FAMILIES across Oxfordshire who share their lives and homes with adults in need of social care were praised by inspectors.

The Shared Lives service in Oxfordshire has been running for more than 25 years. The service sees those in need of care sharing the home of Oxfordshire residents who have been trained and approved as ‘shared lives households’.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission set out to judge whether the service was safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led by speaking to the council, shared lives families and those receiving care. They rated the service ‘good’ across the board.

The service supports people across all client groups from 16 upwards and the oldest person the scheme has supported was 103.

There are usually around 120 people using the service at any one time - about 70 people live long term with Shared Lives Carers and  the remainder have short breaks or a few hours support during the day.

Training and vetting is undertaken very carefully before people/families qualify to become approved in the shared lives scheme.

Councillor Judith Heathcoat, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, said: “It is a delight that inspectors have drawn such positive conclusions in their report about this heart-warming service.

“When people think of social care for adults they think of care homes or carers going out to visit people in their own homes. I doubt many would think of an adult being placed in the home of a family who look after that person’s care needs even though they aren’t from their own family.

“There is a payment for people who become approved shared lives carers. However it is still a generous and selfless undertaking on the part of our people who take someone into their own households on a day to day basis. No doubt it is these very qualities that have led to the families making such a positive impression on the inspectors along with our own staff who manage the service.

“The warm words of those who receive the care speaks volumes. This story is a real success in Oxfordshire and I hope to see it go from strength to strength in building on this positive inspection report from the CQC.”

The inspection of the county council managed service took place in early October.