Congratulations to all the organisations who have recently achieved our Carer Friendly Tick Award – recognising the work they are doing to identify and support unpaid carers.
Three-in-four people who are, or have been, looking after someone don’t recognise themselves as a carer. This is why it is so valuable to have more and more awareness and support of carers among employers, and in health, education and community settings.
Belinda Jones, Awareness and Voice Team Manager, said, “We want every carer to be recognised and given the support they need, and each of these Carer Friendly Tick Award holders are doing valuable work in helping that happen. Reading through their applications it is really encouraging to see the different ways they are identifying and supporting carers in their setting.
“These latest awards include those who have achieved the accreditation in health and education, and we have more employers and community organisations working towards the award.”
The latest organisations to receive the Carer Friendly Tick Award are:
- Cambridge University Hospitals Patient Experience Team (Health)
- Norwich Road Academy (Education)
- Trumpington Street Medical Practice (Health)
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Central Neurodevelopmental Service (Health).
And they have told us why they believe it is so important carers are recognised and supported.
Clare Hawkins, Head of Nursing, Patient Experience and Engagement told us, “Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust recognises the essential role played by carers.
“We aim to recognise carers as full partners in the way we deliver care, and provide support and advice to all carers, whether they are a patient, visitor, member of staff or care worker.
“We have made great progress with supporting our workforce to be carer aware but know there is still work to do so that we identify carers at all points of contact.
“Our Carers Tick award will demonstrate to the patients and families we support every day that our Patient Experience team promotes a carer friendly environment and can help signpost them to key sources of support and guidance. We hope it will also enable us to identify more carers in the future.”
Principal of Norwich Road Academy, Julia Miles, told us, “We are aware of the roles that many of our children take on at home and this award acknowledges this for them.
“It recognises everyone’s hard work in the important role of caring. This also links very closely with our work as a ‘Kind School’. With this, our young people feel valued and part of a special team.”
And a member of the CPFT, Central Neurodevelopmental Service, said, “I have seen within the organisation that I work in how important our carers are and how they should be recognised and supported.
“It has been important that we support carers and understand the importance of their role and the pressure they face day-to-day and how we can best support them.
“By getting the Carer Friendly Tick Award it has help to raise this awareness and for people and young people to open up about being a carer, and how can support then best.”
Trumpington Street Medical Practice said, “We applied for the Carer Friendly Tick Award because we were increasingly aware of the pressures faced by patients who are carers, and we wanted to ensure we were supporting them to the best of our ability.
“Going through the process of applying for the award certainly helped us look at better ways of reaching out to carers and at streamlining our processes for connecting them with the right support. It has also raised awareness of the issues carers face amongst the whole practice team.
“Patients who are carers are now more speedily identified and offered support. This means that some are now aware of help that they didn’t know existed before, and we are already getting good feedback. One patient who is a carer recently commented that she felt just from the way she was dealt with when she phoned the surgery that her situation and needs were understood.”
For more information about the Carer Friendly Tick Awards and how your organisation can support carers see caringtogether.org/carer-friendly-tick or email [email protected]
