Our strategy for carers

Caring responsibilities will affect most people. The caring relationship can be with anyone - a partner, parent, sibling, child, grandchild, neighbour, or friend and may change over time. Carers may support one person for a long period or several people at different times.

The 2021 Census reported that:

• Nearly 10% (82,000) of Staffordshire residents aged over 5 provide some unpaid care each week.
• 66% of carers are aged over 50, and 58% of carers are women.
• There are 1,610 young carers aged 5 – 17.
• Caring for others is part of our responsibilities to one another as citizens and can be extremely rewarding. National estimates from Carers UK place the total value of the unpaid work of carers in Staffordshire in 2021 at £2.6bn per annum.

However caring can have a significant personal and financial costs with carers more likely to experience health and financial inequalities:

• Carers are twice as likely to suffer from poor health compared to the general population mainly due to lack of information and support, finance concerns, stress and social isolation.
• 1 in 3 young carers have a mental health issue.
• The caring role limits carers' ability to undertake paid work; Carers UK estimate that 1 in 6 carers stop working or reduce their hours due to their caring role.
• Carers under retirement age providing over 20 hours care per week are more likely to be living in lower-income households, compared with non-carers or carers providing fewer hours.
• Carers also have more outgoings related to their caring role such as caring equipment or higher fuel costs.
• 38% of young carers we spoke to told us they struggle to balance their caring role with going to school.

In total, 412 young and adult carers gave feedback to the strategy, including 306 adult carers who responded to our survey. Of the carers that responded to each question:

• 54% provide over 50 hours of care each week and many carers did not have a break from caring.
• 95% are not able to spend as much time as they want doing things they enjoy.
• 78% said they do not have enough time to look after themselves.
• 99% said caring had impacted negatively on their own health.
• 65% said caring has caused financial difficulties.
• 84% said they do not have as much social contact as they would like.
• 81% said they have not enough encouragement and support in their caring role.
• 67% said they have not found it easy to find information, advice and guidance, and 59% said that information they had found had not been helpful.
• 35% said they had not been involved or consulted as much as they wanted to be in discussions about the support or services provided to the person they care for.
• 71% who felt respite was relevant to their situation said they would not know how to access it if they needed to.
• Many were worried about what would happen when they can no longer care.
• Many said that they were unaware of the carers assessment.

18. Adult carers said their top priorities to support them in their caring role are:

• More timely support, including practical support, face to face and flexible peer support groups;
• Reliable, accessible and timely information for example at the point of diagnosis or crisis;
• More support from primary care, including signposting and timely information and advice;
• More opportunities for a break from caring;
• Simpler health and care systems including consistent workers, named contacts and being able to speak to someone;
• To be recognised and valued, and for health and social care professionals to understand and have empathy for the carer’s role;

19. Young carers and their families told us their top priorities are:

• More support, including socialisation support, counselling and flexible peer support sessions;
• Being identified as a young carer earlier and support given at an earlier stage;
• More awareness of young carers in schools, communities, and health services;
• More support in schools as a young carer and more practical support, such as exam help, free school meals, additional help;
• More opportunities for a break from caring;
• More funding and opportunities for young carers from local services including Staffordshire Together for Carers.

Outcome: Adult and young carers have timely access to reliable, up-to-date information, advice and guidance and they know where to find this

Actions will include:

• We will explore extending use of digital technology solutions to signpost carers to reliable and accessible sources of information and support, including practical support, whilst recognising that these do not work for everyone.
• We will work with health and social care settings to improve the visibility and accessibility of information for carers.
• Health and social care professionals will ensure that carers receive appropriate information at key points in the carer’s journey such as at the cared for person’s diagnosis and times of crisis and ensure that carers know where to get help and support.
• Young carers will continue to be supported during times of crisis by Staffordshire Together for Carers and health and social care professionals.
• Young carers will be supported to access information via Staffordshire Together for Carers and health and social care professionals.
• We will ensure that carers can speak to someone if they need to.
• We will continue to offer access to advice and support with financial management and welfare benefit entitlement.

