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
– Ellie-May, Leah, Zunayrah and Jenny
- Three
young carers, Leah, Ellie-May and Zunayrah, supported by Emma Jones
from No Limits, informed the Panel about their experiences with
regards to accessing information,
advice and guidance as young carers.
- The lack of a Young
Carers Discount Card, mirroring the discount card available to
adult carers was raised. A card that
enabled discounts on transport, days out, school meals would be
appreciated.
- A young carers
allowance or grant was suggested as a mechanism to help support
young carers, akin to the Young Scot Young Carers
Grant. This would not be funded
nationally.
- No limits website
provides advice to young carers but not all young carers follow
this, and emails get lost. Potential
for Instagram page / What’s App group / Updated Facebook
group or newsletter to provide information and advice to young
carers.
- Linda Lawless,
Service Manager at Carers in Southampton, interviewed Jenny, a
carer whose husband has vascular dementia and COPD.
- Jenny outlined
challenges in obtaining adaptations to her bathroom to help her
husband access the facilities. A
Council Occupational Therapist had undertaken an assessment and
referred her in October 2020, but she had not heard
back.
- Jenny explained
challenges in receiving benefits she was entitled to. Form filling was a barrier and the system is
complex. She has received support from
SCC’s Welfare Rights Service.
- Jenny was benefitting
from support to access community services. The Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Navigator
has been brilliant in providing support to Jenny and her
husband. She has also been referred to
Communicare for a befriender by Adult Mental Health
Service. The volunteer befriender took
her to and from a medical appointment recently. Communicare will shortly be starting a new service
called Hello Southampton to keep in touch with lonely
residents.
- Unpaid carers will be
6th priority to receive a Covid vaccination (although it
is thought that over a quarter of carers are in a higher priority
group). Carers in Southampton have
written to all unpaid carers that they are in contact with
encouraging them to register as a carer with their GP/Practice
Manager. This will ensure they receive
a priority vaccination as well as reminders for annual flu
vaccinations and health checks. The pandemic provides an
opportunity to register carers and get information out to
them.
DWP support for carers
– Mark Knight, DWP Policy Lead nationally for Carers &
Andy Sherman, DWP Employer & Partnership
Manager
- A presentation was delivered by
Mark and Andy outlining the support available for carers from the
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and local
initiatives.
- Carer’s Allowance (CA) provides a measure of financial
support and recognition for those who have had to give up or limit
their employment because of their caring
responsibilities.
- As of
May 2020, there were 3,517 carers in receipt of Carer’s
Allowance in the City of Southampton and £12.1 million was
spent on CA in Southampton in 2019/20 (£67.25 per week is
Carers Allowance).
- Carers
also have access to the full range of social security benefits
according to their circumstances but the interaction between Carers
Allowance and other benefits is complex.
- Carers
Allowance is relatively straightforward to claim but there is a
clear discrepancy between the number of carers receiving Carers
Allowance and the number of unpaid carers in
Southampton. Carers Allowance claimant
numbers are heavily linked to disability benefit claims and are
higher in some parts of the country, such as the north east of
England, than in the south east.
- A
priority of the DWP is supporting carers into employment (Fuller
Working Lives, employment support from Jobcentres, CA earnings
limit).
- Locally a Youth Hub has been established in Southampton as a
result of a DWP and Southampton City Council initiative. The Youth
Hub team will signpost to advice and support around housing,
benefits, health and wellbeing to provide a holistic and
person-centred service for young people, including young
carers.
- DWP
Complex Case Plans enables Jobcentre Work Coaches to signpost Young
Carers to support available within the local community. Up to date and accurate local information is
needed to give the best advice.
- In
Southampton ‘The Zone’ distribution list of
approximately 300 local partners enables information on initiatives
and challenges to be shared quickly with key stakeholders across
the city. This is recognised as best
practice.
Good practice: Information, advice and guidance
– Emily Holzhausen OBE, Director of Policy and Public Affairs
at Carers UK
A
presentation was delivered by Emily on best practice with regards
to providing information, advice and guidance to unpaid
carers.
- Recognition that it
is not an easy task to get right, due to factors such as the
constantly changing population (one third turnover annually);
Different stages on caring journey – knowledge levels differ,
new to caring to end of life; Language and approach matters;
Capacity and ability of carers to take on board information; Range
of channels where people find information; How people consume
information; Workers – i.e. those juggling work and care;
and, the diversity of population.
- A mixed portfolio of
formats, video, face to face, telephone, online, paper is
required.
- Social media and
digital platforms have become essential formats for disseminating
information, improving knowledge and skills. Digital poverty is an issue that needs to be
addressed (potential for Personal Budgets / Direct Payments to
address this).
- Good awareness of
carers by all frontline staff is essential to getting it
right
- Take the best from
good strong local provision and what is appropriate nationally e.g.
gov.uk, nhs.uk, carersuk.org, ageuk.org.uk, mencap.org.uk,
contact.org.uk
- Essential local
mapping and good understanding of user journey: signposting,
referrals, in-depth advice, advocacy.
- Carers Passport in
Hertfordshire recognised as good practice. The creation of a discount card has enabled
information, advice and guidance to be provided to 14,875 carers.
Over 8,000 carers are now accessing support or advice from Carers
in Hertfordshire, for the first time.
- Hertfordshire County
Council has adopted unpaid caring as a protected
characteristic.
- Carers UK has
produced an ‘Upfront’ guide to Caring. A four-minute
tool that gives a personalised “to do” list with
information for carers who are new to the maze of benefits and
entitlements.
- Strong links into GP
practices e.g. Carers Prescription in Surrey.
- Your website is your
window and a service.
