COG 48/2013

Carer Development Briefing Paper

This briefing paper updates on the Carers Council developments within the Trust.

Carer Council

  1. Background: Carer involvement is fundamental to the effective running and governing of its services. The Carers’ Council is one important formal approach that ensures the carers’ collective voice reaches right to the heart of the organisation. A consultation event was held in September 2012 where it was agreed to: establish a Carers Council; for the Council to agree and monitor three priorities, and ensure membership is representative of the diversity of carers.
  1. Purpose:The Carers Council will provide the Trust with a carer perspective on all aspects of its current and projected activity. The Council will coordinate the interests of carers and promote organisational change and service developments, whilst monitoring how carer experience has improved over time. The Carer Council will hold the Trust to account for carer developments and use the carer metrics to monitor progress.
  1. Carer Metrics

The Carer Council debated which areas they wished to monitor and chose three about carer experience. These were adopted as the Carer Council metrics, to be reported on quarterly:

Measure / Method / Timeframe
Identifying Carers
Service Lines will improve staff performance in identitying carers, using the newly implemented Carer Activity Record on Jade.
Measure Quarterly
Carer Support and assessment
Service Lines will complete Carer Focus Groups to ask carers ‘whether they feel supported by CNWL staff and do they know how to access support in a crisis?’
Carer assessments will be monitored to report on the uptake of assessments. / Twice a year
Quarterly reporting
Service Lines with develop and provide appropriate information about services, what to expect and contact numbers for teams. / End Q1 2013/14
Carer training will be reviewed and the training portfolio developed to meet identified needs of carers, and made available via Recovery College. / Training feedback / Reviews
Staff Training
Carer Lead to map training available for staff. Co-develop and produce carer training with Recovery College to enhance staff understanding of the impact of caring / Training feedback
Twice yearly reviews
  1. Membership

Molly Bandah, (Chair)Carer Council, Carer Governor

Janet Seale, Carer Governor

Horton Kennedy, Carer Governor

Kath Fraser-Jackson, Brent (Carers Action)

Anne Smith, Hillingdon (Community Recovery)

Mr U Hla Htay, Carers UK Ambassador (OPHA)

Manek Buhariwalla,Brent (Rehabilitation)

Veronica Kamerling (Eating Disorders)

Julia Couchman, Westminster (Dual Diagnosis)

Thomas Day, Brent (Community Recovery)

Jarka Hinksman, Carer(Westminster Carers Action)

Carer organisation representatives include:Carers Network, Harrow Young Carers, Hillingdon Rethink, Midaye Somali Network,Camden Carers (community health) and Milton Keynes Carers

CNWL representatives include: Robyn Doran, Catherine Knights, Angela Halsted, Barbara North (Hillingdon Community Health) and Beth Lawrence (Milton Keynes).

  • Recruitment to the Carers Council from Service Lines (Addictions, CAMHS, Acute, Learning Disability and OC) is underway. Staff identified as carer champions have been asked to contact carers about becoming members of the Council. Priority is for Service Lines where carer representation is needed. Service Line managers have also been contacted to approach carers known to them.
  • Two Carers supporting someone accessing OPHA services have been contacted inviting them to join the Council.
  • Young Carers–current representation is from Harrow. Due recent changes to the Tri-borough Young Carer supportprovider, a new representative for the Tri-borough is being recruited.
  1. Meetings: To date the Council has held seven meetings. Council meetings being held every two months at Trust Headquarters. The Council discussed holding meetings at other venues, but as many members attending from across the Trust, Headquarters was viewed as easily accessible. This will be reviewed at the March 2014 meeting.
  1. Topics discussed have included:

a)Carer CQUIN - outcomes of Carer Focus Groups carried out as part of the CQUIN.

  • General information about services – Service Lines are developing information leaflets
  • Information of who to contact in a crisis – Urgent Advice Line & Carer Contact Cards
  • Carer Involvement – Service Lines running Carer Focus Groups 2013/14

b)Lancaster University Research Project – regular updates and Council invited to Stakeholder Group. Research update provided to the Council in November 2013.

c)Syena Skinner, Recovery College – development of courses for carers which will be co-designed and co-delivered with carers. The Recovery College is currently recruiting Peer Trainers and is due to return to the March 2014 meeting with an update on progress

d)Amynta Cardwell, Carer Film Project -the development of a training DVD called the ‘Carer Story’ for staff to understand the impact of caring. The DVD is currently being reviewed and will be shown at the January 2014 meeting.

e)A leaflet for family/friends on information sharing is being co-developed and co-produced with the members of the Carers Council. The workshop is due to take place end-January. The outcomes are expected to be a leaflet that can be provided to family members and friends on confidentiality and information sharing.

f)Updates based on the Carer Metrics have been provided to the Council. Each priority has been allocated to a meeting, with updates on the following priorities already presented: (1) Carer support and assessments; (2) Identifying carers and information sharing.

g)Local Authority Commissioners for services for carers have all been invited to the 2014 meetings. The Tri-borough representative is attending in January 2014 andthe Harrow representativeis to attend the meeting in March 2014.

November, 2013

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