Carers' consultation
Contact officer: Jane Weller, senior improvement officer (carers), Information and Intelligence team, Community Services
Tel: 0151 233 6326
Email: Jane.Weller@liverpool.gov.uk
Start date: 1 April 2007
End date: 29 June 2007
Purpose of the exercise:
This exercise ensured that carers were involved with updating and developing the Liverpool carers' strategy
View the carers' strategy page and the support for carers page for more information
Who was consulted and how:
Carers were consulted via:
- focus groups
- postal surveys
- telephone surveys
- meetings with carers' groups
Who were the results reported to:
The results were reported to:
- senior service managers
- the Health and Adult Social Care select committee
What were the findings of the exercise:
Over 500 questionnaires were distributed to carers via a variety of organisations. Three events were also held, which were attend by carers, young carers and professionals. 180 questionnaires were returned.
The findings from the questionnaires were grouped under a number of headings:
- health
- employment
- the carers' emergency care scheme
- advocacy
- the professionals' consultation event
- the young carers' event
- the carers' event
- black and racial minority (BRM) carers
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What are the changes to the service brought about as a result of the consultation:
A number of recommendations came out of this consultation. These were:
- more work is required, by health care professional in primary care, to develop and implement a uniform system for identifying and supporting carers
- carers should be consulted prior to hospital discharge to ensure that support services are in place
- leadership is required from the primary care and hospital trusts to drive forward improvement in service delivery
- further work with carers is required to explore the type of training they need to support them in their caring role and to improve their employment prospects
- the Liverpool carers' multi-agency group is to continue with their work to high-light the recent legislation that was introduced to improve flexibility for carers in the workplace, and drive forward awareness and promotion of support services for carers
- consideration should be given to replacement care/child-care, to enable carers to participate in activities both at work and outside of work to reduce the feeling of exclusion and isolation
- an emergency/replacement care service should be set up that is straightforward to arrange, prompt to respond and is reliable
- the service must meet a wide range of needs and instil confidence in carer and the person they care for
- the service must be support by professionals
- in conjunction with the council's advocacy strategy, there needs to be a greater awareness of what advocacy can mean to carers and how they can access this support
- further work is required to address the issues of cultural sensitivity and equity of service for carers within the BRM communities.
There were also recommendations specifically for young carers. There were that young carers require:
- someone at school they can talk to
- flexibility in respect of homework
- the opportunity to contact the person they care for when they are at school
- support from professionals to identify sources of support in an emergency
- support from services to accept referrals from an adults acting as an advocate for them
- a different term from advocacy to be used, one that young carers would understand.