Issue - items at meetings - Support for Young Carers' in the City

Dave Higgins presenting for the Carer’s Centre.

39.1         The Chair informed the committee that this item was requested by Councillor Wealls to be put onto the CYPOSC work programme back in June 2012.

 

39.2         Steve Barton – Lead Commissioner for Children’s, Youth and Families presented the budget information for young carers’ (which is included in paragraph 39.10 below).

 

39.3         Dave Higgins - Young Carers’ Team Manager introduced Katherine Hoare-Exley a cared for mother. Ms. Hoare-Exley informed the committee of issues affecting some young carers’. These included feelings of isolation and bullying in their schools, either due to being perceived to being different or parents being different. Ms. Hoare-Exley thought that there seemed to be a lack of counselling in schools across the age groups to meet the emotional needs of young carers’ and other vulnerable children. It was important to raise awareness within schools to ensure that young carers’ were supported and could approach school staff for help.

 

39.4         The committee heard governors should be included in this programme too, to support the school in meeting these needs.

 

39.5         The committee was told that there were approximately 1,300 young carers’ in Brighton and Hove. National research carried out by the BBC indicated that the number could be up to four times this amount. The Carers’ Centre had 135 carers’ and families supported at present with 180 cases over this year. Last year the figure was around 120 Young Carers’ and families at any one time with 189 over the year. The Team Manager informed that through general awareness activities and the schools work programme, the referral rate had doubled recently. The  dedicated schools worker was going into 60 city schools developing a schools programme and ongoing permanent links with schools staff around Young Carers’ issues, through this the identification of Young Carers’ in the city would most probably rise putting a strain on resources. 

 

39.6         Ms. Hoare-Exley asked whether the council could raise awareness and support for young carers’ rather than the onus being on young carers’ to do this?

 

39.7         The Lead Commissioner confirmed that there were complex grant arrangements for third sector organisations and that it would be more beneficial to pool together the Carers’ Centre budgets.  A discussion would need to be arranged with commissioners and the Team Manager on how best to carry this out.

 

39.8         RESOLVED-

 

(1)   The committee noted that the Carers’ Centre had complex funding streams and that further work would need to be carried out by commissioners into how funding could be pooled together.

 

(2)   The committee agreed that this item be passed over to the Health and Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee to review.

 

39.9         The following additional information was presented to the committee:

 

Support for carers’

 

 

Funding for adult carers’:

 

Organisation/Service	Council/PCT exp 1213 £'000s	Carers’ of Adults only
Alzheimer's Society	268.6	relief care, info advice support, training,  dementia cafes, singing for the brain,  support groups
Back Care Adviser Support Worker	33.4	employed by Sussex Community Trust
Care Management	151	Carers’ Care Managers, Social Worker, admin support
Carers’ Card Amaze	10	maintain & develop offers
Carers’ Centre	367.4	info advice & support, young carers’, male carers’, awareness training, support groups, counselling, positive caring
Cherish	5	youth group for young disabled adults
Community Care budgets for respite	150
Crossroads	238.4	relief care
Emergency Back Up Scheme CareLink Plus	3
Engagement	4.4	payments to carers’, alternative care etc
Headway carers’' support group	3.2
LD service, Belgrave	10	monthly Saturday  respite service
Carer Support Service	170	6x Carers’ Support Workers  in  Integrated Primary Care Teams
PATCHED	71.5	support for substance  misuse carers’
Self Directed Support breaks	95	allocated individually
Self Directed Support services	50	allocated individually
Young Carers’ Needs Assessments	16.3	carried out by Carers’ Centre
Total exp	1647.2

 

Young carers’:

 

See below, the Children’s services funding is for sibling carers’, all other young carers’ funding comes from Adult social care & the PCT. The allocation is the same for 12/13.

 

The needs assessments above are for young carers’ of adults and the service was set up with the Carers’ Centre to ensure that young carers’ receive a service from an experienced children/youth worker (something not always available within ASC). The Carers’ Centre has also been able to engage with families not willing to have “Social Services” involvement which has meant young carers’ receiving support & services, reducing the impact of their caring role, liaison with school/college etc where child/young person’s caring role previously unknown.

 

Additionally, young carers’ of adults can, following a needs assessment, access self directed support budget to meet identified needs including funding contributions to access out of school activities including sports, drama, music, transport, laptop, holiday/after school play schemes, school trips, family holidays etc.

 

The schools worker is funded for a 3 year project September 2010 – July 1013 with the target of getting into every primary, junior, secondary & special school in that time.

 

Carers’ Cards are issues to all young carers’ including young carers’ of siblings & there are some specific offers for young carers’ including family farms, soft play, Sea Life Centre, Yellow Wave Climbing Wall & sports activities.

 

The Carers’ Centre is funded to deliver carer awareness sessions training to staff across the council, LHE, & CVS & can offer tailored/specific training in relation to young carers’.

