Understanding the experiences of unpaid carers through our local authority assessments
It is a little over a year since we began assessing how local authorities are meeting their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act under responsibilities given to us under the Health and Care Act 2022.
Our new role is already starting to enable us to understand the quality of care in a local area and how people are experiencing adult social care services. It is also giving us the opportunity to better understand the experiences of unpaid carers, including young carers, and the challenges they face.
Across the country we have seen a range of issues, and a wide spectrum of experiences and support provided by local authorities to carers.
There is a mixed picture of the quality of support being offered to unpaid carers but by establishing a baseline of quality across all local authorities we can help to raise the profile of the issues unpaid carers are facing and help to drive improvement.
The relationship between local authorities and carers is a crucial one, and assessing that relationship to improve and enhance it, is one of the key elements of our new assessment responsibilities.
Under the Care Act local authorities have legal duties towards people living in their local area, these are:
- Promoting individual wellbeing
- Preventing, reducing, and delaying need for support, including the needs of carers
- Promoting integration of care and support with health services
- Providing information and advice
- Promoting diversity and quality in provision of services
- Co-operating with NHS bodies and other key partners in delivering the Care Act functions
- Safeguarding adults at risk of abuse or neglect
Our role is to review and assess how well local authorities are delivering these duties. Our assessments look at whether carers are receiving the right level of support and advice from their local authority and ultimately, are ensuring that those that need care, are receiving the best care that they can get.
We consider how well local authorities are ensuring that carers are identified and can receive the support they need under the ‘assessing needs’ quality statement in our assessment framework.
Overall, we have found that unpaid carers need better support. Many people do not identify themselves as carers and so are unaware that what they are doing is recognised and that there are support networks to help them.
Identifying people who are caring for their loved ones is a huge challenge for local authorities and we recognise that.
When assessing local authorities, we expect to see support for people with care and support needs, and carers, including young carers, being coordinated across different agencies and services so that they have the best wellbeing outcomes.
When people move between services, settings or areas, there should be a plan for what happens next and who will do what, and all the practical arrangements should be in place.
We have heard a range of experiences from carers during our local authority assessments, with common themes including:
- Challenges getting a timely carer’s assessment
- Variability in the availability of services following an assessment, from a break of a few hours to longer respite care
- Acknowledgement that carers are separate to the people they care for but variability as to how this is translated in to practice
- People not seeing themselves as carers and so not being aware of the support available
- Real drive and determination amongst staff and leaders in local authorities to change the experience of carers
- Creative use of mechanisms such as direct payments to give more choice and control to the carer
- Increasing co-production with carers to shape policies and strategies
- Local authorities with a whole family approach to carers works well for young carers
Unpaid carers make a significant contribution to the health and care system, and we are pleased to continue to work with voluntary sector organisations including Carers Trust, to focus attention on the experiences of unpaid carers, including young carers and help to drive improvements in the support available to them.
As we mark Young Carers Action Day it's important to highlight that early identification and access to support in the community for young carers and their families is crucial to them having better experiences with their local authority.
Our assessments consider how young carers are being supported by their local authority and we encourage local authorities to look to ‘No Wrong Doors for Young Carers’ as an example of best practice in relation to this.
Further examples of best practice in relation to unpaid carers and young carers can be found in our local authority assessment framework and guidance and we encourage all local authorities to review this to help them prepare for the assessment process.
Visit CQC's website for more information about local authority assessments
