Shared Lives Plus: Supporting Families to Stay Together

Between 40-60% of parents with a learning disability have their children removed. The promise made clear that with the right support, parents with learning disabilities can and do become good parents.

In 2022, Shared Lives Plus received funding from The Promise Partnership Fund to help provide this support, and to enable more parents to realise their right to a family life.

In this model, parents maintain parental responsibility for their child. The role of the Shared Lives carer is not to care for the child, but to enable and support the parent. They provide ‘supported parenting’, not ‘substituted parenting’.

Through partnership with parents with learning disabilities, Shared Lives Schemes, leading academics, The Promise Scotland, and health and social care professionals in Scotland, this approach has helped support more families to stay together.

Read more about the Supported Parenting in Scotland model on the Shared Lives Plus website.

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Video: How the Shared Lives model works