Shared lives.. not been approved for short breaks and feeling disappointed and confused.

[Browndoor25]

Shared Lives is like fostering but for adults with additional needs. My husband and I went to panel last week and we’ve been approved to provide day support but not for respite. I’m a carer, I’ve worked in the sector for over a decade supporting people with additional needs. I love what I do and we really wanted to get into respite because I think being supported as a part of a family can be really beneficial for some, especially if they aren’t keen on institutions for example. I think it has the potential to be quite a powerful model of providing good quality care and can enrich people’s lives.

We’ve been told they want us to do the day support to build on our experience and skills, but after over a decade of working in care and supporting people with learning disabilities, autism, mental health, etc I don’t understand how they could want more experience? Plus the website says that while experience/ qualifications are great, they are not essential and that attitude, values, etc are more important. Then they said that we don’t have experience supporting someone in our own home as that’s different to supporting someone in the community which I understand but how are we supposed to to gain experience in this if we aren’t approved. Plus they knew this when we applied and our coordinator seemed so positive about us doing it, she basically fast tracked us through it and didn’t contact our GP or local council because apparently our references were great and I have lots of experience/ currently work in the sector. She told us after panel that she thought it had gone great and should go through.

We’ve put so much time and energy into this, we’ve completed umpteenth online courses, written essays and personal statements, taken time off work so we can all be present for home visits. Absolutely flabbergasted.

I'm sorry, in my experience fostering panels can be very risk averse.

They are risk averse and despite glowing references they don’t know you from a bar of soap. Ask very specifically what you need to do in order to achieve short break status and work to prove this during your day care opportunities. Congratulations on being approved by the way, that’s no mean feat - you should feel proud of that achievement, despite the disappointment of being somewhat limited at this moment in time. But hopefully this can change in the near future once you and your husband prove yourselves to be reliable and trustworthy.

Sounds like it isn’t a no just a not yet.

I wonder whether they start people off with day support and then they progress to respite?

It sounds to me as if they check everyone's ability with day provision first.

Well done on being approved.

You say you’ve got lots of experience, but you’re being assessed as a household. Where there’s a big gap in experience it’s common to start at the lowest level to allow the less experienced one to ‘catch up’.

You said yourself it was fast tracked, so this makes panels wary of too much too soon. You'll build up experience, reputation and outcomes and progress that way, dont see it as a slight OP

Thank you. I just wish they’d been honest about this from the beginning. They said they were looking for people who can provide short breaks especially, I said I could do the day support in addition to but not instead of if that makes sense. I’ve be done day support services for over a decade now with other organisations. If I do it with them I’ll have to register as self employed, do my own taxes, pay for my pvg, etc to work with them earning minimum wage.. it’s not an attractive prospect.

You can say no to the day work, sounds to me like they’re trying to save money and get you as cheap as possible.
in my area even though respite is awarded the council are literally saying no and people are having to go to court to have it enforced
it wouldn’t surprise me if this is them coming at it from the other angle ‘We’re not getting a high enough calibre of suitable people’

Awful tactics if this is the case.

It’s bizarre because they seemed so keen to have us though. I would understand it if panel went badly but she said it was good so I don’t know.

Then being keen to have you. The panel going well and not being immediately approved for multi day aren’t mutually exclusive.

Not well would have been not approved, or approved for day only with no suggestion of building up.

My DS was referred to Shared Lives but we had little availability in the area so it didnt happen.Our understanding was that the family would be interested in our son, involve him a bit in their life e.g. he loves animals so a family where he could go walking their dogs with them etc...walks, having tea..that kind of thing. The idea of sleeping over would come later or not at all. We now have respite with sleeping over from his care company which for him is a much bigger thing. He has particular likes/dislikes/unhealthy coping behaviours - not easy. I guess you get paid for participating in Shared Lives and get more money for overnight - that this is the problem. I think you need to see that it's a big deal for families and SS who would want to see how you cope during the day first.

Hi, which council said no to you.

how are we supposed to to gain experience

they want us to do the day support to build on our experience

I get you’re disappointed but the answer is pretty clear.