Agenda and minutes

Venue: Virtual Meeting

Contact: Mark Pirnie - Scrutiny Manager 023 8083 3886 

Link: link to meeting

Items
No. Item

6.

Carer Friendly Southampton - Carers identification rights, recognition and support pdf icon PDF 433 KB

Report of the Director of Legal and Business Operations requesting that the Panel consider the comments made by the invited guests and use the information provided as evidence in the review.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel considered the report of the Director of Legal and Business Operations requesting that the Panel consider the comments made by the invited guests and use the information provided as evidence in the review.

 

Summary of information provided:

A carers perspective – Jenny, Emma-May, Leah and Zunayrah

·  Following a vox pop produced by No Limits featuring the views of young carers, and a vox pop by Carers in Southampton providing views of adult carers, 3 young carers, Leah, Ellie-May and Zunayrah, supported by Emma Jones and Emma Bowley from No Limits, informed the Panel about their experiences with regards to being recognised as a young carer.

·  The lack of recognition and engagement from health services was identified as a challenge, with young carers often being ignored when wanting to be engaged in discussions with clinicians and the person they help to care for.

·  Schools not knowing about the young carers role or understanding the responsibilities the young carer has outside of school, was also raised alongside not being able to access after school activities due to transport problems, and not discussing young carers in the school curriculum.  This would help to normalise the role of being a young carer and could help self-identification by young people.

·  Linda Lawless, Service Manager at Carers in Southampton, interviewed Jenny, a carer whose husband has dementia.  Similar challenges about the need to repeatedly explain her caring role, not being listened to, and to be allowed to attend clinical appointments with her husband were raised by Jenny.

·  Training in moving and handling was raised as was the lack of awareness by carers of the benefits and wider support that is available to them.

 

Identification of carers – Debbie Hustings - Partnership Manager (Carers) Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System

·  A presentation was delivered by Debbie Hustings providing an overview of how Surrey Heartlands ICS support the identification of carers.

  • Key points raised in the presentation included the following:
    • 2011 Census identified 115,216 carers of all ages who live in Surrey.  New data will be provided by the 2021 census. This should be seen in context of the GP Patient survey which estimates the real caring population is nearer 17%. For Surrey this would mean our caring population is closer to 200,000.
    • Carers are the largest source of care and support in the UK.  As an example of what this means to our community, the University of Leeds estimate that carers in Surrey save the nation some £1.8 billion a year which would otherwise be spent on long term admission to hospital care, home placements or expensive home support packages (Valuing Carers 2015).
    • The annual value of the joint budget for carers across Surrey based CCGs & Surrey County Council is £5.8m. Better Care Fund major source of funds.
    • A Surrey priority is to increase the visibility of the role of the carer – Ensuring early identification of carers is important to achieve this.
    • The NHS is key in identifying carers. The Surrey Carers Team has been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.