Certification - Shared Lives

Shared Lives is a national idea rolled out to Local Authorities to encourage citizens to help share the lives of vulnerable adults. It is an excellent scheme that encourages people within communities to help vulnerable adults and get paid, while saving the state significant sums of money.

Your Local Authority may well request a Medical Referee report on a patient to assess their suitability to be a "shared lives carer".

Our advice is that any Local Authority requesting an opinion should be clear about the information it is seeking (responsibilities of the role including physical, emotional, psychological and ethical) and should expect to pay for the report or better still, employ an appropriately qualified occupational health assessor to make this judgment.

If a detailed request is not made, you may wish to return the forms with "I know of no reason why this person should not be involved with the Shared Lives Scheme" if appropriate – charging the patient or not as you wish.

For more information about the scheme, click here.