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Agenda item

Agenda item

SUPPORT FOR CARERS AND CARER STRATEGY UPDATE

The Strategic Director Social Care and Education submits a report to provide the Scrutiny Commission with an update on the Joint Social Care and Health Recognising, Valuing and Supporting Carers in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Carer Strategy – 2018 to 2021. The report also provides an update on the support that has been provided to carers during the Covid-19 pandemic. A presentation will be delivered at the meeting.

 

The Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission is recommended to note the content of the report and are invited to provide comment and feedback to the Strategic Director and Executive. The Commission is also recommended to note the report is to be shared with the Children’s Social Care Scrutiny Commission.

Minutes:

The Strategic Director Social Care and Education submitted a report which provided the Scrutiny Commission with an update on the Joint Social Care and Health Recognising, Valuing and Supporting Carers in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Carer Strategy – 2018 to 2021. The report also provided an update on the support that had been provided to carers during the Covid-19 pandemic. A presentation was also delivered at the meeting.

 

Tracie Rees, Director for Adult Social Care and Commissioning introduced the report and provided a quick overview. It was noted that a joint LLR Carers Strategy had been in place since 2018 to run to 2021 (three-year strategy). The strategy update had been brought back to the Commission to run through some of the issues and challenges being dealt with, especially those that related to Covid-19 in adults and young carers.

 

Bev White (Lead Commissioner) and Nicola Cawrey (Business Change Commissioning Manager) delivered a presentation (attached for information). During the presentation, the following points of note were raised:

 

·         It was believed that the number of carers had increased from 32k to 46k post Covid-19. Included in the numbers were the number of carers registered with GPs, which had increased from 9,631 Feb 2020 to 9,901 in Oct 2020. It was noted carers had been encouraged to register with their GPs, and figures showed there had been some success in this.

·         Possible reasons for the increase in numbers of carers was given, including those now shielding, closure of care services and cancellation of care packages due to fear of Covid-19 from care workers in the home.

·         Priority One in the carer strategy was the identification of carers. On a positive note the work to raise the profile of family carers had had a positive impact in suggesting to people they might come forward and identify themselves as carers.

·         Leicester Carer Support Service, the Council’s commissioned service for carers over the age of 18 with various conditions and disabilities run by Age UK, had continued to support carers all through the Covid-19 pandemic, and included wellbeing calls, virtual support groups, information service, linking with Age UK’s Covid-19 helpline, and talking to carers with a focus on drawing up contingency plans, and ensuring carer ID cards were used, for example, to evidence reasons for being out during lockdown, supermarket preferential treatment. Officers had been working on a carer’s Passport across LLR and were in the process of being printed. Members were encouraged to share the information with constituents to ensure it helped as many carers as possible.

·         Social care teams had been looking after carers through wellbeing calls, support packages for carers under strain and supplying PPE to family carers when asked. The Council’s website had a Covid-19 page specifically for carers. Carers on the ‘Carers Got Talent’ distribution list had also been provided with information, including information on community testing.

·         Initially several queries were received from carers and organisations reporting people knocking on doors, and not knowing if they were genuine callers. Working with public health colleagues, advice and guidance had been provided, for example, asking for ID badges, directing to testing centres.

·         Support had been provided to young carers by Barnados, the commissioned young carer service. They had a See Hear Respond service to provide rapid support to children and young people affected by Covid-19. They had undertaken wellbeing calls and doorstep visits to young carers and families, and had helped families access grants, for example, the purchase of bikes to allow children to get to school when families were concerned about using public transport. Virtual groups had been run by the Youth Service and Barnados through technology.

·         Getting people to identify as carers and not husband / wife / daughter / friend was a challenge, and the Carer Passport was one way of trying to get carers to identify as such.

·         The health and social care system did not always recognise the different roles that carers undertook, for example, schools did not always make the link with what that young person was telling them about their family situation and that they were a young carer. Once a carer was in the health and social care system there was support to help them to navigate the system, put them in touch with the Carer Support Service, and if necessary put them in touch with adult social care services.

·         Those using support services and day services would be reassured the services and agencies were still running, and Covid-19 safety measures were in place including PPE and social distancing requirements, and people should continue to receive their care package. People would be urged to go back to day services.

 

The Chair offered his sincere appreciation to all the carers who looked after loved ones, but especially during the pandemic and all the work they did.

 

Officers received questions from Members and the following responses were made:

 

·         GPs held the carer register so anybody that registered with a GP was captured on the register, currently at 9,631. It was noted there were also carers who had received statutory carers assessments, carers accessing the commissioned service, and carers which had also accessed other voluntary sector support, so in terms of how all 46k were identified there was not central point of register.

·         With regards to issues experienced by carers, there was no doubt that carers would have been affected, for example, different arrangements accessing GP surgeries. Carers were frustrated and under increasing strain, were fatigued and under pressure with the Covid-19 pandemic and the situation in Leicester with the long and protracted lock down.

