We are a growing Shared Lives Scheme building an innovative service across Dudley and Wolverhampton
03/12/2025
Reflecting on a Fantastic Morning with Shared Lives Plus
Yesterday, we had an inspiring session with Mary from Shared Lives Plus, exploring our involvement in an exciting new project aimed at promoting, developing, and innovating the Shared Lives model for care leavers.
This initiative is all about creating more opportunities for young people leaving care to experience the stability, belonging, and support that Shared Lives can offer.
A special highlight was having our Ambassador, Katie, with us. Katie not only represents our scheme locally but also champions the voices of young people nationally—ensuring their experiences and perspectives shape the future of care.
We’re proud to be part of this collaborative effort and can’t wait to see the positive impact it will have.
Shared Lives Plus Community
27/11/2025
🎳 Bowling Fun & New Connections! 🎳
This week’s bowling session in Wolverhampton was so much fun! The Shared Lives Team, Carers and people supported came together, sharing laughs, and building friendships that will last well beyond the lanes.
It was amazing to see everyone connecting, supporting each other, and even starting to make exciting plans for 2026!
Here’s to more shared experiences, stronger bonds, and a fantastic year ahead! 💫
What plans are you most excited about for next year? Drop them in the comments! 👇
25/11/2025
🌱 At Ashfield Gardens, our social farm and gardens in Stourbridge, the people we support take part in our Nature-Based Therapies and Skills programme of activities.
From growing fruit and vegetables to caring for animals, and from food preparation with homegrown ingredients to being active outdoors, every activity reconnects people with nature while building independence, wellbeing and new skills.
Whether it’s digging in the soil, walking our goats, or harvesting produce, these everyday experiences create opportunities to live active, healthy, fulfilling lives — with nature at the heart. 🌿
24/11/2025
Behind every incredible Shared Lives carer is our dedicated team of Area Coordinator's.
From regular check-ins to 24/7 advice, personalised guidance, and practical resources—we’re here to ensure our carers feel confident, supported and truly valued.
Whether it’s navigating new arrangements, connecting with local networks, or just having someone to talk to—we’ve got their back. Because when carers thrive, so do the people they support.
📞 Thinking of becoming a Shared Lives carer? Let’s chat.
21/11/2025
Looking forward to next week! 🎳
Camphill Village Trust Shared Lives are heading to Wolverhampton for a fun bowling social group next week. This will be the first of our new social group in the area, and we are excited to see where it takes us into the New Year!
We are looking forward to having chance to relax, connect, and have fun. Can’t wait to see everyone there and share some laughs (and maybe a few strikes)!
19/11/2025
Today is International Men’s Day and we’re shining a light on men’s health and wellbeing,
Men’s mental health matters:
75% of UK suicides are men
50% have struggled with mental health, but fewer than half seek help
Stigma is still strong—65% of employees agree
If you or someone you know needs urgent help:
📞 Call 999 or go to A&E if safe
📞 Call 111 for urgent support
You can also explore these great resources:
👉 ANDYSMANCLUB – Free peer support groups
👉 Men Who Talk – Online groups & workshops
👉 Men’s Minds Matter – Su***de prevention
👉 Mentell – Safe spaces for men
👉 HiS Charity – Holistic mental health support
👉 Tough To Talk – Breaking stigma
Let’s keep the conversation going. It’s okay to talk. 💬
18/11/2025
🧠💪 Men Who Care – We Need You! 💬🏡
Are you looking for a fresh start in your career? Do you have experience in health, social care, or simply a big heart and a desire to make a difference?
Become a Shared Lives Carer – a rewarding role where you support someone with care needs by welcoming them into your home and helping them live life to the fullest.
👨👦 Whether you're a retired nurse, a support worker, or someone who's just great with people, this could be the change you've been waiting for.
✅ Flexible and paid ✅ Full training and ongoing support ✅ Make a real impact in your community
📣 We're especially calling on men to step forward – your life experience, empathy, and resilience are needed more than ever.
👉 Learn more and contact us today... 01384 441505
17/11/2025
🌟 New Video Alert! 🌟
We’re excited to share an inspiring new video from Shared Lives Plus, showcasing the incredible impact of becoming a Shared Lives carer.
The video showcases real stories about how carers have transformed lives — not just for the young people they support, but for themselves too. 💙
If you’ve ever wondered what difference you could make, this is your chance to see it in action.
👉 Watch the video now and discover how Shared Lives changes lives for the better.
Become a Shared Lives carer! Our Shared Lives for Young People Leaving Care Programme supports care-experienced young people with a learning disability, auti...
14/11/2025
🚨 Dudley Residents — This One’s for You! 🚨
Are you looking for a rewarding job that lets you work from home AND make a real difference in someone’s life?
Join the incredible world of Shared Lives 💙
We’re on the lookout for compassionate people in Dudley to become Shared Lives carers — offering support, stability, and friendship to care-experienced young people with learning disabilities, autism, or mental health challenges.
✅ Work from home
✅ Flexible and fulfilling
✅ Change lives — including your own
You don’t need formal qualifications — just a big heart and a safe, welcoming home. Full training and support provided.
👉 Ready to make a difference? Drop us a message or visit our website to learn more.
