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Objectives

Objective 1

All carers in Warwickshire are assisted to identify themselves as carers at an early stage.

Carers outcome:

  • I know where to get information and advice
  • I can speak to people who know something about care and support and can make things happen.

What we still need to do to deliver Objective 1: Priorities for 2017-20

What will we do?

We raise the profile of carers, the issues they face and the support they are entitled to, via a widespread ‘Think Carer’ awareness raising media campaign.

We will co-develop with carers “Think Carer” promotional materials and media campaign, and target distribution at:

  • Key touch points across the health and social care economy (as identified by carers)
  • Key professionals within partner organisations across the health and social care economy (as identified by carers)
  • The wider community – to support carers to recognise themselves as carers

We will co-develop with carers a “Think Carer” education/training programme to raise awareness of carers rights, inform practitioners of Warwickshire’s carers support offer and up skill/equip practitioners to support carer identification and timely referral into support services.

This will be rolled out to GP practices, hospitals, community health teams, social care practitioners and pharmacies.

Working in partnership with Public Health we will include carer awareness ‘Think Carer’ in MECC (Making Every Contact Count) training for health and social care professionals.

Raise awareness of those who are caring by improving information accessible through local health and wellbeing websites i.e. Warwickshire Directory and Dementia Portal.

We will develop Warwickshire Carers Partnership Board to:

  • Oversee implementation of this strategy and monitor progress
  • Identify and implement further opportunities for joint working
  • Hold events to specifically engage with carers about the issues affecting them with regards to support available and understanding carers priorities for the future.

We will jointly commission a redesigned Carers Support Service that will act as a single point of entry for all carers. WCC will be lead commissioner for the service.

We will develop and implement a system wide approach to identification of carers that can be used to identify carers across key partner agencies for proactive referral into commissioned Carers Support Services as a single point of entry.

To assist identification of Carers the commissioned Carers Support Service will:

  • Link into key touch points across the health and social care system, specifically primary care and key transition points; (as identified by carers)
  • Develop specific approaches to be able to increase the number of carers identified
  • Develop specific approaches to increase numbers of carers identified from seldom heard and hard to reach communities
  • Meet performance measures of increasing the identification of carers.

We will improve awareness of carers’ issues, identification and referral of carers and information provision in GP practices and other community and health services.

We will work towards including the identification and referral of carers in all contracts with services commissioned by Warwickshire County Council and wider partners across Health and Social Care.

We will incentivise pharmacists to support people to recognise themselves as a carer and signpost carers to commissioned Carer Support Services.

Objective 2

All carers are able to make informed decisions and exercise choice and control about care and support through the provision of accessible information and advice for themselves and the person they care for.

Carers outcome

  • I have the information and support I need in order to remain as independent as possible
  • I can access information and advice needed to make informed choices about my life
  • I know where to get information about what is going on in my community.

What we still need to do to deliver Objective 2: Priorities for 2017-2020

What will we do?

We will develop a robust carers information and advice offer working in partnership with key agencies and linking into available sources of information across a range of local and national agencies and coordinate activity to enhance carers information and advice offer across key partner agencies. (This activity will be linked to the WCC Care Act information and advice offer).

The Carers Support Service will link into the carers information and advice offer and facilitate dissemination and distribution of locally tailored information on all aspects of the caring role, ensuring that it is accessible in a variety of formats.

We will provide Carers Support Service with an electronic platform to locally tailored information and advice (e.g. e-hubs).

Objective 3

All carers will receive personalised support; both for themselves and the person they care for, enabling them to have a family and community life.

Objective 4

All carers will be supported to remain physically and mentally well.

Carers outcome

  • As a carer, I am supported to balance my caring responsibilities with having a life of my own
  • I have access to a range of support that helps me live the life I want and remain a contributing member of my community
  • My health and wellbeing are promoted at all times
  • I am supported by people who help me make links to my local community
  • I am able to maintain relationships that are important to me and feel part of my community
  • I have a positive experience of support at all times and receive service from friendly, supportive and experienced people
  • My individual needs and how I want to live my life are respected.

What we still need to do to deliver Objectives 3 and 4: Priorities for 2017-2020

What will we do?

We will commission a single or collaboration of providers (with a lead provider) to facilitate access to and deliver a range of group and social activities for carers that seeks to reduce social isolation, provide carer network, peer support and develop interest, hobbies and provision of information and advice.

Tier 1 – Universal: The commissioned provider will facilitate access to:

  • Locally tailored information and advice on all aspects of the caring role
  • Local community activities
  • Local community and voluntary services
  • Local universal services

Tier 2 – Targeted: The commissioned carers support service will develop and deliver local services in response to local need, including but not limited to:

  • Emotional support
  • Peer support and carer networks
  • Carers helpline
  • Training (to enable people to confidently care)
  • Practical support
  • Access to short breaks from caring alongside face-to-face support (where required)
  • Develop emergency and contingency plans (and use of carers emergency cards).

The commissioned provider will facilitate:

  • Increased use of assistive technology to support carers to take a break from caring responsibility
  • Access to direct payments for carers
  • Access to specialist services where the person is prepared to self-fund (e.g. respite / replacement care).

Tier 3 – Statutory and Specialist:

  • The commissioned provider through a triage approach to assessments will manage demand and where appropriate facilitate access to WCC funded statutory and/or specialist support services.

We will commission a single provider to act as a single point of entry for all carers. We will consider implementing a ‘triage’ approach to carers assessments and provision of support.

