Agenda item

The existing Medway Carers’ Strategy 2015-2017 was developed to ensure the Council was Care Act compliant and able to demonstrate its commitment to carers. The Council’s legal duty to assess and identify the eligible needs of carers and the important contribution that carers make to supporting our strategic priorities, has led to the development of the draft Medway Joint Carers’ Strategy 2019-2024.

The strategy has been coproduced with carers and in consultation with stakeholders. It describes how health and social care services, provider organisations and the voluntary sector will work together over the next five years to respond and meet the needs of carers in Medway.

The strategy aligns with the overall objectives defined within the Council Plan, the Health and Wellbeing Strategy for Medway and “Getting Better Together”, the Adult Social Care Strategy for Medway.

The success of implementing this strategy lies firmly in a collaborative and joined up approach. A clear governance and performance framework will help to drive the strategy forward through the development of a joint delivery plan that measures whole system benefit.

Discussion

The Council had a statutory responsibility under the Care Act to assess the needs of carers and to separately assess the needs of those in receipt of care. The Medway Joint Carers’ Strategy would support the Council and Medway NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to work jointly with carers to support them effectively. It was considered that figures for the number of young carers locally were likely to underrepresent the true picture. The figures showed that of 64,000 under 18’s in Medway, there were 660 young carers. There were also 1,600 aged 16 to 25. One driver of the Strategy was the need to identify carers that the Council was not aware of.

The underpinning vision had not changed since the previous Carers’ Strategy but the health and social care system had. The new Strategy reflected these changes. It had been co-produced with carers and stakeholder engagement had been undertaken. A Carers Service for new older and younger carers had been established. The service, which had launched in January 2019 using Better Care Fund funding, was provided by Carers First. It formed part of the wider voluntary and community sector consortium contract.

The six key priorities set out in the Strategy were:

1.    Identification and recognition of all carers in Medway 

2.    Provision of good quality Information, advice, guidance and support

3.    Access and involvement in assessment and support planning

4.    High quality carers support services

5.    Support to maintain physical, emotional health and wellbeing

6.    Respecting the expertise that carers have

A Committee Member commended the co-production of the Strategy and emphasised that work was needed to identify hidden carers. He also emphasised the social isolation that many carers faced. The Member asked what steps were being taken and how the CGG was being involved in development of the Strategy.

The Head of Health Improvement said that CCG colleagues were engaged in Strategy development. The Strategy would be presented to the Local Care Strategy Group and other CCG forums over next six months to develop an action plan. Updates on Strategy delivery would be provided during the five year period that it covered.

A Member, who had had experience of being a carer shared his experience with the Committee. He highlighted the following:

·         The development of a local induction pack for people becoming a carer would be welcome.

·         Taking on caring duties while working was challenging.

·         Carers benefitted from receiving training about managing a crisis soon after becoming a carer but it was also difficult for many carers to leave their home to attend.

·         There needed to be preparation and training to enable carers to deal with end of life considerations.

·         The Member had been linked in with Medway hospice from early on. Care provided by the hospice had helped the cared for person to regain their dignity.

·         Both carer and cared for person had completed a questionnaire about attitudes to death. It had been good to have an open conversation about death.

·         It would be helpful to have the opportunity of an interview once a person had stopped being a carer.

·         Respite care provision was crucially important to carers and its provision had been much appreciated. There had been a suggestion that the Council had stopped the provision of respite care, which was a concern.

·         It was concerning that Medway Council was not subscribed to the ‘Tell us Once’ scheme as it had been necessary to contact several individual Council departments [It was confirmed during the subsequent agenda item on Scrutiny of the Council's Transformation Programme that the Council was in the process of joining the scheme].

·         Carers needed to know that there would be support available in the event that they themselves became ill.

A Committee Member said that better support was needed for older carers aged 70 and over. The Director of People, Children and Adult Services said this was an areas of concern. While it was pleasing that adults with a disability now had longer life expectancies, it meant that parents looking after them were becoming older. Some individuals with disabilities had to enter care suddenly due to the death or illness of a parent carer. It was acknowledged that there needed to be a particular focus on older carers.

It was asked by a Committee Member what benefit priority six of the Strategy, ‘respecting the expertise that carers have’ would have for carers and the cared for person. The Committee was advised that this was about identifying the added value that a carer could bring, such as skills acquired in their professional life and then enabling these skills to be utilised effectively. Development of new skills for carers was also an important consideration.

A Member sought assurance, particularly in relation to Medway NHS CCG that the Strategy would be supported effectively. The Member also highlighted that the Strategy referenced a need for GPs of carers to be aware of their role so that they could look out for any resulting problems. There was an expectation amongst many carers that they would have to stop working but this could result in whole families becoming dependent on the state. Employers tended not to be as flexible with regards to employees with caring duties as they would be for those with children and it was suggested that the Council could do more to engage with local employers as well as ensuring that its own staff with caring responsibilities were supported effectively. The Head of Health Improvement highlighted that the Carers Strategy would be presented to the CCG Steering Group on 28 March. Consideration would be given as to how GPs could be fully engaged in support for carers. A question about caring responsibilities would be included in the next staff survey and local employers were encouraged to engage in workplace health programmes. The Deputy Managing Director of Medway NHS CCG said that the CCG was fully supportive of and engaged in development and delivery of the Strategy.

Decision

The Committee commented on the Medway Joint Carers’ Strategy, provided feedback to improve the content and delivery of the strategy outcomes and noted the timetable for approval, as set out in paragraph 5.5 of the report.