Today we hosted an information session for foster carers interested in learning more about Shared Lives as a potential option for supporting young people beyond the age of 18.
It was a productive and engaging session, with thoughtful discussion around how Shared Lives can offer continuity and a supportive environment during the transition to adulthood. The shared experiences and questions raised highlighted a strong interest in exploring new ways to provide a smooth transition, resulting in meaningful, person-centred support.
Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed. We look forward to continuing the conversation and supporting carers in exploring Shared Lives further.
12/11/2025
🌟 Panel Success! 🌟
👏 We're really pleased to welcome another newly approved Shared Lives Carer to our network following this week's Independent Panel.
Simon will be supporting a young person as they transition from leaving care into adulthood—providing a stable, nurturing home and the kind of personalised support that makes Shared Lives so special.
A huge thank you to everyone involved in the panel process and to Simon for choosing to make a difference in a young person’s life.
11/11/2025
We’re hosting an informal drop-in session at our Stourbridge office next Thursday, 13th November from 9.30a.m, to talk about Shared Lives as an option for young people leaving care at 18.
We know that many foster carers are keen to understand the transition from fostering to adulthood but can receive limited or unclear information about the route into Shared Lives.
You’ll have the chance to speak with our team and other foster carers, learn more about Shared Lives, and explore the different routes into adult social care.
If you are interested in joining, please drop a comment below, or send an email to sharedlives@cvt.org.uk
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Contact The Practice
Send a message to Camphill Village Trust Shared Lives:
As a starting point, Shared Lives can be described as a little bit like ‘foster care for adults who have additional and/or complex needs’…. but it’s so much more than that, as we enable the person to make their own choices in life, take control and maximise their independence. The person is carefully matched to stay with specially trained Shared Lives Carers who provide individual support to develop practical skills, encourage new social networks, build self-esteem and lead the same ordinary life at the heart of the community just like you and me. When someone comes to stay with the Shared Lives Carer(s) on either a Live-In, Short-Break or Day-Care basis, we call this an ‘Arrangement’. There is a maximum of up to three people living/staying within a household at any one time.
In Shared Lives, the goal is for everyone to feel a sense of belonging, have opportunity to be valued as part of family life and be actively involved with the local community. We support anybody from the age of 18 years old, though we will start preparatory work with young adults who are making the transition to Adult Services. Whilst Shared Lives is traditionally a service for people with learning disabilities, the team have experience of setting up Arrangements for people with mental ill health, early-on-set dementia, hospital discharges, older people, physical disabilities, people on the Autistic Spectrum and those with other complex support needs.
Currently, there are approximately 12,000 adults being supported by around 9,000 Carers in Shared Lives Arrangements across England and the sector has grown by 30% over the last few years. When living in a Shared Lives Arrangement, people are known to lead longer, healthier and happier lives, which provides a real alternative to more traditional settings such as hospital or residential care. 96% of all Shared Lives Schemes inspected by the Care Quality Commission are rated as Good or Outstanding and the model has the lowest amount of Safeguarding incidents in comparison to all other forms of Adult Social Care. On average, placing someone in a Shared Lives Arrangement, can save Local Authorities/NHS up to £26K annually, in comparison to other forms of long-term care.
To become a Shared Lives Carer, you don’t need any qualifications or experience of working in the care industry (though it can help), you just need the right values, dedication…and of course a spare room!!! You should be over 21 years of age, be able to read and write English and be committed to undertaking training and supervision for the continued development of your role. Shared Lives Carers are not paid by the hour, there is no ‘clocking on and clocking off’ when you are supporting someone from within your own home, but it’s a hugely rewarding role!!! Shared Lives Carers have self-employed status and qualify for tax relief from HMRC. You are paid according to the level of support you provide, which can sometimes include personal care, often between £370-£560 per week. You can even continue with your current employment and be a Shared Lives Carer at the same time.
You will need to complete an Enhanced DBS Check, self-declaration of health, as well as provide employer/personal references and relevant insurance cover. The Scheme worker will then write an assessment report that will include your life history, employment career and identify your values and motivations for wanting to become a Carer. We will provide you with a comprehensive Induction programme, where groups discussions will focus on roles and responsibilities, ethical dilemmas, safeguarding and communication skills, and medication administration etc. An Independent Panel made up of local people with an interest in Shared Lives will interview you and then approve your status as a Carer. From start to finish, the whole process takes between 3-6 months.
When we match someone to stay with a Shared Lives Carer, we sometimes have to consider, but not always necessarily so, cultural/religious differences, age, gender, complexity of support needs, daily routines, skillset and experience of the Shared Lives Carer, home location, pets, interests and extended family/social networks. You may have to wait a little while whilst we find the right match, as we are not in the business of putting square pegs in round holes. We are sure you appreciate that when we bring people together, we need to check everybody is happy first, as this underpins the longevity and success of each Arrangement. Being part of a wider charity means there is also opportunity to access all the activities at our Stourbridge Community as well as connect to an already established network of support.
If you are interested in finding out more about becoming a Carer with CVT Shared Lives, then visit our website at: www.cvt.org.uk/sharedlives and give us a call on 01384 441 505 or follow us on twitter: @CVTSharedLives
