Sally worked across all care settings in many clinical roles finally specialising in End of Life Care. Giving primacy to voice and experiences of patients and carers is an essential part of her work.
Their stories have enabled the design, development, delivery and evaluation of projects to raise awareness at strategic, organisational and clinical levels to support and empower them in their unpaid caring roles. The role involves representing members in the workplace, negotiating with employers and fighting for fairness and equality in the workplace.
She is passionate about ensuring carers are properly supported in work and have a voice in the decision-making process. Ifor Glyn started his career at the Swansea Drugs Project, one of the first harm reduction agencies in Wales.
In , Ifor took up the role of director of the Swansea Carers Centre, a charity providing a range of services to unpaid carers in Swansea, such as respite in the home, day centre, welfare benefits, counselling, activities, drop in, specific services for young adult carers, parent carers and mental health. Despite no longer working in the substance misuse field, Ifor continues to be passionate about minimising the harm caused by drugs or alcohol to individuals and communities.
She has previous experience in the field of mental health and learning disabilities and is a carer for her son, although he no longer lives at home.
As a carer herself she is very passionate about carers having a right to a life of their own and is proud to be part of such an influential grassroots charity. She is a trustee with several organisations and volunteers regularly for a charity for adults with learning disabilities. In her spare time Alison enjoys reading and spending time with her family, including her 3 grandchildren.
Health in Wales. See also. NHS Direct Wales. Health Encyclopedia - Carers. External links. Our active offer means people should receive a service in Welsh without having to ask for it and seeks to ensure that the Welsh language is not treated less favourably than the English language when providing services to the public.
We will use the data we collect via the evaluation of the Social Services and Well-being Wales Act and the revised Performance and Improvement Framework to work with local authorities to develop a range of solutions that enable local authorities to deliver timely, effective statutory assessments that are responsive to individual needs of unpaid carers. This is initially being done through a review of current evidence but may lead to further qualitative work if it is considered to be needed.
We will continue to invest in mechanisms that support unpaid carers to have their voices heard at national, local and regional levels. Conversations are ongoing with our stakeholders about how to support unpaid carers on Regional Partnership Boards and in local communities to feel more confident in their representative roles.
Caring Communities of Change is an innovative project putting learning disability family carers and their relatives at the heart of collaboration in service design and delivery across health and social care in Wales. Providing information, advice and assistance - it is vital that all unpaid carers have access to the right information and advice at the right time and in an appropriate format.
Provision of appropriate information, advice and assistance IAA provides the vital first steps of a preventative approach.
Many unpaid carers do not need to access formal statutory or specific social services or health provision but simply require the right information, in the right format, at the right time, in order to manage their caring role.
Knowing where and how to access different forms of information, advice and assistance such as welfare benefits or more general rights, can also be preventative.
IAA provided should be proportionate to the needs of the individual. Under the Social Services and Well-being Wales Act , local authorities must publicise information about:. IAA is intended to support prevention and early intervention and deliver a wider range of community-based services through partnerships and multi-agency working. Delivered well, and at the right time, IAA can enable unpaid carers, and those they care for, to live healthy and fulfilled lives for as long as possible.
We will work with partners to improve equal access to IAA across all parts of Wales whilst acknowledging that statutory bodies are not the only means of delivering this service - there is a need to raise awareness of alternative ways of accessing information such as GP surgeries, community services, or online resources such as DEWIS Cymru. Age Cymru is working with Carers Trust Wales to develop person centred service models to identify and better meet the needs of older unpaid carers and carers of people with dementia.
We will explore how to further improve access to advocacy services for unpaid carers who find it hard either to access services, or find it difficult to talk about their problems.
Via our Sustainable Social Services Third Sector Grant, we are also funding the HOPE project which aims to support older people and carers to access community based preventative services through a range of advocacy models led by peers, volunteer groups and citizens. During the pandemic, both statutory and third sector providers adapted their ways of working to ensure unpaid carers could continue to receive the information and support required.
