Supporting people with caring responsibilities

Dr Nicky Williams – CCG Vice ChairJacqui Bunce – Associate Director

National and local policiesHertfordshire Carers Strategy

Carers should be supported to :

• Carry on caring if they want to • Work if they want to • Have a life outside caring • Stay fit and healthy and be safe • Access full benefit entitlements • Get good quality information when they need it • Feel respected as carers, as partners in care• Young carers should be able to achieve their full potential

in education

Health and Wellbeing strategyWe will:

• Support carers to deliver their role in the community

• Co-ordinate services to support carers

• Treat carers with respect and as partners in care

• Support carers in their roles, with appropriate interventions

• Provide a ‘no wrong door’ approach - all services proactively identifying and signposting carers appropriately

• Encourage schools to identify and support young carers

• Help employers to identify and support carer employees to balance their caring role and their job

The Facts

108,615 carers living in Hertfordshire - 9.8% of the population (2011 census)

Carers are:

More likely to be women than men

More likely to have health

problems than those who do

not have a caring

responsibility

Likely to be aged between

50-64.

Level of care increases with

age

Most likely to be looking after someone with a physical disability (27%), problems connected with ageing (22%) or sight or hearing loss (14%)

Carer Feedback

27% of carers had sought advice in the previous 12 months but had found it fairly or very difficult to find

Only 16% felt that social care services fully understood the impact of caring on their lives

20% of carers felt that HCS had helped them plan for an emergency in case they were ever temporarily unable to care

Carers said that they wanted:

• Robust contingency planning

• Rapid response services readily available to assist with unpredictable or emergency situations (including through the provision of equipment and extra care)

• Emotional and mental wellbeing to be considered as part of the assessment process

• Support for carers to undertake social activities

• Services such as Respite Care, Carer Breaks, Telecare were regarded as valuable.

What has been happening?• Commissioning services with Carers In Herts and Crossroads

• Roll out of ‘carer friendly communities’

• Carer friendly hospital – The Lister in Stevenage

• Carers’ champions project in GP Practices

• Crossroads supporting HomeFirst in Lower Lea Valley

• Web-based support tool for GPs will launch in October

Discussion

• What other challenges affect carers that we could tackle through the services we commission?

• What more could be done to support carers – through GP practices?– in the wider health system?