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25
October
2013
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12:30
Europe/London

Shared Lives Week to show how “Home” can be at the heart of Adult Care

  • UK wide Shared Lives week will promote carers that share their homes, community and family Life
  • Shared Lives offers savings of £26,000 per arrangement, per year to cash strapped councils
  • Shared Lives week 2013 is start of a plan to double the number of users of this innovative model of care

The second Annual Shared Lives week supported by Simplyhealth kicks off today (Saturday 19th October) with events country-wide to promote and illustrate the shared lives model of care, and the benefits it brings to families, people who use the services, and local authority budgets.

Shared Lives offers an alternative to home care and care homes for disabled adults and older people, where an individual will share home, community and family life with a Shared Lives carer. Around 15,000 people nationally currently use a Shared Lives arrangement, and there are schemes in most local authority areas.

People living in Shared Lives households say they feel less isolated, make real friendships and take more part in community life. Independent research shows that on average, a Shared Lives arrangement will save a local authority £26,000 per year compared with other forms of long term care.

Events will be happening across the UK, with carers and people who use our services doing what they can to tell their stories and raise awareness.One scheme in Shropshire will be using a town crier to get the message across, whilst other areas will be launching leaflet and poster campaigns to promote Shared Lives.

At a time when local authority budgets are being cut, and care needs increasing, it is ever more important that we look at alternative forms of care that provide good lives in good places at the same time as offering much needed savings. The shared lives model of care is good for Shared Lives carers, good for people who use our services, and ultimately good for council taxpayers too. Shared Lives Week gives us the opportunity to raise the profile of the great work that everyone involved with Shared Lives does – and can kickstart our campaign to double the number of people in Shared Lives arrangements. I am particularly delighted that the Minister for Adult Care, Norman Lamb MP, and his opposition shadow, Liz Kendall MP, are taking a close interest by speaking at our UK conference this week on the possibilities and potential of Shared Lives.
Alex Fox, CEO of Shared Lives Plus

Simplyhealth is supporting Shared Lives Plus over the next two years by providing funds to allow them to employ additional support which will help drive national awareness of the organisation. Simplyhealth’s donation will fund a Shared Lives Carer Support Officer who will provide support to the organisations 4,300 carers across the UK as well as a specialist advisor who will work with the existing Shared Lives Plus team to offer support and advice on financial matters amongst other issues. In addition, Simplyhealth will also be providing funding for a number of financial grants during in 2013 and 2014.

Shared Lives Week runs from 19th – 27th October 2013

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Notes to Editors

For more information, or to  arrange an interview, please contact Tim Moore tim@sharedlivesplus.org.uk (07881 521269) or Tris Brown on tris@sharedlivesplus.org.uk (07810 528477)

Independent research to support the average £26,000 saving can be found here http://www.sharedlivesplus.org.uk/social-finance

About Simplyhealth

  • We became Simplyhealth in 2009 after bringing together HSA, BCWA, LHF, HealthSure, Totally Active, our family of health companies have joined together over the last ten years to form Simplyhealth
  • In December 2011, we acquired Denplan Limited, the UK's leading dental payment plan specialist
  • We’ve been providing healthcare solutions for 140 years, dedicated to serving our customers and patients through a variety of cash plans, dental plans, private medical insurance, self funded health plans and mobility and living aids
  • Simplyhealth is a trading name of Simplyhealth Access, which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority
  • Simplyhealth as it stands today, now covers nearly four million people with health plans (more than any other company) and helps 20,000 companies with their employees’ health
  • Simplyhealth is committed to making a positive impact on its communities. Each year, we donate over £1 million to health related charities and causes
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