Our consultation responses stressed that getting information to unpaid carers quickly helped carers to access vital community support including food parcels, assistance with shopping and collecting prescriptions. Rapid and clear information was disseminated via social media and email, the roll out of new or expansion of existing telephone helplines and the use of age appropriate platforms, such as Tik Tok or Instagram, to reach young carers.
Third sector organisations also realised that they needed to review formal guidance from Welsh Government, Public Health Wales and others, turning it into shorter and easily understood information for unpaid carers and service users. In this way they ensured the most essential information was shared.
We will continue to learn from the successful adaptation of services in response to the pandemic and recognise that social care and other services such as housing, transport, protective services and employability schemes all have a responsibility to provide information and support to unpaid carers.
Due to the link between caring and low incomes, benefits checks and information about entitlements can help unpaid carers to manage the stress of their caring role. However, we know that there are thousands of people in Wales who are not yet claiming the benefits that they are entitled to. Linking back to priority 1, through this and other methods we will continue to work with partners to increase the take-up and raise awareness of entitlements in accessing both devolved and non-devolved benefits.
The pandemic has also moved the majority of services online and many people have embraced technology through necessity, however a clear digital divide has been brought into focus which needs to be addressed. Through our Digital Strategy for Wales, we are working to achieve a smarter, better connected society and economy by making sure everybody in Wales has access to digital technologies, and knows how to use them.
The strategy will also shape how we effectively harness digital, data, technology and AI now and in the future for the benefit of people in Wales, including unpaid carers. Supporting life alongside caring - all unpaid carers must have the opportunity to take breaks from their caring role to enable them to maintain their own health and well-being and have a life alongside caring.
Unpaid carers provide a valuable service to the people they look after and society in general but can neglect their own needs.
Respite can include sport, leisure or cultural activities, as well as more traditional forms such as replacement care or an overnight sitting service for the person being cared for. Linking to priority 4, having a life alongside caring could also involve being able to work or undertake training. We will continue to work collaboratively to develop a national model for respite in Wales. There is no specific definition of a respite service but it is not confined to an overnight stay in a care home or a sitting service for the individual with care needs, to enable their carer to have a break.
It could be considered to be any form of service, assistance or experience which allows unpaid carers to have sufficient and regular periods away from their caring routines or responsibilities. Respite and short breaks can be a vital part of the care and support young and young adult carers require to cope with their caring role. We will work towards a better understanding of how respite or a break from caring can be accessed, funded and delivered by a range of providers, including statutory bodies and the private and third sectors.
To achieve this goal, we will work with unpaid carers and our partners to ensure the terminology used to describe respite suits the context and service on offer and to make it clear that respite can be preventative, not just something offered at a point of crisis.
Despite our aim to encourage more innovative models of respite, we acknowledge that post COVID, there will be an increased demand for day centres and more traditional sitting and replacement care services.
We will prioritise this need alongside more innovative models of delivering respite over the coming year. The pandemic has taken a huge toil on the mental health of unpaid carers of all ages. We have refreshed our Together for Mental Health Delivery Plan to ensure the actions respond to the pandemic. Services on offer should be tailored to the individual needs and circumstances of the carer.
This can be especially important for young carers, parent carers and those caring for people with specific conditions such as dementia or mental health issues. We also recognise unpaid carers may benefit from psychological support in the form of counselling for stress or bereavement.
Cruse Bereavement Care is working to transform bereavement care in Wales. We will continue to invest in a range of psychological support and to explore how emerging new models of support for unpaid carers during the pandemic can lead to improvements in the delivery of services in the future.
Having the opportunity to work and learn is an important part of life. It can provide financial stability and bring the wider benefits of a fulfilling career, positive mental health and social interaction. Unpaid carers not in employment, education or training should be able to access the right information, advice and support to develop the skills to gain suitable employment, whether re-entering the workforce, or getting a job for the first time.