·         All services that supported carers had not reduced their offer but had delivered services differently. In terms of services loved ones received, when it was known that carers needed additional support, that support had been given. Day services had remained open but operated in different ways. The virtual offer continued and had been more convenient for some, so some positives had come out of that.

·         Officers continued to listen to carers and were trying to build up carers network. The Carers Passport was in response to carers saying they could not leave their loved one to go shopping and stand in long queues.

·         The Carer Passport was launched two weeks prior to the Scrutiny Commission meeting and could be accessed through the commissioned Carer Support Service in the city. The County commissioned a separate carer support service, and Rutland had a slightly different offer with access to the Carer Passport. Each area had its own promotional material, but was branded so all looked the same, but with contact details relevant to the area the carer lived in.

·         In terms of GPs, awareness had been raised on the Carer Passport in surgeries. It was difficult during the Covid-19 pandemic to have hard copies such as posters or leaflets anywhere but, subject to things changing in the future, there would be promotional material for the Carer Passport.

·         Lots of communication on how people could access a Carer Passport had been sent out, for example, posters sent to supermarkets to advertise on their community notice boards, which would signpost people to the Carer Support Service provided by Age UK.

·         The Carer Support Service as part of their monitoring information have a database of people that have accessed the service, and it was hoped there would be an increase in the numbers of people accessing the Carer Support Service as a result of the Carer Passport. Any stakeholder involved in the strategic group across LLR will be promoting the Carer Passport and signposting accordingly, and hopefully that would support the identification message.

·         A big launch of the Passport had been planned around Carers Rights Day on 26th November but had been brought forward because of the National Lockdown situation continuing. Communication would continue to ensure the message went out to the people that needed it.

·         The Carers Got Talent group replaced what was the Carers Reference Group. When working on the Carers Strategy and underlying implementation plan of that strategy a lot of engagement work was undertaken with the carers, an event was held during National Carers Week, on Carers Rights Day in November 2019, and also brought to scrutiny.

·         The plan was to make the CGT representative of all diverse communities, such as different areas, deprived, hard to reach. It was clear at the first meeting in March 2020 that there needed to be more carers on the group. Work would continue on the terms of reference for the group, and a meeting has been arranged for November to consider issues, and a small focus group arranged to promote the purpose of the group, and thought would be given to encouraging people to join from hard to reach groups.

·         The safeguarding training was a virtual training session provided by a resource through the Safeguarding Board. The Carer Support Service were linking in with a representative through the safeguarding board to make sure it was being delivered effectively.

·         With regards to the impact of technology when developing the implementation plan, the technology strand was the one carers were least interested in and was probably due to the language used to describe technology. Also assistive technology or a technological response to support caring roles sometimes prevented the need for approaching adult social care for different types of support, so technology could be considered as a strand of support, and assisted technology was taking shape in the Council.

·         The impact of technology was not necessarily around digital inclusion, but around the identification and support of carers. Officers were always aware that carers may not always be digitally savvy and would have to provide information that did not always rely on digital inclusion.

·         There were no specific criteria for anyone wanting to apply for a Carers Passport and people could contact the Carers Support Service to talk about their circumstances.

·         With regards to power of attorney, officers would work with family members and carers who had power of attorney, and whilst not being specialist legal advisers would try to support people and help people find routes to the right information if they were finding the process difficult. The Council also had a relationship with the Office of Public Guardian (OPG) who had delivered a presentation to social work staff to help them understand how the OPG worked so they could support family members with the process of power of attorney, and would also help the authority with concerns if they believed the power of attorney was being abused, or there was dissention in the family.

·         With regards to reaching out to communities where language could be a barrier, in conjunction with Carers Week and Carers Rights Day, events had been held, for example, in temples, on the radio, and with organisations and community groups around the city to spread and promote the carer word and information on support to families should they need it. The description of carer needed to be carefully explained to some people who did not identify as carer.

 

The Assistant City Mayor thanked Nicola and Bev for their passion and commitment, the willingness to adapt to change, to listen to different ideas and do anything they could to reach new audiences and were inspirational, and there was a real sense of wanting to get things right for residents, and when faced with challenges officers worked hard to overcome them. She added she wanted to place on record her thanks to them and long may the expansion of work continue. It was recognised the different roles people had from the person making doctor appointments right through to persons delivering care and everything in-between were crucial roles, that society could not run and the city would not be able to afford the work of carers, and that recognising the role of carers was vital.

 

The Chair and Commission Members echoed the words and sentiment and sincerely thanked the officers for their work and wanted to put on record thanks for the work of carers also.

 

The Chair recommended that the report be shared with the Children and Young People Scrutiny Commission and welcomed the initiative of the new Carers Passport and hoped work continue through publicity to target and raise awareness through various methods of communication to ensure all communities were included in the process.

 

AGREED:

That:

1.    the report and comments by the Scrutiny Commission be noted;

2.    the report be shared with the Children and Young People Scrutiny Commission;

3.    to continue through publicity to target and raise awareness through various methods of communication to ensure all communities were included in the process.

Supporting documents: