Draft Carers Strategy 2024-2027

Background

Our Draft Carers Strategy 2024-2027 is for all unpaid carers, including young carers, that live in or care for someone that lives in West Berkshire. It explains how West Berkshire Council (WBC), Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) and partner organisations plan to work together to identify, improve support and enable unpaid carers who live in West Berkshire or are providing care to someone who lives in West Berkshire to balance their caring responsibilities with a life outside of caring.

According to NHS England, a carer has been defined as "anyone, including children and adults who looks after a family member, partner or friend who needs help because of their illness, frailty, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction and cannot cope without their support. The care they give is unpaid".

We want all carers to have the support they need, when they need it most, without unnecessary delays. This involves providing the right information at the right time and in a format that is appropriate and accessible to them.

We recognise caring for someone can be a tough job, so we want to make sure carers have timely support to ensure they can continue in their caring role and have a life outside of caring.

How we developed our draft strategy

Our draft strategy has been developed in conjunction with carers and young carers to ensure that their views are taken into consideration. We've considered feedback from the Personal Social Services Survey for Adult Carers in England 2021/2022 in relation to unpaid carers in West Berkshire. We've also viewed it in the context of other national and local policies and strategies, for example the Care Act 2014, West Berkshire Council Strategy 2023-2027, (please see pages five and six of the draft strategy for the full list).

Through the process of developing the strategy, we've established the following Vision:

We want West Berkshire to be a community where: 

• carers of all ages are identified, recognized and valued
• carers have access to relevant information and can access the support they need (either practical or emotional) to meet their ongoing needs
• we want to ensure that intervention and support make a positive difference in our unpaid carers' lives 
• can achieve the desired outcomes that matter to them

To achieve our vision, we've identified the following priorities to explain how Adult Social Care and partner organizations will work together to support carers of all ages over the next three years:

1. raise awareness and increase the identification of carers (including hidden carers) to enable them to access help and support
2. provide information and advice to carers and young carers
3. enable access to peer support groups for carers and young carers
4. support carers to improve their physical, mental, emotional and overall wellbeing
5. support carers and young carers to take breaks from caring
6. support a life outside caring to enable carers and young carers to achieve their potential

For the full list of proposed actions, please see the Delivery Plan in Appendix 1 of the draft Carer's Strategy.

You can view/download the full draft strategy here, and an easy read version has also been created which you can view here.

We've prepared a summary page of the draft strategy, which can be viewed/downloaded here.

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Why we want your views

It's important to hear from all our residents, but particularly from carers, and we'd like to know if you believe:

• the strategy strikes the right level of ambition
• the proposed priorities and actions will help us achieve our vision for carers in West Berkshire
• there are any other priorities and/or actions you think we should consider including
• the draft strategy is clear and easy to understand. 

We'll also be gathering the views of partner organisations, council staff and voluntary and community groups.

How to take part

If you'd like to comment on our draft strategy, please complete our survey by midnight on Sunday, 17 November 2024. It should take about 10 minutes. 

Complete our survey

If you have any questions about the consultation, please email Hannah Cole (Service Manager and Principal Social Worker)

For general enquiries about being a carer and the support we can provide, please visit our Being a Carer webpage.

What happens next

All feedback we receive will analysed and used to inform the final strategy, which will be included in a report submitted for consideration by elected members at the Executive meeting being held on Thursday, 13 February 2025. 

Once approved, the final strategy will be published on our Strategies, Policies and Plans webpage.

NB: There is no "save and continue" button, therefore please allow enough time to complete the online survey.