Present: Carers Partnership Board Friday 25 th September 2015 Wallasey Town Hall Cllr Angela Davies (Chair) Carol Jones Pam Sexton Jean Maskell Jacqui Canning Liz O Brien Jason Oxley Aileen Alexander Paul Wormald David Maquire WBC & Carers Champion DASS Carer Representative Former Carer Representative Wired/ACE ACE DASS Barnardo s Young Carers Wirral CCG Wired No Minute Action 1. Apologies Apologies received from Graham Hodkinson, Liz Matthews and Michael Chantler. Liz Matthews is new to post and is the Associate Director of Patient & Carer Experience for the CWP. 2 2.1 2.2 3 3.1 3.2 Introductions Cllr. Angela Davies welcomed everyone to today s meeting. This is the first meeting for Angie since taking up the role as elected member Carers Champion. Angie is also a Councillor for the Prenton ward. Angie has been visiting some of the Carer services over the last couple of months and attended a meeting of ACE yesterday, so has had an opportunity to meet people and find out what is happening locally. Members of the group introduced themselves. Terms of Reference (ToR) review and discussion Purpose of the meeting - Members considered the ToR and suggested some amendments to the wording to this section. Governance of meeting the frequency of meetings was discussed. Meetings have been scheduled to be held bimonthly. It was proposed that future meetings could be held quarterly with subgroup meetings held in between, to progress the work of the group. 1
Proposed to include quorum for members attending the Carers Partnership Board meetings. 3.3 Membership of the meeting The current ToR contains the following on representation: 1. The Carers Partnership Board will comprise of representatives from: Wirral Council (1) DASS (4) NHS Wirral (1) Wirral University Teaching Hospital (1) Cheshire and Wirral Partnership Trust (1) Children and Young People s Department (1) The commissioned voluntary sector Carers service (1) The commissioned Young Carers service (1) A representative for the Agencies for Carers Executive(1) Carer representatives, ensuring that there is a broad range of representation across disability and conditions, including: Learning Disability/ Autism Mental Health issues Alcohol or substance misuse Dementia Physical disability/ sensory impairment Wirral Family Forum 2. The Carers Partnership Board can co-opt representatives as required 3. Carer representatives should be representatives of a wider body, selected and reporting back under an agreed procedure 3.4 Members discussed the current list of members and agreed that additional representatives should be invited to attend. The additional members could include representation from DWP/Jobcentre Plus; Primary care (GP); new Carers Health & Wellbeing Commissioned services (Age UK and Local Solutions/Community Caring) Children and Young People s services have not attended meetings for some time. It was agreed that Angie would write to the new Children s operational Head of Service to request representation. Carer representation was discussed and it was agreed that we need a balance between provider services representation and 2
Carer representation. Without wanting to make the group too large in numbers, it was agreed that representation should be Carers of people from across a range of conditions, disabilities and vulnerable adults including: learning disabilities, autism, mental health, alcohol or substance misuse, dementia, older frail, physical disability and, sensory impairment. It was acknowledged that some Carers will be caring for someone with one or more of these conditions and/or disabilities, so we do not need someone for each. It is important that Carer representatives are able to gather the views of other Carers and have mechanisms to feedback developments to other Carers. Former Carer representation will be included, the length of time that a former Carer stays on the group after their caring responsibilities have come to an end will require further discussion. Jean Maskell agreed to raise this with the Role-on group. Jean Maskell It was proposed that non-commissioned services also have a place on the group. 3.5 3.6 4 4.1 4.2 For consistency it was suggested that each representative nominates a deputy to stand in when the main representative is unable to attend, this will also help the keep the number in the group to a manageable size. Where there is currently more than one representative attending from an organisation, it should be agreed who is to be the main representative. Carol Jones will remain as a DASS representative because of her role in facilitating the meeting. Carol agreed to draft a letter to be sent out by Angie to a range of Carer Support groups. The letter will need to be clear that if there are numerous nominations, then a selection process will be applied. Carers Strategy Action Plan The Second National Action Plane was circulated and discussed at the meeting in January. As there has been a lot of activity since that meeting, particularly around commissioning, it was suggested that a sub group be formed to update the Wirral s Strategy Action Plan, to reflect the developments. Update on Carers Health and Wellbeing contract Wired Wired were successful in the tendering process to deliver the Carers Grant; and the Carers Practical Support in partnership with other agencies, Family Tree, Mencap, MAP, Wirral Change and Alzheimer s Society. There are 4 Carer Connectors who cover the Wirral, working at a variety of venues where they are Carol Jones/Angie Davies All 3
