age of 18
- Have a minimum of 4 hours per week to spare
- Have a spare bedroom (for long term and short break / respite support)
- Support someone to seek opportunities to develop their skills and aspirations in their own communities
- Be caring and want to develop new relationships.
What’s in it for me?
- Giving something back to the community
- New and meaningful friendships
- A payment for your time and expenses to ensure you are not out of pocket, based on the support needs of the person you are caring for. A full-time placement will receive a financial allowance of up to £407 a week
- A free DBS check
- Free mandatory training to enable you to fulfil the role
- Ongoing support from the shared lives team
- Opportunities to meet other Carers and attend various activities throughout the year
- Choose someone who has shared interests, hobbies or simply because you get on well together
- Optional membership of Shared Lives Plus, a national organisation that offers guidance and advice
- There are special tax rules for some Shared Lives Carers and an amount of what they receive is exempt from tax. More details will be provided to you once you become an approved Shared Lives Carers.
What could I be expected to do?
- Support people in their local and wider community to engage in meaningful activities, for example swimming, local community groups, cinema
- Promote independence and help to develop daily living skills including cooking, cleaning, managing laundry
- Accompany someone to appointments when necessary
- Support someone to remain safe and well - this may include supporting someone with managing their medication or their own finances / bills.
e-learning
HMRC have some e-learning products which contain everything you need to know about being self employed and employing someone.