Shared Lives Plus, the UK network for Shared Lives and Homeshare has today announced that Barnsley has been chosen to receive a share of the £1.75m investment from NHS England to take forward an innovative family-based initiative to help more people to be cared for in a home, not a hospital.

As successful bidders, Barnsley will be formally confirmed at the House of Commons on 19 October alongside MPs and other key figures, as Shared Lives Plus celebrates Shared Lives week 2016 #SharedLivesTogether – a UK wide celebration of the Shared Lives model of care, and how its unique approach brings together the NHS, social care, people, communities and families.

The five areas chosen to develop a clinical commissioning group (CCG) led Shared Lives Scheme are:

• Barnsley
• Bolton
• South Tees
• Southern Derbyshire
• and a partnership of Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucester CCGs

The new schemes represent a major new direction for Shared Lives, building on its strong and growing presence across social care in Barnsley.  

In Shared Lives, a trained and approved Shared Lives carer shares their home and family life with an adult who needs care or support to help them live well.  This is part of the CCG and council’s commitment to transforming health so that people can keep well and live independently in the community.  

The Shared Lives model will support people who have needs which make it hard for them to live on their own, by carefully matching them with a carer to share their family and lives, giving care and support in the community.  The schemes will focus on people with a learning disability and/or autism, those with mental health problems, people with dementia and in Barnsley people in hospital with physical health needs.

By working together, Barnsley CCG and Barnsley Council expect that the many benefits of the Shared Lives approach to a person’s health and to health services can be developed even further.  These include a reduction in how long people need to stay in hospital, improvements in hospital discharge and reduced unplanned admissions and/or trips to A&E in addition to improved outcomes for people using the services.  Nationally, projected savings are expected to be more than £130m over the five year life of the project.

Brigid Reid, Chief Nurse, Barnsley Clinical Commissioning Group said: “We are delighted to be working with Barnsley Council to bring Shared Lives to many more people across Barnsley. In the future, this could enable health services to offer community-based alternatives to traditional health provision much more widely.”

Cllr Jenny Platts, Cabinet Spokesperson for Communities, said “This is great news for our borough and a really good example of partnership working between Barnsley CCG and the council. The project will build on our already excellent Shared Lives service which helps people to live a healthy and happy life in a family home.”

Simon Stevens, NHS England Chief Executive, said: “The five Shared Lives areas announced today have the chance to be at the forefront of delivering the kind of community and people-centred approach that will be a key part of NHS services in the future.

It is vital that people with complex needs, including those with a learning disability and/or autism have the opportunity to benefit from the care, comfort and sense of independence that comes from living in a real family home.”

Following confirmation of our success, Barnsley CCG has confirmed it will be match funding this new approach to Shared Lives in partnership with the existing scheme in Barnsley.

It is expected that the first matches will take place in 2017.

Visit our patient story page to hear how the SharedLivesPlus could work in Barnsley.