For all carers including those who are adults, parents, working carers and young carers 2022/26
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Carers’ Strategy 2022-26
Foreword
Welcome to the All-Age Carers Strategy 2022 –2026 for North Lincolnshire.
This strategy has been written for and has the support of carers, partners and other key stakeholders across the partnership who want our aims and ambitions to be clear and succinct and offer all carers, which include those who are adults, parents, working or young carers, an opportunity to live, work, stay connected and be a vital part of their local communities.
We know how important it is to ensure that all carers are seen as a priority and that their needs are paramount. Within North Lincolnshire there are over 19,000 carers but so many do not identify themselves as carers and therefore do not come forward for information and support. At some point in our lives, we will become a carer for somebody that we know and love. At the time we may not realise or recognise the role as such, but we want all carers to know that we as a partnership have this strategy in place that will recognise you as a carer and will provide the vital support and information at the right time and in the right place.
Our priorities within this strategy aim to do just that, to identify carers, support them to stay well and healthy in their role, provide them with the resources they need to keep connected and to give them a voice in services that are developed and need developing.
As a priority in the prevention agenda, we know that the carers role is key and by preventing carer crisis and breakdown we can enable people to live their best lives, ageing well, in their own homes and communities, promoting self-help and ensuring they have choice and control over their lives including maintaining a career in many cases.
Cllr Richard Hannigan
Deputy Leader
North Lincolnshire Council
Cllr Julie Reed
Cabinet Member for Children and Families
North Lincolnshire Council
Kay Mitchell-Gough
Co-Chair Parents’ Forum
Amanda Cowling
Interim Chair
Carers Advisory Partnership
Introduction
People, families, carers and communities are at the heart of all we do and by making use of their strengths, assets, views and experiences and by engaging with and working together as partners and with other key stakeholders across the partnership, including the voluntary and community sector, we will co-produce local services and support which meet the needs of local people and help to achieve positive outcomes.
There are 6.5 million carers in the UK, one in ten of the population, and in North Lincolnshire it is estimated that there are over 19,000 carers.
A carer is considered as someone who helps another person, usually a relative or friend, in their day-to-day life. This is not the same as someone who provides care professionally or through a voluntary organisation.
The Care Act 2014 recognises the equal importance of supporting carers and the people they care for. This means that more carers can have an assessment in their own right and be supported to continue in their caring role.
Carers are important and play a vital role in our communities, providing essential care to those who need help and support with daily living. They need support to look after their own health and wellbeing, realise their education and employment potential and to ensure they are connected in their communities and enabled to have a life of their own alongside caring responsibilities.
This strategy identifies the priorities that we will work towards for all carers to ensure they are given the recognition and support they require to continue in their caring roles.
Strategic Framework – plan on a page
- Our shared ambition
- Best place to LIVE, WORK, VISIT and INVEST where people are SAFE, WELL, PROSPEROUS and CONNECTED.
- Our shared values
- EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY so everyone can have a good quality of life
- Strive for EXCELLENCE and high standards
- Use of resources wisely and with INTEGRITY
- People take SELF RESPONSIBILITY and have choice and control over their own lives.
- Our shared principles
- Enabling Self Help
- Care Close to Home
- Right Care Right Place
- Best Use of Resources.
- Our shared aims
- Early identification of carers – particularly hidden carers
- Carers health and wellbeing is maintained
- Promoting carer health and wellbeing
- Carers remain independent and part of their community
- Carers aspirations are raised Shared values and ownership.
- What are our priorities for development?
- Focus on early identification and carer recognition
- Supporting carers to stay healthy – including emotional and physical health
- Transform/improve digital solutions to improve access to information and resources
- Influencing change and innovation through carer voice & partnership working.
- Shared outcomes – what will success look like?
- Carers are supported and enabled to have a good quality of life
- Carers have access to a range of support that enables them to live the life they want and remain a contributing member of their community
- Carers have access to information that they need to make decisions and choices, and are enabled to use it
- Carers feel safe, supported and enabled to continue in their caring role, education, leisure and working lives.
Our population is able to achieve outstanding outcomes.
Outcomes: What success will look like
Safe
Where carers:
- have a sense of belonging and feel safe/are safe in their home, school, workplace and community
- are empowered and supported to identify and develop their strengths and aspirations
- feel a sense of safety, dignity and that respect remains a key outcome for all
- have choice, independence, equality and inclusion within their daily lives.
