Health and social work services

Tender description

Scottish Borders Health and Social Care Partnership’s Learning Disability Service (LDS) intends to develop a local shared lives scheme as part of their commitment to offering a variety of accommodation and support arrangements to the people they support as per the LDS Strategic Commissioning Plan (2016-19). Shared Lives is a regulated form of social care which has historically been used primarily for people with learning disabilities. In Shared Lives, an adult who needs support or accommodation is matched with an approved Shared Lives carer, who supports and includes the individual in their family and community life. Shared Lives can provide long term live in, short breaks and day support options for the local population. While Shared Lives has historically primarily supported people with learning disabilities in long term arrangements, it has diversified across the UK to support other groups including: older people, people living with dementia, people with mental ill health, young people in transition, women fleeing domestic abuse, parents with learning disabilities and as a home from hospital alternative. In the short term, the focus will be on the development of a new service for people with a learning disability identified as their primary support need. It is the intention of Scottish Borders Council (the Council) to commission this new service through a third party organisation, therefore the Council would like to measure the level of interest from providers who would be interested in developing a service within the Borders. Although the service will predominantly be to support people with a learning disability, the Council will consider providers who have experience of supporting other groups.