- Use existing
resources e.g. Online peer support forums – Time for Talk
(Alzheimer’s Society) Carers Forum (Carers UK) – Health
Unlocked
- Advocacy and experts
remain important as chasing information is exhausting! Often too
many agencies involved, it can be overwhelming.
Southampton Information Directory and Website
– James Marshall, Head of Customer and Communications,
SCC
- Southampton Local
Information Directory (SID), the City Council’s online offer,
is not performing the role it is designed to do at
present. This has resulted in other
platforms trying to fill the gap, resulting in a plethora of
information sources.
- Carers information is
currently incorporated into wider Adult Social Care information in
the SID, but the SID is separate from information on the
Council’s website on Adult Social Care.
- SCC are developing
the SID and website following the principles of no wrong door and
many routes to information.
- The platform is to be
built around customer journeys, following life events. Becoming a carer (wording subject to consultation)
is to be one of the life events used.
- The platform will use
cookies (‘if you like this then you may be interested in
this’) and should also be a resource for Council employees to
improve the consistency of advice given.
- Proposed that the
best available advice and information from national and local
sources will be on the SID and that it will be structured to avoid
users getting lost. It is recognised
that there needs to be an easy way to update the
information.
- The SID is in the
discovery and design phase now. Keen to
engage with service users and providers. Great opportunity for carers to get involved in
shaping how the Council offer information and advice.
- SCC is also
developing a Digital Strategy. A
priority will be to work with partners on skills, access and
inclusion. Relevant as 600 carers known
to Carers in Southampton are not online.
Housing Related Support – Lisa Haynes, Head of
Supported Housing and Community Support, SCC
- A presentation was
delivered by Lisa.
- Approximately 3,500
tenants living in the City’s Supported Housing accommodation
– those with an identified support need. Primarily for people over 60. Asset for
city.
- The Council’s
Telecare service can provide peace of mind to carers and has the
potential to help people in their caring role. This has been vital during the
pandemic. It can also support greater
independence for those with care needs.
- The Telecare service
works in partnership with carers where possible. The service caters for a wide variety of
needs.
- Southampton is
fortunate as we have a local responding capability. In most other
areas the telecare service just links to a remote call centre. We
need to promote the service offer as it has great potential to help
carers in their caring role.
- Recognition that
disabled housing adaptations process is disjointed and can be
improved. The Integrated Commissioning
Unit have commissioned a review of disabled
adaptations. The importance of
involving carers in the assessment process will be incorporated
into this review.
- Digital inclusion
– Housing Related Support services provide training sessions
to help support people to access the internet and improve digital
confidence, enabling them to communicate with loved ones via
digital platforms.
Advice services in Southampton – Liz Donegan,
Chief Officer at Citizens Advice Southampton
- Advice in Southampton
is a partnership of advice organisations that deliver a contract to
provide information, advice and guidance in the city. It is delivered by a consortium of 6 organisations
– Citizens Advice Southampton, Age UK Southampton, Rose Road
Association, EU CLEAR, No Limits and The Environment Centre, close
working exists with SARC as well.
- Services are quality
assessed to ensure they meet the advice quality standard
mark.
- The contract operates
on the ‘no wrong door’ for advice
principle. A service user will be
referred, with consent, via Refernet to the most appropriate
provider with all relevant details to reduce the need for the
client to repeat the information.
- Refernet is being
opened up to a greater number of providers in the city. The more agencies on board the better the client
journey will be. Talks are ongoing with
Carers in Southampton.
- Carers benefit from
specialist welfare benefit advice from CAB and can access
specialist advice from McMillan and MS Society.
- Barriers to support
carers exist. Carer identification remains low. There is a need to recognise the impact that good
quality information, advice and guidance can have on carers quality
of life. Carers may have limited time to access services, may be
confused as to which agency can help them, or be put off by cost of
transport or parking.
- Advice in Southampton
is working with Carers in Southampton to improve understanding of
these barriers.
- Southampton has a
number of excellent advice agencies.
Seeking to draw on the best information from national and local
sources to make it relevant to Southampton.
- Southampton’s
advice providers partnership working is recognised as good
practice.
Community Navigation – Nicky Judd, SO:Linked
Programme Manager at Southampton Voluntary Services and Gary
Walker, Alzheimer’s Society Service Manager
- A presentation was delivered
by Nicky and Gary.
- To help people,
including carers, navigate around the many activities across the
city and to support the organisations and groups, Southampton City
Council and Southampton Clinical Commissioning Group has funded
SO:Linked.
- This service launched
in 2019 and is being delivered by community navigators, including
specialist dementia and mental health navigators, and community
development workers through a partnership led by Southampton
Voluntary Services and including Alzheimer’s Society, Solent
Mind, Spectrum, TWICS and Social Enterprise Link.
- SO:Linked developed
an information directory during Covid pandemic to help navigators
and social prescribers across the city.
SO:Linked are meeting with James Marshall and will link in with the
development of the SID.
- SO:Linked is part of
a network supporting digital inclusion in the city.
- SO:Linked are working
closely with Primary Care Social Prescribers, including running
joint training sessions. Recognition
that there needs to be a joined-up approach, a single point of
access with services tailored to the individual.
- Southampton Dementia
Navigators currently deal with between 30 to 35 new referrals each
month (a team of 2).
- Recognition that for
many if the person you care for has a diagnosis you are fortunate
as you may be referred to an organisation who is able to navigate
the changing support landscape for carers and help.
- If you are a carer of
a person who doesn’t have a diagnosed condition how do you
know what support is available in Southampton?
- Feedback provided
identified a number of things missing for carers in Southampton
– these include Respite Care; Continuity of care; Tailored
care; ‘Rapid Response’; Priority access to services;
Opportunities to talk to other carers; Advertising of existing
support; Sitting service for medical appointments and
transport.
- There is an
opportunity to grasp the Covid community spirit and tap into the
increase in volunteering.