Policy & Parliamentary bulletin for carers leads
March 2011
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News
Carers’ Blog
The Princess Royal Trust for Carers and Crossroads Care blog covers current policy news and issues which may be useful for you and for carers. In the last month, you could have read about:
· Benefits and their need to enable a full life
· The role of volunteers
· Personalisation and safeguarding
· The Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act
Promotion of the Triangle of Care
Last year, The Princess Royal Trust for Carers launched a report called the Triangle of Care, looking at involving carers of people with mental health problems more, particularly in hospitals settings. Since then, we’ve been pushing this forward to make it happen in reality and recently attended an event in Cheshire with the mental health trust. A film was made about it: http://www.youtube.com/user/CWPnhsft
Or if you have trouble accessing this try: http://www.cwp.nhs.uk/News/Pages/LatestTrustfilms.aspx
Parliament
Young Carers in Education debate
The Princess Royal Trust for Carers recently met Nick Gibb MP, Minister of State for Schools to discuss the issue of removing the 24 hour notice period for detention in schools which could impact on young carers. This was then focussed on during a committee debate on the Education Bill.
National Government
Social Fund Consultation
The Government plans to remove the Social Fund and replace it with a local based assistance scheme from April 2013, also replacing Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans. Funding will be transferred from Department of Work and Pensions to local authorities in England and national Governments in Scotland and Wales. The funding will not be ring-fenced. There will also be a nationally administered advance of benefit facility and Government expects this to provide the majority of the reformed provision.
We are worried that Government will be giving more responsibility for provision of services to local government at a time of reduced budgets and local government will be unable to meet the needs of people who would otherwise have been supported through the Social Fund. Deadline for responses is 15th April.
Government reviews all local authority duties
The Dept of Communities & Local Government (DCLG) is carrying out a wide ranging review to establish local authority duties which are no longer needed and to remove them.
Community Care duties have already being reviewed by the Law Commission, who are due to publish their Government sponsored review in April 2011. The Department of Health will then consider this review when publishing a White Paper on social care before December 2011. We will respond to the review highlighting this and the importance of duties to carers and their families. Deadline for responses is 25th April.
“No Health without Mental Health”
The Government’s new Mental Health strategy focuses on
· Whole family working
· Community driven & local decision making “big society”
· Move to Payment by Results (PBR)[1] and GP commissioning
· Return to work for those with mental health problems.
· Early-intervention when someone starts to experience a mental health problem.
· Personalisation agenda which many carers have concerns about; however it states that carers are to be included in the planning and delivery of this.
The Strategy references The Princess Royal Trust’s Triangle of Care. There will be an investment of £400m over 4 years on psychological therapies (through the IAPT programme and not ring-fenced).
Government campaign to improve early self-identification of dementia
The £1.2 million campaign will feature TV, radio and print ads. It will initially be piloted in two regions – the North West and Yorkshire & Humber – and if successful will be rolled out across the country.
The TV advert tells the story of a daughter as she becomes aware that her dad is struggling in a number of situations, such as leaving pans on the hob and forgetting where his car is parked. While accepting it was a hard issue to raise with him, the message is that acting on her concerns and getting help means she can keep the dad she knows for longer. View the ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLpVqc0w_Ao
Local Government
The duties of GP consortia
Department of Health has described the proposed statutory functions of GP consortia.
The document is not intended to be a substitute for the Health and Social Care Bill, but a helpful summary covering: scope of responsibilities; general duties; planning and monitoring services; finance and governance; cooperation and improving quality of primary care. A summary will be provided soon for the network.
It sets out:
· the proposed key statutory duties of consortia (the 'must dos')
· the proposed key statutory powers (the things consortia have the freedom to do, if they wish, to help meet these duties)
· illustrative examples of what this could look like in the future
GP Pathfinders
There are approximately 150 GP commissioning pathfinders that have been set up by GP practices to begin the process of them becoming responsible for health commissioning. There is a map and a directory. The Health Bill currently being debated in Parliament proposes that GP consortia could begin actual commissioning from April 2012 with all commissioning being the responsibility of GP consortia (with exception of a few areas reserved to NHS Commissioning Board) from April 2013.
