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Our History
NAAPS (originally the National Association of Adult Placement Schemes) was launched
on 30 June 1992 as the umbrella body for adult placement. NAAPS offered membership to Adult Placement Scheme workers and Carers as well
as people supported through adult placement.
As the years progressed adult placement became increasingly tightly defined and
services that did not quite fit the adult placement definition moved across to
become associate members of NAAPS. The number of associate members stood at nearly
700 in 2003 but the following years saw a steady decline in membership as the
barriers created by inappropriate legislation, regulation and commissioning practice
increased and services closed.
These very small services had no national representative body other than NAAPS
and in 2007 adult placement members agreed to extend full membership rights to
the whole range of very small community based services that shared adult placement
values and ethos.
In February 2008, the membership decided that the words ‘adult placement’ should
be replaced with the term ‘Shared Lives’.
Homeshare is the mirror image of Shared Lives and NAAPS has been involved since
2005 in projects designed to develop and disseminate good practice in Homeshare
and promote the establishment of Homeshare programmes across England. There is
no representative body for Homeshare in the UK and in 2007 NAAPS members also
agreed to extend full membership rights to those involved in Homeshare and in
particular to those managing Homeshare Programmes.
The new membership structure for NAAPS comes into effect on 1 April 2008.