It is also important to recognise that an unpaid carer may also be self-employed, managing their own business or organisation, and therefore may face a different set of challenges. All of the national priorities and their proposed actions relate equally to unpaid carers of all ages and backgrounds.
However, most young carers are at school or attending college and therefore need to balance their learning and personal development with their caring responsibilities.
Young adult carers usually considered to be aged from 16 — 25 years of age face different circumstances and may be in higher or further education or employment. Research from Carers Trust shows that problems with school attendance or attainment can negatively impact on the future of young carers. The development of our new Curriculum for Wales contains a much stronger focus on well-being and on creating ambitious and capable learners and has the potential to address some of the barriers experienced by young carers.
As part of this, we are aware that some schools have identified a lead for young carers to oversee the support young carers receive, and signpost to young carers services, but we recognise this can be applied more consistently.
This work will align with our commitment to the Fair Work principles set by the Fair Work Commission for Wales and will aim to provide better support to the increasing number of older workers, unpaid carers, and young adult carers, in our workforce. We will continue to work with and promote the Wales Hub of Employers for Carers , which helps organisations in Wales to support staff with caring responsibilities.
We will link this new priority to wider social and economic concerns including gender equality, low income and the impact of caring on poverty. Our Equality Impact Assessment will help us to understand and respond to the financial and emotional impact of caring on women, who are more likely to work part time or give up employment because of difficulties in balancing their employment with their caring role.
The COVID crisis has demonstrated, perhaps more than ever, the essential role that unpaid carers play in preventing statutory services from becoming overloaded. Yet many of these carers have low incomes and, due to their caring responsibilities, are unable to increase their income by working full-time. We will therefore continue to urge the UK Government to increase the current payment rate of carers allowance to lift unpaid carers out of poverty.
Tackling poverty and providing help for those most in need is a top priority for the Welsh Government. The changes to the Welfare Benefits and Social Security system has raised its own issues here in Wales and Welsh Ministers continue to make representation over these changes and implement policy to protect those most at risk in our communities.
It is more critical than ever that all those eligible for support are aware of, and are accessing, the full range of entitlements available, including benefits and services funded by Welsh Government and those delivered by local authorities in Wales. Unpaid carers and their representatives have voiced concerns about a significant disparity in levels of support between different health boards and local authorities.
In response to this, we are keen to work towards a shared understanding of the rights of unpaid carers and the level of service they should receive, particularly during common scenarios that carers encounter such as hospital discharge or emergency admission. We want the charter to be the go-to resource for unpaid carers, but also professionals seeking to provide support. The charter will be co-produced with unpaid carers of all ages and will clearly define the roles and responsibilities of Welsh Government, local authorities, local health boards, third sector organisations and unpaid carers themselves.
The charter will help unpaid carers to self-identify and understand their rights under the Social Services and Well-being Wales Act We hope the charter will help to challenge negative perceptions of statutory services. It will support local authorities to deliver their duties under the Act and clearly set out good practice standards that ensure unpaid carers are involved as equal partners and have a voice in policy development, planning, research and training.
We will clearly set out the actions and timescales for the successful implementation of this strategy in a delivery plan which will be published in autumn The development of the plan will be led with advice and input from our Ministerial Advisory Group for Unpaid Carers and its supporting engagement group. We will work with members of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Unpaid Carers to develop a clear set of metrics using the data outlined above and other sources relating to each of the four national priorities set out in this strategy.
The delivery plan will also set out the measures by which we will measure success which will include our independent, formal evaluation of the Social Services and Well-being Wales Act led by University of South Wales, and due to run until Findings from the evaluation will be used to support us to understand how we can further improve the lives of individuals and unpaid carers.
The project will be starting fieldwork in April for the impact evaluation. This will involve engagement with key stakeholders and individuals, including unpaid carers and provide a means to benchmark the current situation of unpaid carers in Wales.
Interim findings from this phase will be published at the end of The most recent findings from the project were published in December
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