Social care practice with carers: What social care support is provided to family carers? What support do family carers want?

Moriarty, Jo and Manthorpe, Gillian Teresa and Cornes, Michelle and Hussein, Shereen (2014) Social care practice with carers: What social care support is provided to family carers? What support do family carers want? Project report. National Institute for Health Research, School for Social Care Research

Abstract

Most social care support for carers is delivered through the voluntary sector, although most councils still directly undertake carer assessments. Changes in commissioning and contracting arrangements have created additional opportunities for the voluntary sector but also some uncertainties. Carers have mixed views on the extent to which they feel their social care needs are met. However, they are positive about the help provided by carers’ workers with a specific remit to provide them with support. Activities by carers’ workers are varied and include outreach work, information provision, counselling, advocacy and ongoing support. Different ways of improving carers’ access to information, such as websites, carers’ cafes and outreach workers, have been developed, although these rarely seem to be evaluated for their effectiveness. Identifying carers in need of additional support seems mainly to take place when the person for whom they care is assessed. This disadvantages those caring for someone who is not eligible for, or who refuses, social care support from their local authority. The Care Act 2014 has implications for the way that social care support to carers is delivered. Currently, carers caring for someone not meeting the eligibility criteria for social care support may have substantial or critical unmet needs of their own. Carers’ organisations argue that an important part of their role is to encourage carers to complete selfassessments but they are concerned that not enough support is then available to those carers who have been assessed. Some local councils are working with local clinical commissioning groups on integrating support for carers, though these developments have yet to become established everywhere. Personalisation has brought mixed benefits; with some positive examples of carers having more control over their support but some concerns that the preferences of carers who simply want a regular and reliable break are not being properly met.

Item Type:	Monograph (Project report)
Additional information:	Unmapped bibliographic data: M3 - Commissioned report [Field not mapped to EPrints] BT - Social care practice with carers [Field not mapped to EPrints]
Uncontrolled keywords:	CARERS, SOCIAL CARE, Care work
Subjects:	H Social Sciences
Divisions:	Faculties > Social Sciences > School of Social Policy Sociology and Social Research Faculties > Social Sciences > School of Social Policy Sociology and Social Research > Personal Social Services Research Unit
Depositing User:	Shereen Hussein
Date Deposited:	13 Nov 2018 11:49 UTC
Last Modified:	29 May 2019 20:55 UTC
Resource URI:	https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/68331 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)
Hussein, Shereen:	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7946-0717