 

Long Term Conditions Community NHS services – redevelopment from January 2012 will include a carer support service within each of the 11 GP clusters. Included in the responsibilities of the carer support service will be to identify & respond to young carers’.

 

Carers’ Strategy Refresh – we will be consulting on this in the autumn and taking to November JCB, so this would be the opportunity to include a specific target around identification of & support to young carers’ in the city.

 

Current funded services provided by the Carers’ Centre:

 

	ASC	PCT	CS
needs assessments	16000
schools work		18000
support, activities and groups	29500	16500	18000
totals	45500	34500	18000

 

Service Spec:

 

Young Carers’

 

2.22.  Aim to minimise the caring role undertaken by children and young people

 

2.23.  Identify sources of support for families and work with them to access and take up appropriate services

 

2.24.  Run clubs, activities and holidays that give young carers’ a break and time to be children

 

2.25. Provide one to one support and mentoring in schools to the most vulnerable young carers’

 

2.26.  Offer training to schools’ staff, NHS staff, youth workers and others to enable them to recognise the signs of a hidden caring role and offer support with young people’s health, well being and education

 

2.27.    The Young Carers’ service will be delivered by 1 x FTE Young Carers’ Team Manager, 0.5 FTE Support and Outreach Worker and two sessional workers.

 

2.28.   To provide a carers’ needs assessment and review service for young carers’ aged under 18 years referred through the city council, Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust, health services, voluntary sector organisations and those identified through the Young Carers’ Project. To share this information with the city council (with the agreement of the young carer and/or their family). This work is invoiced separately on a spot purchase basis.

 

Young Carers’ Schools Work Service

 

Purpose

 

To employ a dedicated schools worker to work in schools to raise awareness with both pupils and staff, contribute to PSHE (personal, social and health education) curriculum, develop guidance, protocols and tools for schools. To identify individual young carers’ and support transition between primary and secondary schools. Over three years this service would cover all junior, primary, secondary and special schools in the city.

 

In one year, the service will work across 15 schools, deliver 30 training sessions to school staff and pupils and identify up to 24 young carers’.

 

 

The services

 

The service will provide the following:

 

·         Over three years this service will cover all junior, primary, secondary and special schools in the city.

 

Annually:

 

·         the service will work across 15 schools

·         deliver a minimum of 15 training sessions to school staff

·         deliver 15 awareness sessions to Year 7 and primary pupils

·         identify up to 24 young carers’ and refer them into the Young Carers’ Project or other services as appropriate

·         advise schools over the use of the Year 7 Resource Pack developed by the Young Carers’ Project at the Carers’ Centre including protocols around referrals, confidentiality and transitions

·         develop the Young Carers’ charter/top ten tips for schools, positive outcomes framework and action lists for schools and teachers

·         identify (by role) and work with a named link worker for young carers’ in each school, where possible developing the above and Young Carers’ support groups in each  school

·         to develop a feedback process with individual young carers’ and with schools visited to evaluate the impact of the service

·         develop aschools work exit strategy and implement at each school to sustain work done around Young Carer awareness and identification

 

 

Other ways of offering support:

The Disability Core Assessment asks within the Family & Environmental Factors :

Have parents/ main carers’ received guidance regarding benefit entitlement ?

Needs of carer ( s)

Impact on / Needs of siblings

 

The Occupational Therapy Assessment asks :

Are there any risks for the child/young person or the family/carers’ concerning leisure or play activities.

What impact is there for other family members/carers’ because of the young persons behaviour ?

Who is involved in managing the child/young persons behaviour ?

 

Once an assessment is complete, the social work service would develop a plan for the child and their family, including relevant support for the parent carers’ and siblings. For example respite care may allow both the parent and sibling carers’ to have a break, for parents to spend time with other children and for siblings to be supported to access activities.

 

Children  accessing the integrated child development and disability service, will have a full holistic assessment which would identify the caring roles of both parent carers’ and siblings regardless of whether they access the social work element of the service. A plan is made with the family and a keyworker allocated as appropriate who would hold the reins for the plan and ensure that all family members are supported.

 

 

Amaze are contracted to support parent carers’ with a contract broken down as follows:

 

Compass Database             21,696

Compass Development      55,000(inc.adults £5000 for carers’ card,not in contract)

DLA                                        20,000

PaCC                                     5,000  (+£9000 participation costs,not in contract)

Transition                              20,208 (ICDDS-£8083, Education-£8083, Adults-£4042)

Helpline                                 37,700            (inc £21,912 PCT)

IPS                                          23,000

Info & advice             18,186

 

Total 200,790 (£111,053 ICDDS, £21,912 from PCT, Education £58,783, Adults £9042)

 

The Compass card supports access for disabled children to mainstream leisure activities and some of these arrangements also allow siblings/other family members to receive the benefits eg swimming.