Supporting Carers: Sharing Best Practice in Integrated Approaches to Support

We hope the key themes and good practice examples described will:

• Add value to conversations at local strategic and operational level
• Compliment the work of the national carers’ organisations
• Support the delivery of the national cross government Carers Action Plan – 2018 and the objectives for Carers in the NHSE Ten Year Plan 2019

Published in 2018 the Department of Health and Social Care’s national Carers Action Plan calls for recognition that ‘ Carers are ‘everybody’s business’. This has implications for important stakeholders in a local area including the Local Authority, the NHS, the voluntary sector, local employers, education, and
even local businesses. Building ‘carer friendly communities’ is not just the responsibility of the Local Authority and extends far beyond just meeting the statutory requirements of the Care Act 2014.

Key Learning:

A number of themes were evident from exploring the work of the exemplar sites. This led us to conclude that developing and sustaining ‘carer friendly communities’ requires:
Taking a Comprehensive, Whole System approach to carer support.

• Leadership, vision, and a commitment from public services to work in new and collaborative ways.
• A proactive, rather than a reactive approach to identifying and supporting carers across local systems.
• A focus on early intervention, prevention and community support.
• Having different conversations with carers including rethinking ‘assessment’ as more than just statutory carers assessment under the Care Act.
• Creating truly personalised ways of supporting carers at all stages of their journey.