Personalisation,
people and alternative
options
Name of presenter here
What is SharedLivesPlus ?
 The UK network for family-based and small-scale ways of
supporting adults.
 Members are Shared Lives carers and workers,
Homeshare programmes and micro-enterprises.
 SharedLivesPlus (formerly NAAPS UK) was established in
1992, has 4,000 primarily Shared Lives members and a
developing membership support for micro-enterprises.
 Seeks to support the members by,
 helping them to deliver
 providing information and guidance
 campaigning for and promoting small- scale ways of working.
What is Community Catalysts?
 A social enterprise and Community Interest
Company established by NAAPS in 2010
 Works to harness the talents and imaginations of
people and communities to provide high quality
small scale local care and support services
 Aims to make sure that people wherever they live
have a real choice of great services
Putting People in control of their own
services?
 Government commitment to extending personal care and
personal health budgets
 People buy support and services that help them to live their
lives
 Giving people control of the money is only half the answer
 Not everyone can or could employ their own staff
 People need alternatives - real choice of a wide range of
great local services and supports
Micro providers
 Are local people providing support and services to
other local people
 Work on a very small scale (5 or fewer workers –
paid or unpaid)
 Are independent of any larger organisation
What do micro providers offer people
who need support and services?
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An alternative to traditional care services
An alternative to employing own staff
Personal and tailored
Co-produced
Flexible and responsive to change
Help people to link to their community and build
social capital
 Help people to make their money go further
 Local people helping other local people
Supporting micro enterprise
Community Catalysts has developed a way to:
 Find
 Engage
 Support
 Connect
Local people running a micro enterprise or those
with a great idea
Have worked with approx 20 councils and
communities to help them support micro
enterprise in their area
People, possibilities and
alternatives
Insight for Carers
 Launched in July 2010 with a vision of creating a place
for carers in Dudley.
 Run by volunteers - primarily people with a learning
disability, older people and the unemployed
 Hosts Carers Surgeries, coffee mornings, Councillors
surgeries, drop in sessions and an IT information hub
 Now have approximately 100 customers per week
 Many carers are also users of services and many are
elderly. They often feel that their voices are unheard
 The cafe offers support, an informal social network,
and empowers volunteers to become less socially
isolated and gain valuable work experience
Pulp Friction CIC
 Jill Carter runs the enterprise with her
daughter Jessie, who has learning disabilities
 Jessie wanted to find work like her friends but
Jill felt it was unlikely that this would happen
so the pair set up Pulp Friction
 Pulp Friction run cycle powered smoothie bar
at community events in Nottinghamshire
 Work with young adults with learning
disabilities to develop their social,
independent and work readiness skills
Solo Support Services
 After an accident left him with a disability, Stephen
found himself a user of care and support services
 He was deeply unhappy with traditional services and
felt that a personal health budget might be a better
option
 Current rules prevent people from taking their personal
health budget as a DP (and to employ own staff)
 This inspired Nicola to set up her own organisation
called Solo Support Services
 Now registered with the CQC to provide personal care
in people’s own homes
 Also offer a DP support service to people who employ
their own personal assistants
Funky Fitness and Fun
 Set up by Carita who runs a drama group for
people with a learning disability and knew people
were looking for things to do with their friends
 Focuses on health and well being
 Members decide the activities which include
aerobics, kickboxing, tai chi, street dancing, belly
dancing and visits from a nutritionist and dentist
 One member Michael says ‘ ideas are not
restricted by management’ as in council
services!!
Ace of Spades
 New service idea from a couple who have a passion
for gardening and skills in delivering care services
 Will offer older and disabled people including those
with dementia support to garden
 Older people who used to love to care for their own
garden but can no longer do so
 Carers wanting to maintain their garden, enable their
loved one to keep active and gain some free time
 Residential care homes wanting to make better use
of garden maintenance budget whilst providing the
people who live in the home with a hobby and a real
interest in their surroundings
Sunshine Care
• A co-operative formed in 2008 by two
entrepreneurial women who had previously
worked as council homecare staff for the council.
• Wanted to support older people needing care at
home who are funding their own care or using a
personal budget
• Mission is :Putting People Before Profit
• Registered with the Care Quality Commission
• One of the first wave of Pathfinder mutuals
• Support other aspiring co-operatives
Why do alternatives need extra
support? - micro enterprises
 The way in which services are supported, regulated and
commissioned has forced many good micro services to
close
 It is unattractive or impossible for new and emerging
providers to enter the market
 Without support many existing providers will cease
trading and people with great ideas will never set up
their service
 Existing third sector, business and other infrastructure
organisations rarely work together, understand the
market, have the specialised knowledge or the remit to
provide the necessary tailored support
 90% of unsupported micro enterprises fail in the first
year
Business, Start Ups and Economic Churn: A literature review: NIESR: 2009
 About half of the micro enterprises surveyed operate
sub legally
MacGillivray, A., Conaty, P., and Wadhams, C. (2001) Low flying heroes: micro-social enterprise below the radar screen, London: New
Economics Foundation
 For every 100 people with a good idea only one
makes it
UnLtd July 2010
Why do alternatives need extra
support? –pooled budgets
The Housing Action Charity (HACT) and the new economics foundation
(nef) are supporting six collective purchasing pilots. Their initial report
‘Making the choice: early insights from up2us’ found that:
Such collective purchasing was extremely difficult to establish because:
• Personalisation and direct payments were underdeveloped
• No mechanisms for people to meet to identify collective needs
• Professionals’ knowledge of such options was poor
• Redundancies was causing further loss of experience
• Traditional services not meeting the wish to buy support to develop
social connections, experience new things and share with others.
• Existing providers too cautious in changing working culture/practice.
But with support...
In Oldham over three years:
 78 local would-be micro entrepreneurs were
supported.
 52% (36) successfully established flourishing
enterprises
 83% were still flourishing at the end of 3 years
 850 disabled and older people were receiving support
 140 jobs and 40 volunteering opportunities had been
created.
Things to consider
• People need support, advice and information in
order to turn good ideas into sustainable services
• Sunshine Care is an exception and establishing a
cooperative can be a real challenge
• Pooled budgets are much talked about but are
rare in practice
• If imaginative and quirky services are to emerge
they must be purchased by people (chicken and
egg).While ever people buy the same services
nothing different can emerge
“ If you do what you've always
done, you'll get what you've
always gotten”
Anthony Robbins
So... what are you going to do?
For further information
Contact:
simon.taylor@sharedlivesplus.org.uk
www.sharedlivesplus.org.uk
angela.catley@communitycatalysts.co.uk
helen.allen@communitycatalysts.co.uk
www.communitycatalysts.co.uk
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