Where it appears that the carer may have any needs for support, they will be offered a ‘light touch’ carer’s assessment from the commissioned carers support service. The “light touch” assessment will be carried out using a jointly agreed assessment tool and following the core statutory obligations set out it the Care Act guidance.

All assessments will result in the provision of personalised and locally tailored information and advice to help the carers understand their situation and the needs they have, and reduce or delay the onset of greater needs.

The commissioned support service will work with the carer and their family to achieve the carers desired outcomes by developing and coordinating a network of support making the best use of individual and local assets and facilitating access to:

  • Universal services (Tier 1)
  • Targeted support provided by the carers support service (Tier 2)
  • Targeted support provided by partner agencies and WCC (Tier 2) (e.g. assistive technology and carer helpline)
  • To specialist support where the person is prepared to self-fund (Tier 3) (e.g. replacement care).

Where desired outcomes can only be achieved via access to other specialist statutory support services (tier 3) and the person is deemed to be likely as being eligible for support, the provider will refer the carer to the WCC for the “light touch” assessment to be developed into a full statutory assessment.

This model is illustrated in the form of an explanatory diagram at Figure 2 “carers support model”.

Develop our offer of Personal Budgets / Direct Payments to carers to ensure they have more control over the support they receive.

Increase the use of Assistive Technologies (AT) for carers, to improve the quality of life for carers and reduce carer break down.

We will promote Extra Care Housing as a housing with care offer to support married couples and “significant others” to stay together.

Review and understand current day opportunities and day care provision in respect of capacity and future demand for replacement care.

Review respite/short breaks usage by carers and seek to understand if this is meeting carers requirements.

WCC will continue to commission respite to provide replacement care for both planned and unplanned events.

A review of current respite beds will be undertaken and new fee rates agreed.

We will locally promote and support national initiatives to influence employers, including at SME level, to implement supportive workplace policies to help encourage workplace support, including but not limited to promoting carers right to request flexible working.

WCC and local NHS partners will commit to supporting employees with informal caring responsibilities.

Objective 5

All carers will be recognised, valued and empowered as “experts” in care.

Carers outcome

  • I am recognised as an “expert in care” partner and actively engaged in informed decision making about my support as an individual
  • I can speak to people who know something about care and support and can make things happen
  • I can plan ahead and keep control in a crisis
  • I have systems in place so that I can get help at an early stage to avoid crisis.

What we still need to do to deliver Objectives 5: priorities for 2017-2020

What will we do?

We will continue to progress the work to date (as part of the implementation of the Care Act) to increase awareness and knowledge of carers right to an assessments and the key outcomes people can expect from a carers assessment.

To support this we will ensure widespread distribution of Carers information materials developed in consultation with carers in relation to carer assessments and eligibility criteria.

NHS Continuing Healthcare assessments should, where possible, take place in conjunction with social care assessments.

We will develop a cared for consent form within a locally agreed protocol where the cared for identifies their main carer and provides consent for them to accompany to appointments (where required) and be involved in discussions, decisions and planning of their care and support.

As part of profile raising awareness raising campaign, we will develop or adopt a trademark symbol using common language and branding across the Local Authority and CCGs with the intention of encouraging as many agencies as possible to use it across the county. This symbol will be used on patient/ customer records and care plans, and displayed beside an inpatients hospital bed to signify to all practitioners that the person has a main carer whom they have consented to being involved in and informed of discussions and decisions about their care and support.

 

Objective 6

All carers will be supported to access the right services, at the right time, in the right place.

Carers outcome

  • As a carer, I am supported to balance my caring responsibilities with having a life of my own
  • I have access to a range of support that helps me live the life I want and remain a contributing member of my community
  • I am supported by people who help me make links to my local community
  • I have a positive experience of support at all times and receive service from friendly, supportive and experienced people.

What we still need to do to deliver Objectives 6: priorities for 2017-2020

What will we do?

We will develop a system wide approach to the identification. With the commissioned carers support provider acting as a single point of entry for all carers.

The commissioned support service will operate a locality model with lead workers and support teams allocated to defined localities across Warwickshire, aligned with GP and Primary Care Localities.

  • The locality lead workers will be linked into professional teams at key points of the carers journey across the local health and social care system (as listed above at theme 1)
  • The locality lead workers will be linked into local community and voluntary services
  • Ensure resource and activity is tailored to local needs and assets.

This approach is illustrated in the form of an explanatory diagram at Figure 3 “Locality based approach”.

The Commissioned support service will maximise its reach and improve accessibility of support services by:

  • Integrating within and working in partnership with the local health and social care system.
  • Developing local services in response to local need
  • Delivering support utilizing local assets
  • Utilising multiple channels of service delivery (e.g. virtual, face to face, telephone)

Where need is identified support will be designed for both parties, facilitating access to short term (pop up) replacement care alongside face to face carers support.

Using the evidence and intelligence set out in the carers JSNA the commissioned provider will have targets in terms of reaching and engage carers (both locality specific targets and demographic targets) to ensure resource and activity is tailored to local needs and targeted at those most in need. This approach is illustrated in the form of an explanatory diagram at Figure 4 “Targeted approach tailored to local needs”.

We will work towards developing a mechanism within existing systems to capture the numbers of hospital admissions in Warwickshire that are due to carer breakdown in order to quantify potential savings across acute care by improving support to carers with a view to identifying and developing joint commissioning opportunities with CCG’s demonstrating Carer Support service’s benefits to the whole health and social care economy.

 

 

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