Carers Week 2022

This year, Carers Week ran from 6 to 12 June with the theme 'Visible, Valued and Supported'.

Carers' Week 6 - 12 June

As a partnership, our aim is to increase recognition and support for approximately 400,000 unpaid carers living across West Yorkshire in Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield District.

Working with local caring organisations, we want to support them and local carers to encourage people to plan for the eventuality of an emergency so that those they care for receive the help they need. This includes promoting the ‘message in a bottle’, an initiative created by the Lions Club Charity, who encourage people to share important medical information in a green and white bottle in an easy to find location – the fridge.

New Partnership guidance for managers also aims to help employers have supportive conversations with employees who have unpaid caring responsibilities. 1 in 7 of our workforce is a working carer with 600 people stop working every day to care for a loved one. This means employers lose staff, knowledge, and skill. Evidence shows that allowing greater flexible working enables working carers to balance work and care successfully.

We are also working hard for young carers across West Yorkshire and will be launching the new Young Carers Education pack with resources to help support them.

Blog from Richard Parry, Strategic Director Adults and Health, Kirklees Council and Co-Chair of WT HCP Unpaid Carers Programme and Fatima Khan Shah, Associate Director for WY HCP Unpaid Carers Programme.

Making Carers Visible, Valued and Supported

Around 400,000 unpaid carers live in West Yorkshire, many not identifying themselves as such, all have an invaluable role supporting their family or friends, 365 days a year. Nationally, unpaid carers save the economy £132 billion per year.

Caring is rewarding but can take its toll. Many unpaid carers share they are exhausted, struggling financially with little or no breaks from caring. The impact on their own health and wellbeing can feel overwhelming.

Recent engagement with local unpaid carers, led by carer organisations and West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership (WY HCP) found that the impact of their responsibilities is far reaching.

Working with local specialist carer organisations and the local arrangements that each local authority area has in place, all the organisations that make up the WY HCP are committed to Making Caring Visible, Valued and Supported. The Partnership’s work spans across all programmes of work, including mental health, cancer and the vital role of voluntary community and social enterprise sector, as well as with unpaid carers of all ages. The carers voice is at the centre of all work, ensuring their voice is heard and embedding the ethos of, “what matters to you?”.

The work of the programme is focused on tangible interventions that support unpaid carers in meaningful ways, focusing on several areas including supporting those who balance work and caring, helping over 50,000 unidentified carers receive their COVID vaccine in 2021, enabling them to continue caring safely without fear of breaking down the continuity of care received.

WY HCP’s network of networks demonstrates a commitment to the ambitions through demonstrable actions

This year’s Carers Week West Yorkshire campaign includes:

Message in Bottle: working with local caring organisations, in partnership with Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust. The initiative is encouraging people to think about what their contingency plan looks like, ensuring in the event of an emergency those they care for receive the help they need.

The initiative was created by the Lions Club Charity and includes a plastic container to store important medical and personal information that supports the carer and cared for person in an emergency. The container is recommended to be stored in the fridge with a sticker on the front of the fridge so emergency services will know to access it. Bottles and contingency plans have been distributed to carers services across West Yorkshire.

Guidance for managers: as many as 1 in7 workers are unpaid carers, and the Working Carers guidance for managers has been produced supporting unpaid carers in the workplace. Over 600 people stop working every day in the UK to provide care. This means employers lose staff, knowledge, and skills.

This guidance supports managers to have supportive conversations with their employees who have caring responsibilities. Evidence shows allowing greater flexible working arrangements enables working carers to balance work and care successfully, enabling them to work with flexibility and peace of mind.

Bite size learning materials: a web section with bite sized resources for those who work with children and young people enabling them to be able to identify and support young carers. The webpage includes, quick wins, one-minute guides, local young carer services, training slides from the Children’s Society. Coproduced films are in the final stages of production with young carers sharing what their life is like and sharing some of the missed opportunities and challenges they face.

Other resources available are the Young Carers App and Young Carer Cookbook. The App was coproduced with young carers following feedback on what support they need to make their caring role easier. Feedback highlighted the importance of virtual anonymous support and advice on maintaining physical and mental wellbeing. The cookbook was designed by young carers for young carers based on their own experiences of food and being a young carer, to support their health and wellbeing.

The WY HCP programme is committed to supporting and recognising unpaid carers from ethnic diverse communities. The WY HCP Race Equality Network are working with programmes to deliver a series of health and wellbeing webinars dedicated to sharing the lived experience of working carers from ethnically diverse communities - working across local authority, voluntary, community, social enterprise, and health care organisations.

Evidence shows that many unpaid carers across our workforce face a multitude of challenges because of both caring and being from an ethnic minority background. All organisations that form the WY HCP want their health and care system to be a supportive environment where they fully understand the needs of its diverse workforce. The webinars are for anyone who is managing staff across West Yorkshire, or a working carer living or employed within its five local places including Bradford and Craven District, Leeds, Kirklees, Calderdale, and Wakefield District. The webinars will inspire others, help the audience understand the support available and learn more about working carer passports.

