Notes of ADASS Carers SE Leads Networkheld on:
Thursday 9 November 10.30am to 3pm at Carers UK, London.
In attendance: -
Carole Binns, Southampton City Council in the chair
John Bangs Surrey; Ruben Colton Bracknell Forrest; Ron Critcher Surrey; Rachael Graham Carers UK; Mark Greening, West Sussex CC; Emily Holzhausen Carers UK; Debbie Hustings, Guildford and Waverley CCG; Kirsten Killander, Southampton; Allyson King, East Sussex; Sally Kitson, Slough; Maria Lewis Surrey; Simon Lock Wokingham BC; Jodi Brown NHS England; Caroline Moyes East Sussex; Deborah Parkhouse Oxfordshire; Tamsin Peart East Sussex; Clare Rachwal, Portsmouth;SaritaRakhra, Wokingham CCG; Kath Rooksby NHS England; Dave Ross NHS England; Gemma Scambler Brighton and Hove; Janette Searle Reading; Nigel Warner Kent CC; Moira Wilkinson Carers Trust
Apologies for absence were received from 6 network members
1. Introduction to New Chair
The ADASS branch had nominated Carole Binns of Southampton City Councilas the new chair for the regional network. Carole introduced herself and welcomed participants to the meeting.
2. National Developments.
Emily Holzhausen from Carers UK had kindly agreed to attend to give an update on national developments including from the National Carers Policy Network (CPN) from its meeting on 7thNovember.It was noted that Carers UK now provide support for the national network. (A copy of the CPN newsletter had been circulated with the agenda). Issues covered included:
- National Carers Strategy
The Government had widely consulted on the development of a new national strategy and had received well over six thousand responses. A new strategy had been anticipated in June 2017but this did not happen as a general election was called at that time. Both ADASS and the “Carers lobby” nationally had been pressing the Government to go ahead with a new strategy and had sought clarification as to when this might happen. The Department of Health have been linking this to a Green Paper on the future of Social Care. ADASS and other stakeholders have stressed the need to ensure that there is a distinct national strategy; recognising that some of the issues are far broader than just being around social care.
At the CPN it had been agreed to ask their joint chairs to write to the Government restating the importance of this and of ensuring equality of esteem for carers across the whole health and social care system.
It was noted that when speaking at a local event in Guildford Jeremy Hunt had made reference to updating the national strategy in parallel with the Green paper (ie rather than part of it). This was encouraging but needed confirmation.
- SALT Returns
The CPN had previously identified a need to include prevention services for carers in the SALT return, as this was seen as a major omission given the increased emphasis on information provision and prevention and new duties to deliver this in the Care Act.
The Department of Health have indicated a willingness to work on this with ADASS and a workshop on this is planned for January involving the Department of Health. Kirsten Killander volunteered to be involved in this work should there be an opportunity to send a representative from the regional carers network.
- Young Carers Performance
The CPN had also identified a need to enhance performance monitoring for young carers. The Department for Education collect information on young carers identified within Children in Need Assessments under section 17 of the Children Act through an annual “Children In Need Census”. However, there is no method of telling how many young carers are identified with schools or receive preventive support outside of the statutory assessment process. It had been agreed to explore this further at the same performance workshop as for the SALT return. Deborah Parkhouse volunteered to be involved in this discussion.
- Efficient and Effective interventions for Carers (ADASS good practice guide)
Emily highlighted that a request for case examples had been circulated and encouraged people to submit any examples of good practice they are able to share.(needed by Mid December and should be sent to Carers UK)
3. Sustainable Transformation Partnerships and Plans (STPs)
There was a discussion about developments with STPs and progress in embedding the principles contained in Carers Memorandum of Understanding (NHS England Toolkit).
The discussion was initiated with an update from Dave Ross from NHS England looking at carers and carer support in the development of place based integrated working (in line with Commitment to Carers and the NHS 5 year forward plan) A copy of Dave’s presentation is circulated with the minutes (see link).
There were also progress reports on work in the Frimley Health and Surrey Heartlands STPs and initiatives in East and West Sussexlinked to the implementation of the toolkit
This information and feedback from other STP areas will help plan for a regional event in early spring.
4. NHS England work on Young Carers, Military Young Carers and Young Adult Carers
There was an update from Kath Rooksby of NHS England (see link to presentation) on a wide range of work being undertaken by NHS England.’
One area of activity where development is being driven by activity at regional level was around military young carers. It was noted that the next meeting of the SE Military Young Carers Network will be on:
Friday 12th January, 11-1pm at:
Action for Carers Surrey
Astolat
Coniers Way
Burpham,
Surrey
GU4 7HL
5. Young Carers Awareness Day 25 January 2018
-It was noted that Carers Trust had published details of next year’s Young Carers awareness day via a website containing lots of useful resource materials.
-A number of events were understood to be being planned around the region. This includeda national launch of filmed play “People Like Us” from Theatre of debate for use in schools. .The launch to be held at the Royal Association of Dramatic Arts in London (separate invites to follow)
6. Regional Conference ADASS conference/workshop in spring
Tamsin reported that there have been several successful regional events organised by SE ADASS in recent years and a further workshop is planned in the spring, organised in association with NHS England..After discussion, it was agreed that the favoured option for this was for the event to combine some elements of table top exercises with breakout sessions (as long as there is sufficient budget for break out rooms).
.
Tamsin asked for volunteers to assist her and John Bangs with the organisation of the event and for people to let Tamsin know if they are able to help with this.
It was also noted that so far we had a kind offer of input from Carers UKplus a couple of volunteers to present on local initiatives(and other suggestions are sought from the network):
-North East Hants and Farnham CCG had been Shortlisted for the prestigious NHS England Commissioning For Carers Award and have kindly agreedto highlight some critical success factors behind their work
-West Sussex CC are producing a new film for front line staff on theme think family think carers and several network members expressed interest in seeing this
7. Research for Macmillan Cancer Research
Florian Peschelt of Apteligen gave a presentation on a research/mapping exercise (see link) on support available to carers in the South East.
7. Employers for Carers Umbrella Membership
John Bangs reported that Surrey had trialledan expanded Umbrella membership offer to allow signing up public sector health, social care and community providers and District and Borough councils as well as SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises employing less than 250 staff). This offer was expected to be extended to all 25 Umbrella members and to new affiliates. It was thought to provide excellent opportunities for joint work with the NHS and so is a significant enhancement at no extra cost. This has , for example enabled Surrey to sign up several CCGs and NHS Trusts.
8. NICEGuidelines
Debbie Hustings and Clare Rachwalprovided updates on work with NICE on planned Carers guidance (in preparation for 2019) and also End of Life and Carers (due early 2018). Debbie provided a short presentation attached on End of Life and Carers. Clare highlighted the published scope for the general guidance on carers which had been published on the NICE website. If network members have any suggestions about how they would hope to see this developed they should feed these in via Clare and Debbie.