identifying Carers and offering information, advice and support. This has assisted them to find out about community resources that are available e.g. St Vincent de Paul offers caravan holidays and visiting service. One of the targets is to deliver training to Carers and professionals, including GP s. Liz and David commented on how well the collaborative approach has worked. David is looking at the model of working together and would welcome any suggestions or ideas on sharing resources. 4.3 Barnardo s Young Carers Update Barnardo s Liverpool has been selected as one of the national Young Carers Trailblazers, along with another 5 local authority areas. They will be promoting the rights of a Young Carer to an assessment, developing a pathway, looking at the statutory assessment process. Aileen will feed back to the group on developments. In Wirral Children s, Adult s and Barnardo s services are meeting to agree a way forward on Young Carers assessments. Carol requested if someone from operational services could also attend the meeting. Aileen Alexander Jason Oxley Aileen and Carol attended a Making a Step Change for Young Carers event earlier in the month. The Children s Society and Carers Trust are looking to develop a Good Practice Guide. 4.4 Wirral Carers Association Update There has not been much change in membership. Guest speakers have included DASS staff (Jayne Marshall, Carol Jones and Jason Oxley). 4.5 Role on Update Jean recently wrote a paper on the issues faced by former Carers. The end of caring for someone can have a long term impact on former Carers; some issues include mental health and physical problems, employment and training issues. A Discussion Paper on Ex Carers.docx 4.6 Lonsdale Trust The Lonsdale can provide free accredited training for Carers. 4
4.7 DASS Update Council Plan new Chief Executive in post. The council has worked with partner organisations to produce a new 5 year 2020 Vision, with 20 key priorities. Integration integration is being progressed quickly, with the CCG receiving Vanguard status and is one of the national pilot areas. The key areas for achievement are a healthier population, living longer and promoting independence, there are a number of work streams established to take this forward. It is proposed to have a single IT system for sharing information but also to gather valuable information about the local health population which will be used to inform what services are required. The emphasis is to reduce reliance on acute hospital provision and to build on community based services. Integrated teams are already in place but these will be developed further to include more health and social care staff. Co-production of the services is essential to these developments. Care Act 2014 came into force 1 st April 2015. The care cap element of the legislation has been postponed to 2020; this could have an impact on the local authority, Carers and service users but will offer the local authorities more time for political discussion. It is also likely that central government will recall some of the Care Act funding as a result of this decision. Implementation has gone well so far and assessments have been reviewed in light of the changes. The asset based approach to assessment needs further, to imbed the practice to identify community based services before considering social funded care. Policies and Procedures are all being re-written, going to Cabinet in December for information and ratification; there may be a need for consultation but, although this is new legislation a lot of the old legislative duties have been retained. It is the Eligibility Criteria that has changed significantly, for Carers assessments; the substantial and regular requirement has been dropped. There is a duty to find out what people can do through their existing networks and resources to meet outcomes, Council funded services should be the last resort. The Wirral Council website is being updated and will have a Market Place where people can see what services are available. A Carers Self- Assessment will also be available online. There have been two Carer focus groups to test the website and on-line assessment A discussion followed on partnership working and asset based 5
assessments, the following actions were identified: Jacqui to provide Jason with contact details of the Carer Connectors, to be invited to team meetings. Jacqui to contact ICCT teams to promote services David to share the Vanguard mapping of services Jacqui Canning David Maguire 5 5.1 5.2 5.3 Carers Rights Day Friday 20 th November Wired are working with the Beechwood Community Trust, Carers can make an appointment for a financial health check. Lonsdale Centre will be having pamper sessions. Suggestions for activity for Carers Rights Day are: Ask GP practices to identify a Carers Champion Ask DASS teams to make a pledge to identify and assess Carers, also try to establish Carer Links in each teams for easier dissemination of information. 6 Agenda items for next meeting Invite Iain Stewart to speak about Pharmacies or Invite Paul McGovern to speak about End of Life 7 7.1 7.2 Any other business Wired have organised a Memory Walk on 4 th October,10.00am starting outside Morrison s in New Brighton. This is a one mile walk and Morrison s have donated refreshments at the end. Pam Sexton requested an update on ILF funding which has been raised by WCA. Jason responded that the ILF is now closed and funding has been transferred to the local authority. People who were eligible for ILF have been reviewed and support plans put in place. It is not known whether the ILF will continue to be paid to local authorities in the future. Date for Sub Group to be confirmed Date of next CPB meeting: Friday 27 th November, 10.00 am start at Wallasey Town Hall. 6