Issue - meetings

That the proposed Carers Plan be approved.

Report ACH23-025

A carer is a person of any age who provides unpaid care and support to a family member, friend or neighbour who is disabled, has an illness or long-term condition, or who needs extra help as they grow older. Carers hold families and communities together, enable those they care for to get the most out of life, and make an enormous contribution to community life in Bromley.

Alongside the Council’s social care and SEND services and local NHS services carers play a vital role in supporting vulnerable residents.

The Council had developed a Carers Plan with the South-East London Integrated Care Board (Bromley) that set out what advice, guidance and support was available to unpaid carers in the Borough and how this offer to carers will be developed further over the next two years.

The report had been scrutinised by the Adult Care and Health PDS Committee at its meeting on 5 September 2023 and the Committee had supported the recommendations.

RESOLVED: That the proposed Carers Plan be approved.

Report ACH23-025

The Committee considered a report outlining the proposed Carers Plan 2023-2025.

The Council had developed a Carers Plan with the South-East London Integrated Care Board (Bromley) that set out what advice, guidance and support was available to unpaid carers in the borough and how this offer to carers would be developed further over the next two years. The Assistant Director for Integrated Commissioning highlighted the importance of carers – they held families and communities together, enabled those they cared for to get the most out of life, and made an enormous contribution to community life in Bromley. Alongside the Council’s social care and SEND services and local NHS services carers played a vital role in supporting vulnerable residents.

The proposed plan had been developed across the Council and SEL ICB (Bromley) and with Bromley Well who delivered a Carers Support Service on their behalf. The plan and its priorities had been informed through a series of engagement and co-production events with carers.

David Walker, Chief Executive Officer – Bromley Third Sector Enterprise (“CEO – BTSE”) informed Members that the Carers Plan had been a collaborative piece of work with a significant amount of consultation undertaken with carers. One recommendation was the development of an all-age Carers’ Charter for Bromley, which had been agreed by the One Bromley Executive. There was a whole system approach as to how they integrated the engagement with carers. It was noted that Bromley Well was a member of the Carers Trust, which was a national organisation, and had direct access to national best practice. Informal consultation had already taken place with a number of carers and the carers teams within Bromley Well and other organisations. Other organisations provided specialist support within the borough, and they had wanted to engage with them. It was clear from the conversations held that both partners and carers wanted identification of carers, information, support and a voice for carers in the borough. A number of stakeholder meetings had already taken place, including with social prescribers to raise awareness and refer carers to appropriate services. The aim was to launch the Carers Plan in the autumn.

A Member highlighted the importance of Priority 5: supporting young carers and young adult carers. It was noted that a survey of young people had been presented at the Health and Wellbeing Board in March and this had been raised as an issue. It was questioned how young carers who were outside of the system would be identified. The CEO – BTSE advised that this was an integral part of the work undertaken by Bromley Well, and they had identified over 600 young carers in the borough. Members were informed that identifying young carers was a national issue. For the first time this year, the school census had required schools to identify young carers – however, 79% of schools had responded to say that they had not identified any young carers, and therefore this was “work in progress”. Within Bromley Well, outreach with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11