Why we want carers involved
- The needs of carers, and the support that will help them the most, changes over time, and as in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes very quickly.
- As a carer organisation, we need to ensure that what we are doing is what is needed, not just what we’ve always done so that we are offering support to carers which is both relevant, making best use of the available resources. We also need to ensure that we are delivering the support that will have the greatest impact for carers and the people they care for.
How carers can get involved
- We will regularly seek feedback from carers on their experiences of support for carers (both with Caring Together, but also other organisations).
- Carers also need to know they can share their feedback at any time, rather than waiting for a survey or feedback form by giving us a call on 0345 241 0954, emailing [email protected] or filling out the ‘have your say’ form on our website. Carers can also write to us or speak to us in person.
- Through consultations, surveys and focus groups – both those that we organise, and those from other organisations.
- By joining our ‘carers quality assurance’ group – which checks the quality of support provided across all of our services.
- By helping to design and/or evaluate specific projects, whether those be our own, or new services being put together for carers by other organisations. This can range from focus groups to helping put together bids/presenting to funders.
- We will also ensure that common themes and trends being identified through our carer support (e.g. carer clinics, enquiries from carers, advice/helplines) are also being identified and acted on.
- By getting involved in delivering services e.g. peer support, as a volunteer, paid work.
- By making suggestions for new/extended services or identifying service gaps or unmet support needs.
- Helping us know how best to get information about support out to carers.
How carers will know the outcome of their involvement
- For any surveys or consultations that we do, we will produce a response to it, outlining what we are doing based on what carers have said, as well as what we already have in place.
- For carers involved in funding bids for projects, we will always share the outcome of the bid.
- We will publicise changes we have made, or improvements we’ve made as a result of what carers have told us, e.g. ‘you said, we did’.
Have you got an idea
If you have an idea about how we can better support carers or reach more carers, or have you ever thought “I wish that service existed”, share your ideas by emailing [email protected]
How carers have already been involved
Through our Norfolk Young Carers Forum, young carers have been able to take the lead on their own campaigns and also running awareness-raising conferences and events.
They have put together their own surveys, where the young people decided on the questions they wanted to ask and also helped to share the survey with other young carers, and then got involved in the analysis of the results.
You can watch Eloise and Sienna explaining more about this below. You can also click here to download a full copy of our carer voice and involvement plan [PDF, 3MB] including more examples of carer voice and involvement.
