Agenda item

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 schools was being undertaken, as well as work with colleagues in the Local Authority and healthcare partners. The Assistant Director for Integrated Commissioning noted that the Director of Children’s Services and Assistant Director for Specialist Services would be leading further work to identify young carers and the Assistant Director Strategy, Performance and Corporate Transformation would be looking at better use of the school census.

In response to a question regarding education and employment for young carers, the CEO – BTSE said that they looked to identify appropriate work experience for young carers and used a range of employment services. Support was also offered in terms of transition from school into Sixth Form and training. It was noted that many of those who were involved in caring gained a number of skills from doing this well, and they often went into roles within social care and support. Discussion had also been held with One Bromley regarding their Cadets programme to see if young carers could be supported in relation to this. With regards to adult carers, there were significant challenges in term of skills, but they provided individual support and directed them to the relevant services.

A Member considered that there were a number of benefits in undertaking this work however it was questioned if there would be any financial implications. The Assistant Director for Integrated Commissioning said that the carers offer and carers service was already funded – it was being repackaged and relaunched to reach out to more people. A response may be needed if there was a large increase in demand for a particular service, but carers made an impact in terms of savings to the Council and the NHS as they were providing care and support that might otherwise need to be met by the Council and/or the NHS.

RESOLVED that the Executive be recommended to approve the proposed Carers Plan 2023-2025.