Prepared for Shared Lives Plus by Adrian Taylor, 2026-10-05. If you work there and would rather this page came down, say so and it comes down.

Shared Lives Plus: what the records show, and what we could do together

Adrian Taylor runs Charity in a Box, after twenty years working in charities and public services. About Adrian.

1. What you say, and where we read it

We read your website (Home - Shared Lives Plus) and your public channels.

“We help build communities where everyone lives a full life, regardless of the support they need.” (sharedlivesplus.org.uk)
“We do this by turning Shared Lives care, and Homeshare into thriving, mainstream options, with the right structures in place to support and guide people who want to share their lives and homes.” (sharedlivesplus.org.uk)

Your channels: youtube (read); x (closed to readers, not read); linkedin (closed to readers, not read); facebook (closed to readers, not read); instagram (closed to readers, not read).

2. Learning disability, from outside

223 charities are in the field by name or membership. 4,337 other charities say in their own latest report that they serve the same people.

Learning disability223 charities

Education/training2,577

Disability2,057

General charitable purposes1,530

Health1,307

Poverty relief991

Economic/community developme…971

Arts, culture, heritage, sci…816

Amateur sport549

Recreation521

Other purposes481

Disability services134

Young people107

Mental health75

Families with young children63

Local infrastructure61

Unpaid carers55

Young people with SEND51

Hospice care36

the fieldother charities naming its people, by register purposeof those, in another field on this site

Your members against the rest of the field

Measure	Members	Rest of the field
Fragile (share)	57%	28%
Government-dependent (share)	86%	32%
Reserves, months (median)	2.7	4.6
Income change over returns, % (median)	25	45.2
Report names the people (share)	100%	91%

Areas with little or no presence of your network, those with the most residents on low incomes first: Middlesbrough, Barking and Dagenham, Luton, Wolverhampton, Hartlepool, Walsall, Leicester, Peterborough, North East Lincolnshire, Redcar and Cleveland.

Researchers who studied how charities support people with dementia across the United Kingdom concluded:

“National and local data sources could help charities and commissioners begin to identify inequalities of provision.”
Mayrhofer, Goodman, Lafortune, Smeeton, Littlechild, Shora and Bunn, Voluntary Sector Review, first published 2021. Read the paper.

This page is that view for your field.

3. Sample campaign

Three posts in your voice from the figures above, each with its picture, ready to use. Every figure is from public information and no charity is named.

4,337 other charities serve learning disability's people

Bluesky / X: 4,337 charities outside learning disability say in their own reports that they serve the same people, against 223 in the field. Who they are, by what they do: https://www.charityinabox.uk/offers/shared-lives-plus.html

LinkedIn: 4,337 charities outside learning disability say in their own reports that they serve the same people, against 223 in the field. Who they are, by what they do: https://www.charityinabox.uk/offers/shared-lives-plus.html

Built from public information; no charity is named.

Download the picture (1200 by 630)

Bluesky / X: 57% of the network's members show under three months' reserves or three years of deficits, against 28% of the rest of the field. https://www.charityinabox.uk/offers/shared-lives-plus.html

LinkedIn: 57% of the network's members show under three months' reserves or three years of deficits, against 28% of the rest of the field. https://www.charityinabox.uk/offers/shared-lives-plus.html

Built from public information; no charity is named.

Download the picture (1200 by 630)

Bluesky / X: 43 of England's 152 county and unitary areas have little or no presence of the network for the people counted there; Middlesbrough, Barking and Dagenham, Luton first. https://www.charityinabox.uk/offers/shared-lives-plus.html

LinkedIn: 43 of England's 152 county and unitary areas have little or no presence of the network for the people counted there; Middlesbrough, Barking and Dagenham, Luton first. https://www.charityinabox.uk/offers/shared-lives-plus.html

Built from public information; no charity is named.

Download the picture (1200 by 630)

4. What working together looks like

	What you get	What it costs
The field report	What your field can't see from inside it: the page on our site, in full, refreshed each quarter.	£1,500, £4,000 or £9,000 a year, by your income band, never negotiated
The members' licence	Each of your members gets its own view: where it stands beside the rest of the field, what is thin in its area, who else is at work there.	included in the year
A campaign from the findings	Posts and pictures in your voice from your field's own figures, for your channels.	£250 a month

The first month: a twenty-minute call, your page in full within a week, and the first campaign posts the week after. Prices are set by income band from the public register and are the same for everyone in the band.

5. How to say yes

Reply to the email with a day that suits, call or text Adrian on the number in the email (it is on the Contact page too), or write to adrian@charityinabox.uk.

What this can and cannot say. These are counts over groups of charities and places from their own returns and reports and from national statistics. They do not rank any charity, name any, or say why. A thin field is one where the known network is thin for the people counted here, not one where nobody is helped.

Built from public information: the Charity Commission for England and Wales register and the annual reports charities file with it (OGL v3.0); Census 2021 (ONS); the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG); the Claimant Count (ONS). Privacy.