The Flourish and Greenwich Shared Lives case study
Background
Greenwich Council, Royal Greenwich Shared Lives are part of the ‘Shared Lives Plus’ national organisation. Shared Lives is an arrangement where individuals and families provide accommodation and support for people who need some help to live the lives they choose. A Care Quality Commission graded ‘Good’ provider, Greenwich Shared Lives offer a range of services including, long term, short term, respite, and Flexible support (day support). Individuals who are referred to the service under the scheme are carefully matched with carers and families to enable their individual needs to be met. There are currently 32 active and support Carers who support 40 individuals across different settings, including in the community.
The Challenge
Before working with Flourish, Greenwich Shared Lives main approach to training relied heavily on face-to-face training sessions, with limited e-learning options. Registered Manager, Sacha Wheatley pinpointed that this approach presented some challenges, particular for Carers who supported individuals at home.
She said: “Some of our Carers are based further afield to Greenwich, which sometimes made it difficult to achieve full attendance at training. It was especially challenging for our Carers who support individuals at home.
Sacha noted that flexibility was one of the most attractive elements of Flourish’s service offer. The easy-to-use nature of Flourish’s Learning Management System (LMS) ‘Click Learning’, would enable them to provide multiple learning and development opportunities to all staff – regardless of their location.
Sacha said: “We were really keen to give our Carers a degree of flexibility and autonomy when completing training. Flourish were the obvious choice to help us deliver this.”
