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Once Essex Shared Lives learn of a new referral, a few steps need to be followed to onboard the adult in the scheme:

  1. Social Worker completes Care Needs Assessment and discusses options with the person with support needs
  2. Social writes Information for Service Provider (ISP) and send to Service Placement Team (SPT)
  3. SPT sends it through to Essex Shared Lives
  4. Essex Shared Lives team decide whether it is a suitable referral
  5. If it is a suitable referral, the Essex Shared Lives team will communicate the decision to SPT and the Social Worker
  6. Social Worker get funds agreed at a forum with an independent panel and sends the Information for Service Provider (ISP) to Service Placement Team (SPT).
  7. The Service Placement Team then send a Purchase Order to Essex Shared Lives
  8. Licences and Agreements are issued and regular support, monitoring of placement and respite breaks are arranged.

Essex Shared Lives scheme recognises the importance of proper information in making informed decisions.  Our referral procedure aims to be prompt, thorough and fair to everyone concerned.  We will provide information about Essex Shared Lives and ask for information about the person referred to the service that is based on their assessed needs and wishes.  We will tell the person in as short a time as possible whether we can meet their needs and if not, we will tell them the reasons why.

How will this happen?

We will start by giving the person clear information about what kinds of accommodation and/or care and support we provide, and which people can make use of this.  This will be included in our Statement of Purpose and our Service Guide.  We will give this and other useful information to the person and/or the person’s family or representative and to the person’s Care Manager / Social worker referring the person.  The information will be written in plain English or another language or format that the person can easily understand, or we may use a DVD or a short film or some other way of communicating if the person prefers.

The referral process should include the following:

  • Written information about the needs of the person being referred to the Shared Lives scheme. We will not be able to proceed with a referral until we have this. This could be a local authority community care assessment or a self-assessment if the person’s local authority / service commissioner has agreed a process for this. If the person does not already have an assessment of their own needs, we will arrange for a suitably qualified person to discuss and agree this with them and/or their representative. If we need any specialist information, such as nursing or occupational health, we will ask the persons permission and work with the person and/or their representative to plan for this too.
  • A visit to the person and their family, if the person wishes, so that we can explain about Shared Lives, they can ask questions and so that we can also get to know more about the person. A visit will be at the person’s home, our office or somewhere else if the person prefers.
  • If the person, and/or their family, wish to continue with the application, then further discussions would take place to obtain more information about the person’s needs and wishes.
  • We will use all this information and the information we already have about our Shared Lives Hosts to decide whether we have any Shared Lives Hosts who can meet the person’s needs. This is known as the matching process.  If we do have Shared Lives Hosts that we think the person will like and who can meet the person’s needs, we will arrange for the person to meet the Shared Lives Hosts to help them decide whether they want to go ahead with an arrangement.
  • If:
    • we do not provide the kind of accommodation or care or support the person is looking for
    • or the person does not fit the criteria for our service
    • or we cannot find any suitable Shared Lives Hosts

we will tell the person and their Care Manager / Social Worker who referred them as soon as possible and we will also explain the reason/s for this in writing.

It is important that we know about a person’s physical, social, emotional and cultural needs and their hopes and wishes, so that we can meet these within the Essex Shared Lives scheme.

How will this happen?

Before making a Shared Lives arrangement, we will always ask for a written assessment of the person’s needs and their aspirations. This can be a local authority community care assessment or a self-assessment if the person’s local authority has agreed a process for this. The person’s Social Worker or other appropriate professional will have discussed this with the person before and it will cover things like the person’s:

  • accommodation and personal support needs
  • community, family and social contacts
  • education, training, and/or occupation
  • leisure activities
  • cultural and faith needs
  • physical and mental health care
  • any special equipment or treatment or rehabilitation the person requires
  • how the person communicates
  • having adequate money
  • whether there are particular risks in the person’s day-to-day life, and how these can be managed
  • What changes or wishes the person has for the future.

If the person does not already have an up-to-date assessment of their needs, then we will ask a suitably qualified person to discuss these areas with the person and/or the person’s representative, and then to let us know about the needs they have agreed together.

We will use this information to find Shared Lives Hosts who may be able to meet these needs.  If we find Shared Lives Hosts who are suitable for the person, we will share this information with them so that they can also think about providing a service for the person, and whether they will be able to meet the person’s needs.  The Shared Lives worker will give the person information about the Shared Lives Host too, so they can also think about whether that arrangement would be right for them.  This process is called matching.

If the arrangement goes ahead (after all the necessary introductions, visits, etc.) the Shared Lives Host will be given a copy of the person’s needs assessment, or a summary of this, to keep for as long as the arrangement continues.  Another copy will be stored at the office, and we will also make sure that the person has been given a copy too.

The person’s assessment of needs will be the starting point for planning the details of the person’s Shared Lives arrangement.  The plan will be agreed between the person and/or the person’s representative, the Shared Lives Host and the Shared Lives worker, and is called a Service User Plan.

The plan and the arrangement will be reviewed regularly (at least once every year), which means that if the person’s needs or wishes change over time the plan and/or the arrangement can be changed too.

Last updated: 01/02/2022
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