For adult carers. we will measure delivery of this outcome through carer quality of life metrics from the biannual Survey of Adult Carers in England, and Staffordshire’s own carers surveys to ensure that we hear from carers who are not in receipt of support, i.e.:

• % of adult carers who have found it easy to access information and/or advice.
• % of adult carers who are satisfied with the information and/or advice they have received.
• Activity data from digital solutions such as websites and apps

For young carers we will measure this through the number of young carers assessments and numbers of young carers registered with Staffordshire Together for Carers.

Outcome: Adult and young carers can access the support they need to maintain good physical and mental wellbeing

Actions will include:

• We will help primary care surgeries to identify carers and offer or signpost them to appropriate support, including Carers Passports and vaccinations.
• To prevent loneliness and isolation we will continue to develop a range of opportunities for carers to meet with other people, including other carers.
• We will train school staff and other relevant agencies to be alert to issues affecting the wellbeing of young carers and to respond appropriately.
• We will continue to offer counselling to carers based on their needs through Staffordshire Together for Carers.
• We will provide employers with information on carers legislation, so that employers know how to take effective action to enable carers to balance their caring and employment responsibilities.

We will measure delivery of this outcome through:

• % of adult carers who say in the Survey of Adult Carers in England and Staffordshire’s own survey:
  • I’m able to spend my time as I want, doing things I value or enjoy.
  • I have as much control over my daily life as I want.
  • I look after myself.
  • I have no worries about my personal safety.
  • I have as much social contact as I want with the people I like.
  • I feel I have encouragement and support.
• Young carer feedback

Outcome: Young and adult carers have a consistent offer to preventative, personalised and strength-based assessment and support

Actions will include:

• We will ensure a consistent approach to carers assessments is adopted by Adult Social Care and that the whole workforce is equipped and has the knowledge to support carers.
• We will ensure the carer is able to make an informed decision about how their assessment is undertaken and whether this is face to face.
• We will continue to develop our carer offer to be focussed on prevention, reducing and delaying needs arising and avoiding crisis.
• Where an assessment identifies eligible needs, we will look to meet these with support from the carer’s own network or local community including preventive, universal services.
• We will improve understanding with carers and professionals of our current carers self-directed support offer, called carers direct payments, and make sure they are accessible to everyone who is eligible.
• We will work holistically with young carers through the assessment process looking at the wider impact of their caring role on their education, health and wellbeing and future aspirations and ensure they have access to ongoing, appropriate support such as peer support groups, one to one support or counselling.
• Improve our assessment pathways for parent carers whose child is preparing for adulthood and for young carers approaching adulthood.

We will measure delivery of this outcome through:

• Reviewing audits of our strength-based practice carer assessments.
• Carer feedback on their experience of assessment by First Contact Team and timeliness of assessments.
• Number of young carers accessing support from Staffordshire Together for Carers.
• Uptake of one-off direct payments.

Outcome: Carers feel valued and respected as an expert partner in care

Actions will include:

• We will increase the numbers of carers champions in primary care and schools.
• We will support social care staff to recognise, positively engage and respect carers.
• We will involve adult carers in assessments, care planning, decision-making and reviews, and universally recognise and support them as ‘Expert Partners in Care’.
• We will run regular communications to identify, support and celebrate carers using opportunities including Carers Week, Carers Rights Day and the Dignity in Care Awards.
• We will work with businesses to help build carer friendly communities and recognise and support carers.
• We will promote the use of discount cards and schemes for carers.

We will measure delivery of this outcome through:

• % of carers who have been involved or consulted as much as they want to be about support or services provided to the person they care for.
• % of carers who have had encouragement and support in their caring role.
• Nominations of unpaid carers for the Dignity in Care Awards.
• Number of staff who have undertaken carers awareness training.