Carer’s Week shines a light on the sacrifices unpaid carers make as well as the rewards that come from being a carer.

We know for many the role is relentless and continues 24/7. WY HCP has an awarding winning Unpaid Carers Programme that recognises this and is committed to supporting unpaid carers of all ages, now and in the future to reduce the health inequalities and many challenges they face. Working with local carer organisations and all partners is key to supporting all carers, regardless of age of background.

Richard Parry, Strategic Director Adults and Health, Kirklees Council and Co-Chair of WT HCP Unpaid Carers Programme

Fatima Khan Shah, Associate Director for WY HCP Unpaid Carers Programme

Carers Week resources available to download and use locally

Read the latest news

Six social media graphics (available to download)

Carers week social media graphics.jpg

Available to download: Carers' Week Social Media Schedule
Available to download: Carers Week - social media graphic A
Available to download: Carers Week - social media graphic B
Available to download: Carers Week - social media graphic C
Available to download: Carers Week - social media graphic D
Available to download: Carers Week - social media graphic E
Available to download: Carers Week - Message in a Bottle social media graphic

Signposting information to local carer organisations

Carer organisation	Website	How to contact
Bradford	Carers Resource	Contact Carers Resource here
Calderdale	Making Space	Contact: Making Space here
Kirklees	Carers Count	Contact Carers Count here
Leeds	Carers Leeds	Contact Carers Leeds here.
Wakefield	Carers Wakefield	Contact Carers Wakefield here

Carers Week videos

Working Carers Passport Webinars

The Race Equality Network working alongside the Partnership has developed a series of webinars dedicated to supporting working carers from ethnic minority communities that work across the Local Authority, VCSE and Health Care Organisations who are, or have been working carers. Evidence shows that many carers across our workforce face a multitude of challenges of both caring and being from an ethnic background and we want our health and care system to be a supportive environment that understands the needs of our diverse workforce.The webinars are for anyone who is a working carer living or working within our five local places including Bradford and Craven district, Leeds, Kirklees, Calderdale and Wakefield and is interested in:

Hearing from working carers about their lived experience to help inspire others, understanding what support is available and learning more about what the Working Carers Passport and how this can benefit you as a working carer.

You can sign up to attend the following webinars:

Working Carers (Local Authority), 13 June, 10am - 12 noon
Working Carers (VCSE), 15 June, 10am - 12 noon
Working Carers (NHS / Health Care Organisations), 16 June, 10am - 12 noon

Working Carers Passport - guidance for managers (May 2022)

Please signpost to this page: www.wypartnership.co.uk/our-priorities/unpaid-carers/working-carers

Approximately, 1 in 5 employees juggles work with care, so it is more common than you might think. The aim of the Working Carers Passport is to help employees to balance work and unpaid care, to support their health and wellbeing and ensure, they remain well and at work.

Employers are starting to realise the impact of caring on their own employees and their business. A growing number of employers in all sectors are running Working Carer Passport schemes as part of a wider package to identify and support carers and ultimately avoid losing valuable employees from their workforce.

The Working Carers Passport is a tool to aid organisations to be a supportive employer, helping to balance the employee’s unpaid caring responsibilities and need for flexibility with the needs of the organisation. View the Working carers passport - manager guidance.

Further guidance can be found at carerpassport.uk. Alternately your local carers organisation can offer further help or support.

'Message in a Bottle' contingency planning for caring responsibilities in an emergency.

Please signpost to this page: www.wypartnership.co.uk/messageinabottle

Message in a Bottle social media graphic.jpg ‘Message in a Bottle’ is a simple but effective way for people to share their basic personal and medical details including contingency planning for caring responsibilities in an emergency. These are kept where they can be found in an emergency on a standard form and in a common location – the fridge.

The message to all carers across West Yorkshire to think about a contingency plan so that the person they care for is supported at the earliest opportunity and the carer has peace of mind that there is something in place should they be taken unwell or there an accident or medical emergency.

West Yorkshire emergency (contingency) plan

West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership has been working with local areas to create a West Yorkshire emergency (contingency) plan, where unpaid carers can document important contacts and key information that would need to be shared in an emergency to provide care for the person they care for. The West Yorkshire contingency plan is available here. Each carer organisation across our five places is giving a message in a bottle and their local plan out but some might not connect in that way.

Please use the message in a bottle to indicate where your contingency plan will be stored, and don't forget to update it if information changes. Your local area may have a slightly different emergency plan, please connect with your local carer centre for further information and support.

Young Carers learning materials

We have produced these bite sized learning materials. The learning materials aim to suit different learning styles with bite size, easy to read, watch or listen to materials that will enable you to make a difference.

Research shows that young carers have significantly lower educational attainment at GCSE level – an average of one grade lower than their peers. They are also less likely to be in education, employment or training (NEET) between 16 and 19. This is information to support professionals who work with children and young people who maybe or have been identified as young carers. The information has been sourced and produced both locally and nationally by the Partnership's young carers steering group in co-production with young carers and kind permission from The Children's Society.

You'll find more information about young carers and the support available to them on our Young Carers page.