All Age Carers Strategy - Further Information

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What is this consultation about?

Cheshire West and Chester Council and NHS Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group want Carers of all ages in Cheshire West and Chester to feel valued, empowered and have access to the right support at the right time.

We would like to hear the views of all Carers, parents, partners and stakeholders on the draft strategy. Carers play a valuable role in the community and we need to ensure this strategy addresses the issues that are most important to Carers, to provide the support they need in their caring role.

  • How do you think the health and wellbeing of Carers can be improved in the borough?
  • What do you think the Council and NHS Clinical Commissioning Group could do to make this happen?
  • How do you think you and your local community could help make this happen?

What you tell us will be used to inform the further development of the strategy and improve the support for Carers across Cheshire West and Chester, by ensuring the priorities in the strategy reflect the lived experiences of local Carers and how they wish to be supported in the future. It is proposed that the Strategy is adopted as a long-term plan to develop services for Carers within Cheshire West and Chester.

The draft strategy has been developed in partnership with the Cheshire West and Chester’s Carer Strategy Group. This is a Carer led group with representation from both Cheshire West and Chester Council and the NHS Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

How was the strategy developed?

The strategy applies to All Age Carers within Cheshire West and Chester area and has been developed through extensive engagement with local Carers, service providers and key partners. It has also been informed by the results of previous Statutory Carers Surveys and the personal experiences of Carers fed back through carer groups across the borough.

The strategy responds to key legislation and key national policy, including:

  • Care Act 2014
  • Children’s and Families Act 2014
  • The Children’s Act 1989
  • The Governments Carers Action Plan 2018-2020 ‘Supporting Carers Today’
  • The Prime Ministers Challenge on Dementia 2020
  • NHs England’s Commitment to Carers 2014
  • NHS Long Term Plan (Jan 2019)
  • NHS Quality Markers 2019

As well as Carer research carried out by organisations such as the Social Care Institute for Excellence, Carers UK, The Mental Health Foundation, The Children’s Society and Barnardo’s.

The strategy has also been developed and informed by comprehensive research through the Carers Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (CJSNA) which analysed local and national data and trends about carers.

Through this process five key priorities have been identified along with proposed actions for improving support for Carers across the borough.

What are the priorities set out in the strategy?

Priority 1 Early Identification of all age Carers

The early identification of Carers is important to make sure that all Carers are aware of the current support available to them at the earliest opportunity, to prevent development of future need. The all age Carers strategy aims to:

  • Increased carer assessments – to increase the visibility of unpaid carers and enable all age Carers to have their own needs formally assessed.
  • Improve the offer of support available to Carers – to ensure services are accessible to Carers and opportunities are available to get support for their caring role.
  • Identify hidden carers – to ensure Carers have the opportunity to recognise when they are in a caring role, encourage them to make themselves known to services and gain access to the information and support available.
  • Increase the early identification of Young Carers in schools – by embedding Young Carer support into school pastoral and leaderships team
  • Improve mental health support services for all age Carers – by providing clearer ways to identify Carers through a number of different support routes.
  • Improve the efficiency of support – to make it easy for Carers to access the support they need and encourage more Carers to come forward earlier.

Priority 2 Support Carers to achieve personal potential

Supporting Carers to achieve their personal potential is important. All age Carers should not be disadvantaged or prevented from having individual aspirations or goals due to their caring role. The all age carers strategy aims to:

  • Promote range of support available for Carers to access employment, education or training – to support Carers to achieve their personal employment, education or training goals.
  • Work with local employers to support Carers in the workplace – by working with local Employers and offering information and advice on how to better to support Carers to remain in employment.
  • Improve support to Young Carers at risk of becoming Not in Education, Employment or Training- to support Young Carers to achieve their personal goals and aspirations.
  • Define the transition to adult Carers process – by providing Young Carers with a clear pathway and transition assessment to ensure they have the right support in place as they begin their journey into adulthood.

Priority 3 Access the right support at the right time

It is important for Carers to be able to access the right support at the right time to avoid them reaching crisis, maximise appropriate support networks and enable carers to continue in their caring role. The all age Carers strategy aims to:

  • Review the carer break and respite offer - to ensure it is appropriate to meet the needs of carers, and that all carer breaks and respite are high quality and offer a diverse range of settings.
  • Ensure that Carers receive adequate information using accessible web-based support – so Carers can access adequate information and advice on their caring role on suitable platforms and be signposted to support when needed.
  • Increase access to wellbeing support – so all Carers have the opportunity to receive support to maintain their overall wellbeing and not be disadvantaged due to their caring role.
  • Improve Young Carers care planning – to ensure Young Carers do not experience neglect in their caring role. This will enable Young Carers to have a clear plan moving forward and make sure that the information, advice and service offer to them is consistent.

