Agenda item

To consider a report of the Strategic Director of Children, Families and Adults (to follow)

Lucia Scally and Rob Walker attended to present the Carers Strategy and Implementation Plan Update report. Rob Walker explained that the purpose of the report was to inform Members of the progress of the Carer’s Strategy and Work Plan since the ratification by Cabinet on 3 October 2011. He noted that the report also indentified some additional areas for inclusion in the Carers’ Implementation Plan.

Lucia Scally acknowledged that the Carers’ Strategy for Cheshire East had been developed in partnership with a number of agencies. With this in mind, she introduced Sue McDowell (Head of Involvement and Patient Experience and PCT Lead for Carers), Ed Beckett (Chairman, Carers Reference Group), David Harvey (Chief Executive, Cheshire Carers Centre) and Victoria Worthington, SMART team manager.

Rob Walker continued to provide a summary on the four key areas where significant progress had been made:

1)    Young Carers – Rob Walker explained that this work was in an embryonic stage but that it had been aided by the merging of the children’s and adult’s directorates. Rob Walker reported that this work stream was necessary as the needs of young carers differed considerably from adult carers.

2)    Carers’ Needs Assessments – Victoria Worthington noted that during 2011/12, the Council completed 2910 carers’ assessments out of 8176 (35.6% completion rate). This was in contrast to 2010/11 in which 1023 assessments were completed. She noted that the National Indicator target for carers assessments was 28%. Despite being pleased to such an improvement, Victoria added that the service was working to improve not only the number of completions but also the quality of them.

3)    Carer Development Link Worker/Trusted Assessors – As part of the work to improve the quality of carers’ assessments, Rob Walker explained that the service had made successful use of Trusted Assessors to undertake carers’ needs assessments for those service users with mental health issues. This had been developed in conjunction with Making Space and further analysis was required to see if it could be rolled out to other client groups across the Borough.

4)    Carers into Employment – Rob Walker explained that this was a very important issue and that the Council had already done some successful work to support Council employees that were in a caring role.

Rob Walker also outlined a number of strategic priorities relating to the Carers Strategy:

1)    LINKs Respite Report – Rob Walker noted that the emerging concerns from this report had been added to the implementation plan.

2)    Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) – This was ongoing work to help CCGs to develop joint commissioning intentions to support carers. Sue McDowell noted that within GP Practices there were already identified Carers’ Leads.

3)    Carers Support ‘Map’ – This had been developed by the Carer’s team to support Carers in accessing the right information, advice and support to aid them in their caring roles.

4)    Carers’ Needs Assessment Pilot – Rob Walker reported that part of this work stream was to develop a ‘Carer’s Passport’ so that carers would not have to keep repeating information to a number of different carer supporting agencies

Reference was made to a recent Carers Information Fair that had been held in Alsager. It was stated that this was a success and that it was a positive step in collecting intelligence to inform the work being done by the Carers Team. The Committee wished to place on record their thanks to the staff in the Adults Directorate who had given up their time to attend this and other similar events in their own time.

A number of comments were also made regarding the high quality of the report.

It was noted that the rise in completed carers assessments was impressive and pleasing to see. It was questioned how this had been achieved. Rob Walker reported that this could mainly be attributed to the work of the frontline staff in the SMART teams. Rob Walker continued to explain that the next question after performing an assessment was what could the Council offer the carer. He made reference to a pilot scheme in Crewe which had been funded by the PCT. This gave carers a small budget (£200-£500) which could be used on something to assist them in their caring role. Even though this was a small amount of money, feedback suggested that it had made a difference to people’s lives and that the service was looking to roll this out across the Borough.

It was questioned why some people refused a carers’ assessment. Rob Walker reported that this was currently unknown but that the service was working with the SMART teams to try and identify the reasons. Anecdotally, he suggested that it could partly be attributed to the timeliness of the assessment and also due to a lack of trust of social workers.

It was queried what services the Carers Team had for responding to carers’ emergencies. Rob Walker explained that the service commissioned Cross Roads to provide emergency responses for carers and that the Cheshire Carers Centre also had a role to play. Indeed, David Harvey, Chief Executive – Cheshire Carers Centre, explained that they had a free helpline which fielded approximately 4,500 calls a year. He reported that the calls tended to occur at points of crisis and therefore the Carers Centre was trying to help people plan for a crisis so that they would be better prepared. It was questioned whether the Carers Centre provided counseling. David Harvey reported that the service was better described as listening support and that they were looking to develop longer term counseling support.

It was questioned how carers were made aware of the services that were available to them. Rob Walker reported that the service produced a carers pack which was circulated through the SMART teams and partner organizations. Councillor Clowes added that a crisis was usually precipitated by an event which would bring a person into contact with agencies that would pass on information and telephone numbers for services. Sue McDowell also reaffirmed that there was a PCT funded Carer Support link worker in all GP practices who could disseminate information. Having heard all of this, the Committee still felt that the marketing and communication of the services that were available to carers needed to be improved. It was stated that the lack of publicity of the services could negate all of the other good work that was going on to support carers. It was suggested therefore that the service develop a creative marketing and communication strategy to sit alongside the carers strategy.

RESOLVED –

a)    That the Committee continues to endorse the implementation of the Carers’ Strategy.

b)    That the Committee notes the progress of the work on the Carers’ strategy Implementation Plan.

c)    That the Committee continues to support and acknowledge, through all engagement and communications with Carers, the Council’s continued commitment and acknowledgement of them as ‘Expert care Partners’ treating all Carers with dignity and respect.

d)    That the Service explore developing a marketing and communications strategy to promote the services that the Council and its partners offer to carers.