Well
Where carers:
- can live an active and healthy lifestyle
- enjoy positive emotional wellbeing and mental health
- receive access to health care and support that they need in their community where possible
- are supported to achieve personal goals
- receive the support they need at the right time preventing carer crisis/breakdown.
Prosperous
Where carers:
- young carers are empowered, enabled and supported to achieve as they transition to adulthood
- all carers are enabled to live a sustainable work/life balance whilst in a caring role
- have access to welfare benefits and financial advice and guidance at the point it is required
- are enabled to participate in work, training and learning.
Connected
Where carers:
- Are empowered and enabled to participate, have equality of opportunity and access to creative, flexible support at the earliest point in the right place and at the right time
- Benefit from engaging in positive activities
- Transform digital solutions to improve access to information and resources
- Have opportunities to maintain social interactions with family, friends and wider community.
We will demonstrate our success in improving outcomes for our carer population through performance monitoring, voice and practice wisdom.
Themes which have shaped our priorities
Our shared ambition for carers is demonstrated through the following ‘I’ statements:
- I feel safe and am supported to understand and manage any risks
- I can get information and advice that helps me think about and plan my life
- I know about the activities, peer/social support groups, leisure and learning opportunities in my community as well as health and care services
- I have time for me when I can do the things I want to and have time away from my caring role
- I know that the person I care for is well looked after when I am not there
- I can plan ahead and stay in control in emergencies: I know who to contact and how to contact them
We hope carers will say they feel informed, involved, listened to and valued.
Priorities
We have identified four priority areas for development through co-production with carers, partners and other key stakeholders.
These priorities articulate the areas of focus that the Integrated Adults Partnership and Integrated Children’s Trust will ‘SHINE A LIGHT’ on for partnership action and system change to contribute to our carer population being SAFE, WELL, PROSPEROUS and CONNECTED.
- Identification of carers
- Supporting carers to stay healthy
- Improving access to information and resources
- Influencing change and innovation.
Identification of carers of all ages including hidden carers
Raising the profile of carers across North Lincolnshire is key to effectively being able to ensure that all partner agencies have an awareness and understanding of all carer needs enabling the early identification of carers. This should start with a dialogue where the carer can express their thoughts and wishes, which should include asking the carer how they are managing with things themselves, checking they have all the information they need, offering them reassurance where needed and giving them the chance to ask any questions that they may have.
The acknowledgement of the carer and their role in care, as soon as possible, will be particularly beneficial in improving the long-term prospects of both the carer and the cared for.
We need to strengthen our processes for the identification of carers as an essential first step to working together as equal partners in care.
We will achieve this by:
- Raising awareness with primary care networks and healthcare professionals, including educational settings for young carers.
- Partnership working, with all agencies to ensure carers need only share their stories once and that referral routes are simple and aim to reduce stress.
- Working with the wider communities to identify “hidden carers” and young carers, and to share good practice.
- Promoting good practice and improving outcomes for all.
Supporting carers to stay healthy –including emotional and physical health
Helping carers look after themselves, developing resilience and independence.
Providing a range of services that enable carers to enjoy time away to do the things that matter to them.
Respond to carers’ health and wellbeing.
Ensuring that support and information is available.
Continue the work with GP practices and commissioned services to ensure the identification and registration of carers continues.
Enabling access to carer break opportunities including at times of crisis and over night, to enable cares to have a break from their caring role and improve their health and wellbeing.
Enabling young carers to access a range of age-appropriate activities, including the ability to attend school.
We will achieve this by:
- Continue working with commissioned services, ensuring carers have access to welfare and counselling, befriending, therapy sessions, group meetings/peer support sessions, including leisure activities and training.
- Ensuring partner agencies in all areas are able to identify carer need and offer the support required at the right time.
- Updating all relevant sources of information, sharing across a wide range of provisions to ensure the consistency of information is out there and received by carers who remain a priority group.
- Ensuring that carer needs are identified through assessment and that opportunities to access carer breaks such as leisure facilities and hubs are available.
Improving access to information and resources including through transforming and improving digital solutions
Collaborating with all health and care, regeneration, education, business and voluntary sector alliance is key to development and growth in our communities.
Engaging with and help all residents and local businesses to access and fully embrace digital inclusion, improving the take up of digital literacy in the community.
Continuing to enable and support health and wellbeing for all people and communities through digital technology in the home and via information and guidance tools that enhance self-help and independence.
Continuing to motivate and enable digital communities to engage and connect with each other.
