What next for Shared Lives? Family-based support as a potential option for older people

With an ageing population and limited resources the challenge for policy makers and practitioners is how best to provide for the care and support needs of older people. This article draws on findings from two studies, a scoping study of the personalisation of care services and another which aimed to generate evidence about the potential use of family-based support schemes (Shared Lives, SL) for certain groups of older people. Forty-three schemes participated in a survey to gather information about services provided and the extent to which this included older people and their carers, and six staffs were interviewed across two schemes about issues for expanding provision for older people in their local areas. It was evident that SL schemes were already supporting a number of older people and there was support for expansion from both schemes and local authorities. Adequate resources, awareness raising, management commitment, and a pool of suitable carers would be needed to support any expansion effort. There is also still a need for SL to be more widely known and understood by care managers if it is to be considered part of mainstream provision for older people

Implementation of a community-based approach to dementia care in England: Understanding the experiences of staff

Given the increasing numbers of people living with dementia it is imperative that new, practical solutions are found to the issues faced by this group of people and their families. This article draws on findings from a qualitative study which explored the implementation of a community-based project to support people living with dementia in one local area in England. This approach has different names, and in the United Kingdom it is known as Shared Lives or adult placement, which would be most comparable to family care in Europe, and adult foster care in the United States. Interviews were conducted with 14 staff connected to the Shared Lives project. Interview data were coded using the normalisation process theory constructs of coherence, cognitive participation and collective action. Supportive program factors identified were a dedicated staff member and resources, and the availability of specialist knowledge and skills. Detriments to program success included: a lack of understanding about the service, perceptions it was a poor fit with existing practice, and wider organizational issues that impacted negatively on the normalization of the intervention. Suggestions for future research are made that go beyond staff opinions, stressing the importance of using a wider range of stakeholders and incorporating measurement of outcomes for people using the service

Operationalising desistance through personalisation

This article reports on the early stages of a project to develop a model of offender rehabilitation that operationalises the concept of desistance. The concept of desistance is influential but operationalising it remains a challenge. The aim of this article is to assess whether personalisation of offender rehabilitation has potential as a mechanism for operationalising the concept of desistance. We identify learning from the design and implementation of personalisation in social care, but challenges include the roll out of personal budgets, developing a local market to support consumer choice and the limited evidence base on the effectiveness of personalisation. We specify a project to pilot personalisation in the English probation sector that tests concepts relating both to the design and commissioning of personalised services, including community capacity building to support the supply of personalised services at the local or even micro level. A project evaluation design is also outlined