“A LIFE OUTSIDE OF CARING”
Consultation about: A Joint Carers Commissioning and Development Strategy for Surrey 2015/16 to 2017/18
“CARERS look after family, partners or friends in need of help because they are ill, frail or have a disability. The care they provide is unpaid.” This includes adults looking after other adults, parent carers looking after disabled children and young carers under 18 years of age.
Carers in Surrey
There are just over 108,000 carers in Surrey who save the public purse nearly £1.6 billion a year. There are also about 14,000 young carers in the County. For more details about the numbers of carers in Surrey see the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment chapters on:
Carers:
And Young Carers:
A Carers Strategy
The Government’s national plan “Recognised, Valued and supported: Next steps for the Carers Strategy” (Nov 2010) highlighted a need to improve support for carers
An updated joint carers strategy for Surrey will describe how partner organisations from health,social care and carers organisations will work together to support carers. This includes the NHS and Surrey County Council working together to commission support for carers.
Our strategy needs to reflect the requirements of the National Carers Strategy which highlights the value of a whole family approach to supporting carers’ health and wellbeing. It needs to support the implementation of new rights for carers resulting from legislative change but most importantly to reflect the views of Surrey Carers
The Care Act: new rights for Carers
For the first time in legislation the Care Act 2014 puts Carers on an equal footing to the cared for and “equality of esteem for carers” is said by the Government to be a key underlying principle behind the legislation.
A Carer will be entitled to an assessment regardless of what care they are providing, their financial resources or whether the person in need of care is receiving services. This definition does not include any contracted care or care provided whilst volunteering. Under the new legislation Carers will need to be identified early in the assessment process and offered a carers assessment.
There are also new duties for the Local Authority to prevent the development of support needs for carers which will require the provision of a range of preventative services to support them. There are also enhanced responsibilities to take proactive steps to ensure the provision of information to Carers to assist them in their caring role.
Young Carers and whole family approaches
The Care Act and Children and Families Act also include new duties to identify and assess young carers(under 18). This includes new obligations to identify young carers, help protect them from inappropriate caring and support young carers in their transition to adulthood.
The Children and Families Act also strengthens the right of parent carers to an assessment of their own needs.
The Government’s Carers Strategy
The National Carers Strategy identifies five key priority areas
• carers will be respected as expert care partners and will have access to the integrated and personalised services they need to support them in their caring role;
• carers will be able to have a life of their own alongside their caring role;
• carers will be supported so that they are not forced into financial hardship by their caring role;
• carers will be supported to stay mentally and physically well and treated with dignity;
• children and young people will be protected from inappropriate caring and have the support they need to learn, develop and thrive, to enjoy positive childhoods.”
Support for carers
Surrey has a range of services for carers designed to help achieve these outcomes:
- Surrey Young Carers Support Service,
- Giving Carers a Voice
- Carer AwarenessTraining for those working with carers
- GP Carers Recognition Project
- Enabling Carers Training,
- Carers Back Care Services
- Carers and Employment Service
- Independent Local Carers Support Services
- Leisure Services for People with Learning Disabilities
- Mental Health Carers Support Service
- Benefits Advice for Carers
- Information including on line for those carers who use computers
Your views
We are asking carers for their views about support currently available and what future priorities should be. To let us know your views, please come to one of the consultation events, or complete the attached questionnaire. Tell us what you think works and what could be better.
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