Priority 4 Improve the Health and wellbeing of Carers

It is essential that Carers maintain positive and personal Health and Wellbeing to enable them to achieve their potential and reduce the impact of the caring role. The all age Carers strategy aims

  • Increase Carer registration at all GP practices across Cheshire West and Chester – so Carers only have to tell their story once and we can build up the Carer profile of all Carers in Cheshire West so that services reflect local need.
  • Include Carer representation in the Mental Health Strategy workstream – to ensure the Carers role is recognised as having an impact on mental wellbeing and that information, advice and support is made available.
  • Improve pathways to wellbeing groups – by offering information, advice and support to help Carers maintain their personal wellbeing.
  • Improve support to avoid financial hardship – by increasing advice and support to Carers for debt management, budget planning and risk of using unregistered money lenders. Reducing the impact on physical and mental wellbeing.
  • Increase opportunities for Carers to engage in decision making processes –so Carers are listened to, feel valued and are able contribute to good practice. It is important that we capture the lived experiences of Carers and use this to continually review and develop services and ensure that we recognise carers as experts in their own experience.
  • Promote access to Health checks for all Carers – Caring can adversely affect the health and wellbeing of Carers, regardless of their age. It is important therefore that we consider how we can ensure all Carers have access to regular health checks.
  • Promote positive activities, physical exercise and social contact – by linking in with council initiatives and leisure services to improve Carers physical and mental wellbeing and prevent social isolation.
  • Promote Befriending services – to ensure that Carers are offered the opportunity to access social contact when they want to. This will reduce social isolation and have a positive effect on mental wellbeing.

Priority 5 services and systems that work for carers

Through early consultation Carers have shared lived experiences of services and systems challenges. To overcome or reduce the impact on their caring role and improve their Wellbeing the all age Carers strategy aims to:

  • Raise awareness of carers within health and social care services and key partners – to emphasise the importance of consulting Carers as experts and equals when discussing their caring situation and ensure professionals are adequately informed about Carers current challenges.
  • Involve carers in the development of services
  • Shape Carer Groups so they are representative of all Carers – by reviewing, revitalising and redesigning the Carer groups to increase diversity and representation from across all services. This will enable us to capture all carer voices and use them to inform the continued development of services, this may mean the way we engage with carers changes in the future.
  • Define pathways of support to all age Carers – to ensure carers understand the journey for the people they care for and reduce negative impacts on Carers in their Caring role

Measuring Progress

The Carers Strategy group will continue to monitor and review the implementation of the action plan

Key measures of success will include:

  • Increasing the number of carers registered with their G.P
  • Increasing the number of carers assessments completed (joint and individual)
  • Increasing the number of services accessed
  • Increasing the number of Transition assessments completed
  • Increasing the number of local businesses accessing Employers for Carers
  • Increasing the number of Young Carers identified at school or college
  • Reducing the number of Young Carers at risk of being Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET)
  • Increasing the Young Carers average attainment scores

Ultimately it will be Carers who inform us whether they feel that the Carers Strategy is meeting the identified outcomes and we will engage with carers through the different carer forums, to continually evaluate progress. Successful outcomes will include:

  • Carers reporting increased positive impacts on physical and mental wellbeing.
  • Carers accessing a good offer of support and advice.
  • Carers reporting reduced social isolation.
  • Carers not being disadvantaged due to their caring role.
  • Carers feeling that their role is valued and recognised by professional organisations.

How can I feedback my views?

Cheshire West and Chester Council and the Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group would value the insight and feedback of all Carers, to ensure strategy addresses the issues that are most important to carers and provides the support they need in their caring role.

There are a number of ways you can get involved and share your views, please see our dedicated online engagement website www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/carersstrategyconsultation

This consultation is open until 18th October 2020

What happens next

The consultation findings will be used to further the design of the all age carers strategy and shape future service delivery. The strategy will be reviewed by the Council’s Cabinet alongside the findings of this consultation in January 2021, to make a decision about whether to implement the strategy. If the strategy is agreed any changes will be implemented from April 2021. The results from the consultation will be available on the Council’s website in February 2021.