Service Development
An example from The Carers’ Hub
The Carers' Hubis a resource for all those looking to commission and develop personalised services for carers. By showcasinga variety of original and innovative practice examples, this site aims to inspire ideas about creative and inventive ways to deliver services in your area. We will cite a successful example each month:
Stroke rehabilitation and carer respite
Crossroads Care Coventry and Warwickshire, NHS Coventry & Coventry City Council
When a stroke patient has completed the first part of treatment through a hospital, a meeting is arranged between a Crossroads Care support worker, the patient, the carer and a physiotherapist to look at the goals and work out a rehabilitation plan.
The support worker, who has completed intensive training with the Physiotherapy Department, comes to the patient’s home for a two/three hour period to help with exercises giving the carer the chance to take a break, during which Crossroads Care can help the carer access other services such as support groups and activities.
Report: Carers need training to manage personal budgets
The Social Policy Research Unit researched experience of 69 personal budget holders and carers, 40 practitioners and 12 provider organisations. They found that carers play a central role in enabling people to take up and manage a personal budget (pg. 66). Key messages relating to carers:
· PB holders and carers said that they would have welcomed peer support, especially when they first got their PB, especially talking to an existing holder (pg. 10)
· Carers wanted training to manage personal budgets (pg. 11)
· Reinforces the need for a number of independent sources of information about PBs so that they are not denied or put off considering a PB, by council staff (pg. 27).
· Some carers got a one-off grant, usually separate to the PB and any provision for respite within it (pg. 33)
· Only 1 of 5 councils were recording what carers were contributing, others simply recorded the person’s need as what it is after the carer’s contribution (pg. 66)
· Most people were able to use PBs for non-personal care activity, but sometimes after negotiation (pg. 44)
· A few PB holders employed non-resident family members (pg. 51)
There is also information on personal health budgets available.
Supporting carers – the evidence
Each month we will provide details of research on supporting carers.
Information, advice and advocacy
The Local Government Improvement and Development Agency (LGID, formerly IDeA) found that service users and carers find it difficult to unpick information, advice and advocacy services since these three types of service provision overlap and are inter-related. LGID found that in order to access the right services and/or information, people require support from each of these types of services and that “the development of information, advice and advocacy is inextricable from the development of other interpersonal dimensions of support including support planning, support brokerage, the ongoing management of services and safeguarding”[2].
IDeA also found that more people get explanation, advice and personalised information from local voluntary groups than local authority information services, with national organisations further down. Research finds that this is because people have greater trust and are more likely to access voluntary sector organisations than statutory organisations.[3]
Additionally, the Commission for Social Care Inspection, forerunner of the Care Quality Commission, found that councils were not good providers of information. Their survey of people not eligible for council support but in contact with social services found:[4]
· More than 60% of respondents stated that they were not given any information about other help that might be available
· 34% of carers indicated that they had been given information but this did not lead to getting any help
· Only 5% of all respondents said that they had received information leading them to get help producing a positive outcome
Gordon Conochie: Policy & Parliamentary Officer, / 07766 410885
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[1] Payment by Results has been implemented in my areas of the NHS except the mental health sector until now. It refers to the flow of money in the NHS in England. Historically, NHS Trusts agreed “block contracts” with commissioners. Under payment by results the money received by the NHs directly relates to the number of operations, treatments and other activities it provides.
[2] Pgs. 4 – 5 in the Summary of Transforming adult social care: access to information, advice and advocacy, IDeA, 2007
[3] Pgs 23 & 24, Transforming adult social care: access to information, advice and advocacy, Improvement and Development Agency, 2009
[4] Commission for Social Care Inspection, Hello, how can I help? An analysis of mystery shoppers’ experiences of local council social care information services. 2007