Agenda item

To consider for approval the Carers Task and Finish Group’s Final Report

Councillor M Simon, Chairman of the Carers Task and Finish Group (the Group), presented the Group’s Final Report to be approved by the Committee before being submitted to the Cabinet for consideration.

Councillor Simon gave an overview of the report and the process that the Group had gone through during its review. The Group’s report contained recommendations to both the Council and health service commissioners and providers.

During discussion about the report the following points arose:

•   One of the main issues carers had with current services was the requirement to repeat information about their case to various agencies/services. Information sharing between services was an important practice that needed to be put in place.

•   A series of carers event had been held during January 2015 as follow up to the Middlewich event which the task group members had originally attended in November 2013. Some of the Group’s recommendations had been tested with carers at these events and had received positive feedback.

•   Carers had enjoyed the events and the social aspect of simply getting carers together to discuss their issues was useful to them. It had been agreed that carers events would become a regular occurrence in future, possibly on a quarterly basis.

•   Some of the Group recommendations were elements of the current integrated care projects which were taking place between the Council and Clinical Commissioning Groups. For instance a pilot system for shared patient/resident records was being tested, this needed to ensure safeguarding of data.

•   Guidance on the Care Act 2014 was being produced on an inconsistent basis however some elements of the Act relating to carers would be in force by April 2015.

•   The Borough needed to consider how it was going to deal with its relative large and growing elderly population which included elderly carers.

•   Identification of carers was difficult however every service that interacted with cared for people should be aware of potential carers and the role they may be playing.

•   It was important to ensure that young carers were provided with the same opportunities for further education as their contemporaries. It was particularly difficult to identify young carers as they often did not wish to be identified for fear of being taken into care or perceived stigma of their caring role.

•   Carers breaks were considered particularly important to support carers in maintaining their caring role, even if only for a few hours a week. The Dementia task and finish group which had reported in 2013 has also identified the role of carers and the importance of carer breaks.

•   Parent carers of children with disabilities also needed to be taken into consideration. It was suggested that the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee might wish to conduct a review specifically about parent carers. Parent carers also existed for adults with disabilities as more people with disabilities were surviving longer due to medical advances. This raised the issue of parent carers reaching old age and their ability to care for their child being diminished. Adult Social Care was considering this issue.

•   It was suggested that the Committee should review the task groups report in 12 months time to establish whether issues raised had been address and whether improvements had been made.

•   The Committee was informed that a Carers Strategy was being developed by the Council and CCGs and would be present for consideration at a future meeting.

•   In relation to recommendations made to health commissioners and providers the suggestion of carer champions was supported. It was suggested that awareness of carers and the role the played in supporting health services needed to be raised within the NHS.

•   The Council and CCGs were consideration how respite for the cared for and carers breaks could be more joined up and how funding could be used by carers more flexibly.

Councillor Simon thanked all members and officers who had taken part in the review and proposed that the report be approved by the Committee.

RESOLVED:

(a) That the Carers Task and Finish Group Final Report be approved and submitted to Cabinet and health commissioners and providers for consideration.

(b) That a response to the report from both Cabinet and health commissioners and providers be requested and presented to the Committee.