Commissioning for Carers

Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) across England are under enormous pressure to meet financial targets and priority areas for improvements within the NHS. This guidance demonstrates how commissioning for carers can help CCGs deliver desired outcomes and make savings across health and social care.

Key points

Commissioning well for carers can:

• Reduce admissions to hospital and residential care.
• Reduce costs of delays in transfers of care.
• Reduce carers’ need to access primary care as a result of their caring role.
• Reduce overall spending on care. 

About the resource

Carers are the largest providers of care and support in each area of the UK. The moral and financial arguments for supporting carers are clear – without support, taking on a caring role can mean facing a life of poverty, isolation, ill health and depression. For the person they care for it can mean costly hospital or care admissions if the caring relationship breaks down.