We will achieve this by:
- Widening digital participation and enabling access to training to improve digital skills
- Identifying and promoting digital champions within communities and local businesses
- Supporting intergenerational mentoring
- Improving the range of assistive technology
- Working collaboratively with social prescribers in the community
- Increasing the digital skills of staff
- Developing carers digital skills so that they can access on-line information and services.
Influencing change and innovation, through carer voice and partnership working
We want North Lincolnshire to be the “Best Place” for carers, and with organisations who provide services for carers and families, understand what we require from them, ensuring the service user voice and service user engagement is undertaken regularly as part of our stakeholder participation.
Carers are invited to share their experiences at our Carers’ Advisory Partnership meetings, Parents Forum and through People’s Voice Forum.
Working with commissioned services to ensure the voice of carers continues to be heard and that services are timely and appropriate.
Researching the results of national surveys and for example the census returns enables future planning.
Celebrating events for carers both locally and nationally.
We will achieve this by:
- Listening to and responding to carer feedback in relation to quality of services accessed
- Monitoring performance of commissioned services in relation to service delivery, quality and outcomes for carers
- Promoting Partnership Groups which enable them to contribute to a wide range of services
- Working innovatively and creatively, especially in times of national crisis to ensure the continuity of services
- Responding to national legislation and best practice guidance in relation to carers.
- Promoting carers rights through local events and activities across all communities.
Monitoring and review
We do not yet know the outcome that the Covid-19 pandemic will have in the medium and longer term. In the short term, we know the pandemic is having an impact on unpaid carers, and the people they care for. Some carers will have received less support from other family members and friends during the crisis. Many carers and the people they care for will be at greater risk because of severe illness. Many carers will be under even more pressure than usual, having to increase their caring responsibilities, and worried both about themselves and the person or people they care for getting coronavirus.
As a partnership we will move forward with our strategy and action plan to ensure that all carers who live and work within North Lincolnshire can experience a good quality of life, realise their goals and ambitions, and access the information and support that enables them to continue in their caring role.
We have a commitment to listen, learn, review and adapt and we will demonstrate our success in improving outcomes for our residents through performance data and analysis, practice wisdom, voice and engagement and reviews/reports.
Progress made against the priorities, outcomes and commissioning intentions set out in this plan will be monitored:
- On a quarterly basis via the NLC Commissioning Team and NL CCG.
- Through quarterly reporting to the Integrated Adults Partnership and Integrated Children’s Trust against the ‘Shine a Light’ priorities.
- Each partner organisation will be responsible for identifying and implementing the actions they will take to support progress against the strategy priorities and objectives. These will be collated into an overarching action plan which will be monitored regularly.
- It is important that partners have a way of knowing that the actions and commitments being undertaken are making a difference for carers, and carer feedback will support that.
Appendices
North Lincolnshire Strategic and ‘Place’ Context
The Care Act 2014 recognises the equal importance of supporting carers and the people they care for as carers play a vital role in our communities, providing essential care to those who need help and support with daily living. They need support to look after their own health and wellbeing, realise their education and employment potential and to ensure they are connected in their communities and enabled to have a life of their own alongside caring responsibilities.
The All-Age Carer Strategy is one of a suite of documents and it is important that all strategies and plans sits within the broader context to be the best place for the people of North Lincolnshire.
- Health and Social Care Integration – Community First Strategy 2023
- Council Plan
- Care Act 2014
- NHS Long Term Plan (2021)
- Children’s Commissioning Strategy 2020–2024
- Children Act 1989
- Integrated Commissioning Strategy for Adults 2020–2024
- NICE Guideline on Supporting Adult carers, published in January 2020
- ADASS Quality Markers Framework
We aim to tackle the wider determinants that affect all carers’ health and wellbeing, and this is a responsibility for everyone. The Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy (JHWS) provides the context and structure for how partners across North Lincolnshire can add value by working together differently. This includes collaboration between commissioning authorities, partners, providers and carers in need of services. The focus is to improve outcomes for the population across all life stages -starting well, developing well, living and working well, ageing and retiring well and dying well.
Young carers are a priority group who are often “hidden” carers and therefore can suffer with poor health and wellbeing. They may often miss out on education and social interaction with their peers. It is important that their needs are assessed appropriately to identify services that can work alongside flexible educational opportunities, training and social interaction. It is imperative that young carers are enabled to have the same opportunities and life chances that other young people have who do not have a caring role.
Contact
Carer Support Service:
Telephone:01652 650585 E-mail:info@carerssupportcentre.com Website:www.carerssupportcentre.com
For commissioning queries please contact the Strategic Commissioning Team 01724 296196 or email: CommissioningProcurementContracts@northlincs.gov.uk