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Items on this page are: Employers & Carers Conference 2010 - POSTPONED Carers Assessments Carer Awareness Training New Online “Breaks for Carers Service" – Carers of People with Learning Disabilities Extra Funding to Provide Training to Staff Carers Website Caring with Confidence

Employers & Carers Conference 2010
This event has been postponed until the Autumn.

The purpose of the event is to bring employers into contact with carers, and to provide and promote high quality information and practical advice that will help employers understand the barriers faced by carers in their workforce and how these can be addressed.

We are consulting on the new date and hope to confimr it by the end of April.

All those people who have booked a place are being notified of the postponement.

Carers Assessments - Update
Thank you to those carers who attended the focus groups in November, it was great to gain your comments and feedback regarding carers assessments as they happen now and how you would like them to be conducted in the future.

Through discussion with carers at these groups, their views and opinions became clear. Carers want assessments to become more accessible, more centred to the individual, to happen quicker and to include better joined up services throughout the process of the assessment and as a result of the assessment.

The view points of carers will form part of the research for the Carers Assessment Project and related Policy and there will be further opportunities for carers to become involved with this project as it progresses.

The next stage of this project is to begin developing a new assessment ‘tool’ which will be a more self directed process, that can offer carers more choice and control over the services they receive.

We will keep you up dated as we develop the process.

If you have thoughts and experiences about assessment that you would like to share with us please call Katherine Liggins on 01926 743026 or email us at customerfirst@warwickshire.gov.uk

Carer Awareness Training for Frontline Staff
Warwickshire County Council has been issued with specific funding to provide training for frontline public service staff to improve working practices with regards to working with, and effectively supporting, unpaid carers - the project is being progressed by the Carer & Customer First Team within Adult Health and Community Services.

“Who Cares?” Changing Perceptions and Values Around Caring and Carers has now “gone live”, with the first of 46 multi-agency workshops taking place on the 8^th February. Thanks to the commitment of Warwickshire carers in continuing to be involved in the project, many of the views and needs of local carers are reflected in the final programme…

Please click here for more details

New Online "Breaks for Carers" Service Carers of people with Learning Disabilities
Happy New Year from the Breaks for Carers Team!

We hope that you enjoyed your Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. The Breaks for Carers Project team are busier then ever and have made huge strides since our last post on this website. Please see our first post 06-10-09 for details on what The Breaks for Carers Project is if you are unsure. We have now designed our website click by click with the help of carers, providers of respite and sessional support and web experts. The aforementioned groups chose the logo you can see in the title as they felt it was clear and friendly- we hope you agree!

Carers, providers of respite and sessional support, and social workers have also been helping us decide what content to have on the website. The social workers wanted there to be information about transport services and so we have a search tool so that carers can find the best transport solution for their situation. For example, if the cared for was going to respite they could search on this website which transport services are available to take them and bring them back. The carers wanted a section on what discounts and freebies are available to carers in Warwickshire, another idea which we have taken forward. The providers whose profiles are going on the website wanted to use this service as an opportunity to market themselves and so we are running a training session for them to help them use this website to their best advantage.

Over the next three months the service is going to be built and tested based on the agreed design. The Breaks for Carers Team will be making sure that providers, Warwickshire County Council and third sector staff are online and able to use it. The service directory section of this website, along with some of the booking functionalities, is still due to be up and running by March so watch this space!

If you have any questions about this project or would like to be involved then please do not hesitate to get in touch with Claire Madden (Project Officer) tel:
01926 746980 Email: clairemadden@warwickshire.gov.uk

The big build has started!

Since our last post on here the Breaks for Carers Project Team have had three workshops. The first was dubbed “The Implementation Kick Off” with everybody who is involved from Warwickshire County Council, Carers Support Agencies, NHS Warwickshire and Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust meeting to discuss their roles in the project roll out (implementation). The project team took away lots of good points from the input and challenges raised in the workshops and it has helped us shape the way we have chosen to roll out the project with their support.

The second workshop we had was for carers. The first half focused on content of the website and the carers were very forthcoming on which words and pictures they felt were appropriate for the site and what sort of articles they would like to see on the “news pages”. The second half of the workshop was run by the people who are building the website and they asked lots of questions about carers’ experiences of accessing respite to help them shape what they are building. Carers also talked about what was important to them from a respite provider. Two key factors carers raised as problems with accessing respite at the moment include a limited choice of where the cared for can stay and lack of flexibility in when they can book. Both areas which the Breaks for Carers Project hopes to improve for carers and the cared for.

The third workshop was held with providers and the people who are building the website and focused on the logistics of using the system in line with their current practice. The feedback from the workshop was very positive and providers said that they felt a lot clearer on how this website works. They were also very impressed with what they saw of the system being built. A big “phew” from the Breaks for Carers Team!

So another busy month with plenty of challenges but the positive feedback we are getting from providers, carers and other stakeholders is fuelling our motivation to make this project a huge success and breaks for carers more accessible.

If you have any questions about this project or would like to be involved then please do not hesitate to get in touch with Claire Madden (Project Officer) tel:
01926 746980 Email: clairemadden@warwickshire.gov.uk

Warwickshire Carers website gets a 3* and commended by Carers UK
Carers UK recently looked at a range of website across the Country to assess the information they provide to the carer, primarily about council tax. I am very pleased to confirm that Warwickshire received a respective 3* rating out of a possible 5*. Carers UK also went on to commend us for the information provided. We have asked Carer UK how to attain 5* and work has already begun to improve the website even more.

What do you think of our website? Let us know how we could improve it. Your suggestions and input into keeping the site information of value to carers is REALLY important to us. If you have any suggestions please email them to: customerfirst@warwickshire.gov.uk

Caring With Confidence
Warwickshire’s two largest carer support services, Guideposts and South Warwickshire Carers Support Services have joined forces to provide training for carers in Warwickshire. The training is available in a series of modules each focusing on a different aspect of caring and aiming to help carers become more confident in the caring role. Comments from carers who have attended the course modules have been very positive. If you would like more information, please follow the links to these organisations from our Home Page.