What is this consultation about?

Cheshire West and Chester Council and NHS Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group want Carers of all ages in Cheshire West and Chester to feel valued, empowered and have access to the right support at the right time.

We would like to hear the views of all Carers, parents, partners and stakeholders on the draft strategy. Carers play a valuable role in the community and we need to ensure this strategy addresses the issues that are most important to Carers, to provide the support they need in their caring role.

  • How do you think the health and wellbeing of Carers can be improved in the borough?
  • What do you think the Council and NHS Clinical Commissioning Group could do to make this happen?
  • How do you think you and your local community could help make this happen?

What you tell us will be used to inform the further development of the strategy and improve the support for Carers across Cheshire West and Chester, by ensuring the priorities in the strategy reflect the lived experiences of local Carers and how they wish to be supported in the future. It is proposed that the Strategy is adopted as a long-term plan to develop services for Carers within Cheshire West and Chester.

The draft strategy has been developed in partnership with the Cheshire West and Chester’s Carer Strategy Group. This is a Carer led group with representation from both Cheshire West and Chester Council and the NHS Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

How was the strategy developed?

The strategy applies to All Age Carers within Cheshire West and Chester area and has been developed through extensive engagement with local Carers, service providers and key partners. It has also been informed by the results of previous Statutory Carers Surveys and the personal experiences of Carers fed back through carer groups across the borough.

The strategy responds to key legislation and key national policy, including:

  • Care Act 2014
  • Children’s and Families Act 2014
  • The Children’s Act 1989
  • The Governments Carers Action Plan 2018-2020 ‘Supporting Carers Today’
  • The Prime Ministers Challenge on Dementia 2020
  • NHs England’s Commitment to Carers 2014
  • NHS Long Term Plan (Jan 2019)
  • NHS Quality Markers 2019

As well as Carer research carried out by organisations such as the Social Care Institute for Excellence, Carers UK, The Mental Health Foundation, The Children’s Society and Barnardo’s.

The strategy has also been developed and informed by comprehensive research through the Carers Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (CJSNA) which analysed local and national data and trends about carers.

Through this process five key priorities have been identified along with proposed actions for improving support for Carers across the borough.

What are the priorities set out in the strategy?

Priority 1 Early Identification of all age Carers

The early identification of Carers is important to make sure that all Carers are aware of the current support available to them at the earliest opportunity, to prevent development of future need. The all age Carers strategy aims to:

  • Increased carer assessments – to increase the visibility of unpaid carers and enable all age Carers to have their own needs formally assessed.
  • Improve the offer of support available to Carers – to ensure services are accessible to Carers and opportunities are available to get support for their caring role.
  • Identify hidden carers – to ensure Carers have the opportunity to recognise when they are in a caring role, encourage them to make themselves known to services and gain access to the information and support available.
  • Increase the early identification of Young Carers in schools – by embedding Young Carer support into school pastoral and leaderships team
  • Improve mental health support services for all age Carers – by providing clearer ways to identify Carers through a number of different support routes.
  • Improve the efficiency of support – to make it easy for Carers to access the support they need and encourage more Carers to come forward earlier.

Priority 2 Support Carers to achieve personal potential

Supporting Carers to achieve their personal potential is important. All age Carers should not be disadvantaged or prevented from having individual aspirations or goals due to their caring role. The all age carers strategy aims to:

  • Promote range of support available for Carers to access employment, education or training – to support Carers to achieve their personal employment, education or training goals.
  • Work with local employers to support Carers in the workplace – by working with local Employers and offering information and advice on how to better to support Carers to remain in employment.
  • Improve support to Young Carers at risk of becoming Not in Education, Employment or Training- to support Young Carers to achieve their personal goals and aspirations.
  • Define the transition to adult Carers process – by providing Young Carers with a clear pathway and transition assessment to ensure they have the right support in place as they begin their journey into adulthood.

Priority 3 Access the right support at the right time

It is important for Carers to be able to access the right support at the right time to avoid them reaching crisis, maximise appropriate support networks and enable carers to continue in their caring role. The all age Carers strategy aims to:

  • Review the carer break and respite offer - to ensure it is appropriate to meet the needs of carers, and that all carer breaks and respite are high quality and offer a diverse range of settings.
  • Ensure that Carers receive adequate information using accessible web-based support – so Carers can access adequate information and advice on their caring role on suitable platforms and be signposted to support when needed.
  • Increase access to wellbeing support – so all Carers have the opportunity to receive support to maintain their overall wellbeing and not be disadvantaged due to their caring role.
  • Improve Young Carers care planning – to ensure Young Carers do not experience neglect in their caring role. This will enable Young Carers to have a clear plan moving forward and make sure that the information, advice and service offer to them is consistent.

