Shared Lives: How It Works and Who Regulates It

Shared Lives is the care model most people have never heard of. An adult who needs support moves in with, or regularly visits, an approved carer and shares their family life. Shared Lives Plus describes it as a regulated community-based accommodation and care and support model that provides an anchor in a carer's home.

It sits in an odd regulatory position that is worth understanding before you apply, because it looks like fostering and is regulated like a care service.

Who regulates it, and what exactly is regulated

All four UK nations regulate Shared Lives, each through its adult care regulator rather than its children's one: CQC in England, the Care Inspectorate in Scotland, Care Inspectorate Wales in Wales, and RQIA in Northern Ireland.

It is the scheme that is regulated, not you. Nothing we could find says an individual Shared Lives carer is registered with CQC in their own right. The scheme — usually run by a council or a voluntary sector organisation — holds the registration and is inspected, and your obligation is to meet the standards the scheme is held to. One council puts it exactly that way: it has a responsibility to make sure you meet the CQC standards for Shared Lives placements.

That is the structural difference from fostering. A fostering service is regulated by Ofsted in England; a Shared Lives scheme by CQC. Shared Lives Plus is explicit that a foster carer who moves to a Staying Put-type arrangement with no one under 18 in the household ceases to be a foster carer and is no longer regulated by Ofsted.

One thing we could not establish: which CQC regulated activity Shared Lives schemes register under. No source we read names it. If that matters to you — and it does if you are setting up a scheme rather than joining one — check a specific scheme's CQC register entry rather than relying on a general description.

How it differs from fostering and from a care home

From fostering, Shared Lives Plus draws the distinction simply: it is like fostering in that it is individualised care and support in the carer's home, and "the biggest difference is that the supported person is an adult and has choice and control over their life." That is not a soft point. It changes the legal basis of the arrangement, the eligibility route, the regulator and the power balance in the household.

From residential care, one council describes it as an alternative to residential care offering person-centred support in a family-based environment.

From supported living the difference is the household: supported living means the person has their own tenancy with support brought in, where Shared Lives means joining someone else's home. None of the sources we read drew that comparison directly, which is itself telling about how little the model is explained.

Who it serves, and in what form

Traditionally a service for adults with a learning disability, it now spans physical disabilities, mental health, dementia and end of life support, and young people leaving care. In Scotland and England young people can access Shared Lives from the age of 16.

Three arrangement types run in practice: long-term, where the person lives with you; short breaks or respite, typically overnight stays; and day support, which can include evenings and weekends.

Getting approved

The process resembles fostering assessment more than a job application. Across the schemes we looked at it involves an application pack rather than a formal interview, with regular visits to your home or video calls to complete the assessment. Expect an employment reference, a personal reference, a landlord or mortgage provider reference, a health check, a DBS check and a health and safety check of your property. Some schemes arrange a free fire safety inspection.

One scheme assesses against 15 care standards using one-to-one meetings, observations, role play or simulation, and completed workbooks. Approval is then by a panel of professionals, and applicants are generally invited to attend.

On eligibility, previous experience in health and social care is described as helpful or desirable but not essential. You need to be at least 18, a full-time UK resident or have leave to remain, and have a good-sized spare bedroom. A relevant criminal conviction bars applicants.

Timescales are the weakest-documented part. Shared Lives Plus gives at least three months for a foster carer transitioning into the model, and recommends starting twelve months before a young person turns 18. One council gives six to eight weeks from initial meeting to a decision about a placement starting — but that is matching, not approval. No source we read gave a straight approval timescale, so ask your scheme directly.

Training: there is no mandated qualification

No source we checked requires a named qualification, and none mentions a diploma. What exists instead is a mandatory training list set by each scheme, and those lists differ.

One council's required list includes the Care Certificate, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, diet and nutrition, emergency aid, infection prevention and control, information security and data protection, health and safety, manual handling, medication, the Mental Capacity Act, principles of care and safeguarding adults. Another council's list covers first aid, medication awareness, food safety and nutrition, COSHH, mental capacity, moving and assisting and safeguarding adults — and does not mention the Care Certificate at all.

So the honest answer to "what training will I need" is: ask your scheme, because it is scheme policy rather than national requirement. Compare that with foster care, where the Training, Support and Development Standards set a national framework with a deadline. Shared Lives has no equivalent.

Pay, status and tax

Carers are self-employed and receive a fee rather than a salary, usually funded by the local council or the NHS.

The national structure has three elements: a care and support fee, an accommodation contribution and a contribution to bills. Shared Lives Plus says most carers receive a similar amount to fostering, but that it varies.

We are not going to print weekly rates, and the reason is instructive. Rates are set locally, typically through a banding tool with levels such as low, medium, high and complex. When we checked one council's published page it carried two different sets of rates for the same passage, and a commercial advice site quoted a national range attributed to Shared Lives Plus that we could not find on Shared Lives Plus's own pages. Get your figure from your own scheme in writing.

On tax, carers are officially recognised by HMRC and income is treated in a similar way to foster carers, through Qualifying Care Relief. We are deliberately giving no thresholds or amounts here — that is a current HMRC figure and it should come from the HMRC helpsheet, not from an article.

Ongoing support and review

You get an allocated scheme worker, a role Shared Lives Plus compares to a supervising social worker, who stays in regular contact and completes your annual reviews. One scheme visits every three months and runs regular carer group meetings, and offers up to 28 days of paid break a year — again, local policy.

Matching is a two-way process. Expect a match meeting with the person, their social care assessor and possibly family, then trial visits, with the final decision on whether to proceed resting with you as the carer. Quality of care is then monitored and reviewed against the regulator's standards. Public liability insurance typically comes through the scheme or through Shared Lives Plus membership.

If you are weighing this across borders, the regulator changes but the model does not — our guide to RQIA in Northern Ireland covers the regulatory side there. What we could not find anywhere is a UK-wide count of Shared Lives carers or arrangements, or any published detail on approval, training, pay or tax outside England.