Shared Lives Plus commissioned NDTi to conduct the evaluation of the Shared Lives intermediate care pilot programme. The main purpose was to look at the impact of the programme for people who are ready to leave hospital, but unable to return home, using data and findings from fieldwork to indicate what worked and what didn’t work for the pilot programme overall.
Shared Lives Intermediate Care is a pilot programme that aimed to develop Shared Lives as a ‘home from hospital’ service for older people. It offered short term support in a family home to people who are well enough to leave hospital but are unable to return to their home/live independently.
Intermediate care is a short-term intervention that aims to reduce the length of hospital stays and/or prevent the need for admission to hospital or long-term residential care by providing alternative support for a limited period.
The Shared Lives Intermediate Care (SLIC) pilot project ran from October 2016-March 2019. It initially involved seven sites across England (see below) who tested new ways of working to offer an intermediate care service and fed back on challenges and success:
Two sites withdrew from the pilot (see above) but they contributed learning to the evaluation.
The report includes qualitative data from fieldwork with people in Shared Lives arrangements, Shared Lives carers, health and social care professionals, plus end of project interviews and data gathered from the pilot sites.
The NDTi report can be found here.
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