- Homecare service
Kirklees Shared Lives
Assessment report published 14 September 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Dates of Assessment: 3 August to 20 August 2026. We visited the office on 3 August 2026 and visited some people's homes on 5 August 2026. The service is a shared lives scheme. A shared lives scheme recruit, train and support self-employed shared lives carers who offer accommodation and support arrangements for people within their own family homes. This includes long term placements, short breaks and respite care.The service was registered to support people with a range of needs, including people with a learning disability and autistic people, who formed the majority of people using the service at the time of our assessment.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. At the time of our inspection, the service were supporting 15 people who received personal care.
Kirklees Shared Lives is a service which provides highly personalised, relationship-based care that enabled people to live fulfilling lives and achieve outcomes that were important to them. People benefited from living within family environments where they were treated with kindness, compassion and respect. Carers knew people exceptionally well and demonstrated a detailed understanding of their individual needs, preferences, aspirations and life histories.
The provider was particularly strong in assessing people's needs and matching them with carers who could meet their individual requirements and support them to achieve their goals. Matching arrangements were carefully planned and considered people's wishes, relationships, interests and long-term aspirations. This helped people develop meaningful relationships and experience a genuine sense of belonging within their Shared Lives households and communities.
People were supported to develop confidence, independence and life skills. We saw examples of people achieving significant outcomes, including securing employment, learning to travel independently, pursuing career ambitions, maintaining important relationships and progressing towards more independent living arrangements. Carers worked effectively with families, healthcare professionals and other agencies to ensure people received coordinated support and positive outcomes.
There was a strong culture of compassion, inclusion and commitment to improving people's lives. Carers spoke passionately about the people they supported and demonstrated a genuine commitment to helping them achieve their aspirations. Leaders had also introduced a number of improvements to strengthen assessment processes, matching arrangements and support for carers.
We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.
We found the provider was meeting the principles of Right support, right care, right culture. For example, they ensured people were able to make informed choices, promoted independence and were actively involved in the local community. Care was person-centred and tailored to people’s individual needs.
However, improvements were required in relation to medicines management and governance. Medicines were not always administered in line with prescribing instructions and medicines records were not always accurate or complete. We also found gaps in medicines-related documentation. Governance and auditing processes had not identified these issues, and oversight of specialist medicines training and competency assessments was not always effective.
The provider took immediate action in response to our findings and there was no evidence of harm to people. Further work is needed to strengthen medicines management, quality assurance systems and oversight arrangements.
People's experience of this service
As part of the assessment, we spoke with Shared Lives carers, family members and people to understand their experiences of the service. We also visited 2 Shared Lives households, met people using the service and their carers, and observed care and support being provided. We found people were being supported in line with the Right support, right care, right culture (RSRCRC) guidance.
Feedback was overwhelmingly positive about the impact Shared Lives had on people's lives. Family members and carers consistently described the support as person-centred, relationship-based and focused on helping people live fulfilling lives within a family environment. One family member told us their relative "benefits greatly from the family style care" and commented they "would be destroyed in a residential setting." Another said their relative "seems extremely happy with [his carers] and he loves them to pieces" and described having "zero concerns about his safety, happiness or care." A professional who had known 1 person for over 20 years told us they were now "a different person" and "have a voice", which they said was due to the family environment, increased choice and new experiences available through Shared Lives.
During our visits, we observed exceptionally kind, caring and compassionate interactions between people and their carers. People appeared relaxed, comfortable and happy within their homes and relationships with carers were warm, natural and respectful. It was evident carers knew people extremely well, including their routines, preferences, interests and communication styles. We saw people being supported to make choices about their day-to-day lives and participate in activities that were important to them.
One person spoke positively about living with their Shared Lives family, telling us they enjoyed spending time with friends, going bowling, playing pool, attending their day service and taking trips to Scarborough. Their home was clean, homely and personalised, with photographs and memorabilia from holidays and activities displayed throughout. They showed us their bedroom, which they had helped choose and personalise themselves, and was proud to be able to care for their own fish.
We also visited a person with highly complex health needs who had lived with their carers since childhood. The person was unable to verbally communicate; however, observations and discussions with carers demonstrated an exceptionally strong and trusting relationship. Carers spoke warmly about the person, referring to him as "our little boy" and describing him as part of their family. We observed a purpose-built environment that balanced specialist healthcare requirements with a warm, personalised and family-centred atmosphere. Photographs, sensory resources and shared family spaces reflected the person's importance within the household.
People were supported to maintain meaningful relationships and pursue interests important to them. We heard examples of people attending concerts, theatre shows, church services, day centres, social groups, holidays and community activities. Family members described people as being included within extended families across several generations, attending family celebrations and maintaining important friendships. One person described Shared Lives simply as "friends."
Carers consistently told us they felt well supported by the Shared Lives team. One carer said, "They are so friendly and if I have issues, they resolve them within the hour and back me up on everything." Another told us the service had "been amazing through this" when supporting them through a particularly difficult period in their personal life. Whilst some carers described historical challenges when transitioning between children's and adult services, they told us the Shared Lives team had worked hard to support them through these difficulties and advocated on their behalf when concerns arose.
Overall, feedback, observations and discussions demonstrated people experienced kind, compassionate and highly personalised support. People benefited from stable relationships, opportunities to achieve their goals and a genuine sense of belonging within their Shared Lives families and communities.