Priority 4 Improve the Health and wellbeing of Carers

It is essential that Carers maintain positive and personal Health and Wellbeing to enable them to achieve their potential and reduce the impact of the caring role. The all age Carers strategy aims

  • Increase Carer registration at all GP practices across Cheshire West and Chester – so Carers only have to tell their story once and we can build up the Carer profile of all Carers in Cheshire West so that services reflect local need.
  • Include Carer representation in the Mental Health Strategy workstream – to ensure the Carers role is recognised as having an impact on mental wellbeing and that information, advice and support is made available.
  • Improve pathways to wellbeing groups – by offering information, advice and support to help Carers maintain their personal wellbeing.
  • Improve support to avoid financial hardship – by increasing advice and support to Carers for debt management, budget planning and risk of using unregistered money lenders. Reducing the impact on physical and mental wellbeing.
  • Increase opportunities for Carers to engage in decision making processes –so Carers are listened to, feel valued and are able contribute to good practice. It is important that we capture the lived experiences of Carers and use this to continually review and develop services and ensure that we recognise carers as experts in their own experience.
  • Promote access to Health checks for all Carers – Caring can adversely affect the health and wellbeing of Carers, regardless of their age. It is important therefore that we consider how we can ensure all Carers have access to regular health checks.
  • Promote positive activities, physical exercise and social contact – by linking in with council initiatives and leisure services to improve Carers physical and mental wellbeing and prevent social isolation.
  • Promote Befriending services – to ensure that Carers are offered the opportunity to access social contact when they want to. This will reduce social isolation and have a positive effect on mental wellbeing.

Priority 5 services and systems that work for carers

Through early consultation Carers have shared lived experiences of services and systems challenges. To overcome or reduce the impact on their caring role and improve their Wellbeing the all age Carers strategy aims to:

  • Raise awareness of carers within health and social care services and key partners – to emphasise the importance of consulting Carers as experts and equals when discussing their caring situation and ensure professionals are adequately informed about Carers current challenges.
  • Involve carers in the development of services
  • Shape Carer Groups so they are representative of all Carers – by reviewing, revitalising and redesigning the Carer groups to increase diversity and representation from across all services. This will enable us to capture all carer voices and use them to inform the continued development of services, this may mean the way we engage with carers changes in the future.
  • Define pathways of support to all age Carers – to ensure carers understand the journey for the people they care for and reduce negative impacts on Carers in their Caring role

Measuring Progress

The Carers Strategy group will continue to monitor and review the implementation of the action plan

Key measures of success will include:

  • Increasing the number of carers registered with their G.P
  • Increasing the number of carers assessments completed (joint and individual)
  • Increasing the number of services accessed
  • Increasing the number of Transition assessments completed
  • Increasing the number of local businesses accessing Employers for Carers
  • Increasing the number of Young Carers identified at school or college
  • Reducing the number of Young Carers at risk of being Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET)
  • Increasing the Young Carers average attainment scores

Ultimately it will be Carers who inform us whether they feel that the Carers Strategy is meeting the identified outcomes and we will engage with carers through the different carer forums, to continually evaluate progress. Successful outcomes will include:

  • Carers reporting increased positive impacts on physical and mental wellbeing.
  • Carers accessing a good offer of support and advice.
  • Carers reporting reduced social isolation.
  • Carers not being disadvantaged due to their caring role.
  • Carers feeling that their role is valued and recognised by professional organisations.

How can I feedback my views?

Cheshire West and Chester Council and the Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group would value the insight and feedback of all Carers, to ensure strategy addresses the issues that are most important to carers and provides the support they need in their caring role.

There are a number of ways you can get involved and share your views, please see our dedicated online engagement website www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/carersstrategyconsultation

This consultation is open until 18th October 2020

What happens next

The consultation findings will be used to further the design of the all age carers strategy and shape future service delivery. The strategy will be reviewed by the Council’s Cabinet alongside the findings of this consultation in January 2021, to make a decision about whether to implement the strategy. If the strategy is agreed any changes will be implemented from April 2021. The results from the consultation will be available on the Council’s website in February 2021.