Our commitment to Carers

The Care Act 2014, and Department of Health and Social Care’s care and support statutory guidance, seeks to substantially strengthen the rights and recognition of adult carers within the social care system.

Carer’s Assessments

The Care Act 2014 entitles carers to an assessment, with information and advice to help them make the best choices about support for their health and wellbeing. We will ensure that carer’s assessments are undertaken for all carers using personalised strength-based approaches and that the carer’s assessment process is accessible.

Inclusivity and diversity

We will ensure that our services for carers are inclusive, culturally appropriate, and address the needs and preferences of diverse groups and communities. People being cared for, their families and carers will be involved and recognised as equal partners in care. This includes identifying people’s cultural needs, choices, and preferences and looking at how these needs are met.

Training

There is a wide range of evidence suggesting that training can offer an opportunity for carers to gain essential skills and confidence and to help them to remain safe and well. Therefore, we will co-design with carers accessible training programmes designed to improve their understanding of the health condition, disability, or needs of the person they care for.

Championing carers’ rights through communications

We will identify and make the most of opportunities to raise awareness of carers’ rights, including aligning to and participating in national campaigns and events (for example, Carers’ Week and Carers’ Rights Day). These activities will be inclusive of all partners and providers.

People may not see themselves as carers but instead see caring as an extension of their familial role: daughters, sons, or partners, for example, doing what families and friends do. As such, the term carer does not always resonate with them.

In addition, becoming a carer can be a gradual process, and carers may not recognise the changing nature of their relationship with the person they support.

Similarly, many carers are not identified by health and social care practitioners. These are commonly termed ‘hidden carers’: they do not access available support often because they do not know it is there.

Whole family approach

In line with our ‘Whole Family’ value, the carer’s family context is respected, and a whole family approach to caring is embedded across Surrey.

Carers will be assessed using a whole family approach. Assessments and services should be coordinated to support the person with care needs and their family, including young carers. As a result, the entire family will be supported in the caring experience, have ready access to appropriate information, and be able to access appropriate support services.

Young adult carers

We must recognise the specific needs of young adult carers, particularly at critical points in the caring journey, such as entering or leaving college, university or work. Therefore, providers and partners will work together to help ensure that young adult carers are recognised, aware of, and able to access the information and support available to them. This will include proactively identifying where specific information, support, and services should be made available to and developed for young adult carers.

Training for professionals

It is vital to ensure that all partners and providers have the skills, knowledge, and understanding necessary to identify, support, and work with carers effectively. We will develop and make available a range of training materials to suit the needs of different providers and professional communities. All professionals will be offered carer awareness training, including understanding and promoting carer rights.

Surrey NHS key performance indicators (KPI)

The KPI is just one of many mechanisms to improve our response to identifying and supporting carers. Although 70% of carers come into contact with health professionals, only one in ten carers are identified through this route. The Surrey NHS Carers Key Performance Indicator (KPI) was co-produced in response to carers telling us that we need to:

• Improve outcomes for carers, reducing unwarranted variation
• Normalise caring within our standard NHS systems and processes
• Ensure the sustainability of carers' work through a systems response; and
• Prepare the ground for introducing Carer Quality Markers in line with the NHS Long Term Plan.

Local carer KPIs for social care providers commissioned by Surrey County Council

These have been established and will be embedded in all health care and social care provision during the life span of this strategy. Embedding the KPIs and monitoring providers’ delivery will raise the visibility of carers with providers whose core business does not necessarily include providing support to carers.

Following a full review of our governance structure, we have established the Carers Partnership Group which takes over from the Carers Partnership Board.

This group meets quarterly to ensure the programme is delivering the carers strategy in a timely manner, giving assurances to the system.

We will ensure that:

• A range of carers are invited to join the group.
• Meetings are held at times where carers can attend to share their views and feedback on the delivery of the strategy.

Taking on a caring role should not mean that people have to give up work, which might lead to financial hardship or social exclusion. Carers who want to work should be enabled to do so and should not be discriminated against. Carers should be supported in the workplace to maintain their employment status.

Carer awareness training for staff

All employers must ensure no carer is missed through lack of awareness on the part of its staff. We will complete a review of all existing training materials and work with the local NHS Academies to seek new approaches to staff carer awareness training while ensuring that the ‘lived experience’ of caring remains integral to our programme.

The Surrey-wide Multi-Agency Carers Workforce Task Group

This group was established in July 2020. It aims to work collaboratively, using an integrated approach, to provide a system-wide response to supporting staff juggling work with care.

Working Carers Passport and staff carer contingency planning

We will improve support to staff with caring responsibilities, promoting the new Working Carers Passport to ensure that all employers have timely, compassionate conversations about what support would be helpful, including establishing and protecting flexible working patterns, and support staff carer contingency planning.

Communications with and for carers should be easy to navigate, tailored to individual needs, with the information provided in a format that carers can access and understand. There are several mechanisms in place to communicate and engage with carers.

However, we recognise that it is essential to review and refresh these regularly, to evaluate the impact of all communication and engagement activities, and to respond when carers tell us what is and is not working well.

Diversity of communication and engagement

Partners across the system should ensure diverse communication channels, engagement opportunities, and ways for carers to get involved if they want to. This must consider and respect different needs and communities and enable messages to be tailored appropriately.

Improving Accessibility

Providers and partners across the system should have a specific, consistent approach for identifying, recording, flagging, sharing, and meeting the information and communication support needs of carers. As part of this, carers should be supported to access information in the format that best meets their needs.

Person-centred approach to communication

Advice, information and support activities will be readily available and tailored to the needs of individuals. We will continue to use and develop a range of approaches, seeking to understand from carers how they would like to communicate with us and the best ways for us to communicate with them. This will include recognising that different approaches will work better for different people.