Learn more about how we provide safe, quality care and the best experience for carers - part of the Local Account Summary.
With the cost-of-living and other pressures, this year has been another tough year for the thousands of unpaid carers who support family and friends in Torbay. Torbay Carers’ Services has continued to work with partners to support and identify carers.
Our carers’ assessments target this year was 40% of all people receiving support. We are so proud to have completed 48% of assessments, with carer support continuing to be provided by the carer support workers at doctor’s practices, specialist carer support workers, and partner agencies such as Carers’ Aid Torbay and Family Carers’ Service (supporting carers of adults with a learning disability).
Torbay carer evaluators spoke to 50 carers about their experience of having a carer assessment, and they told us how much they had appreciated the assessment and felt their needs had been understood well:
Some carers were not asked about employment/training/education support, and a high number of carers were not asked if they were willing and able to continue caring.
As a result of their feedback, our Carers’ Services has amended its assessment paperwork and prompts to adult social care staff.
People who have served their country, and their families, will often have unique and difficult health and care needs. We are proud of our local armed forces’ family and want them to know we are here for them and their families when they need us.
We have strengthened our commitment to supporting the health and wellbeing of our community’s armed forces this year by providing support with our new Torbay Carers’ Service veteran worker who undertakes health and wellbeing checks with carers who are members of the armed forces and veterans’ community, or who care for someone who is a veteran.
During the past year they have completed 54 health and wellbeing checks, encouraged 220 veteran carers to get support from Torbay Carers’ Service and encouraged carers of 92 veterans to contact the carers’ service.
It’s so important that carers have breaks to ensure their own health and wellbeing is protected. This project supports carers to have either a short free hotel break via Carefree Breaks or a stay at a discounted rate through our hospitality scheme. It has made a real difference to carers during the past year. Here are some of the great things carers have told us:
Thank you so much for making this break possible.
I’ve been caring for 8 years and was at rock bottom, loneliness broke me down and I felt so trapped in my role not even wanting to do it anymore! ....... Well, my break was absolutely everything and more. I didn’t stop, I didn’t need to rest my body just my mind. Then when it was coming to the end there wasn’t anxiety about coming home. I had missed the family and knew I didn’t resent it anymore; I had just needed a break from caring. Sanity restored I feel happy and useful again, not perfect and that’s OK.
What a treat! I felt rewarded for being a carer. (A sort of Thank you)!
I was pretty worn out emotionally and physically before I went but have really benefitted from some me time.
We work with our partners in primary, secondary and community services to ask everyone who works with patients to ask if they are a carer and aware of the support available to them.
During the past year GPs identified 9,451 carers in their surgeries.
Our phone line, email and hospital advice point service continues to be very well used, with more than 1400 contacts during the past 12 months.
During the past year, the service supported 878 new applicants (17% of the total) joined in 2023/24, increasing the total number of members from 5,206 to 5,392.
In April 2023 we invited 5,250 carers to help us to update our Torbay Carers’ Strategy 2024-27. We worked with health and social care partners and carers to understand people’s priorities and issues. They told us:
From this, they developed ‘I statements’ from a range of priorities which will inform our work and measure our progress. Carers told us:
We’re now working on an action plan to deliver our strategy for the next three years.
Carers have also been involved with:
We believe there are around 755 young adult carers in Torbay – this figure may be higher as some may not identify or know they are a carer. They’re an under-represented group, and we know that children and young people can find it difficult caring for someone and identify as a carer.
They play a really important job in making sure their loved ones get the care they need, which could be their mum or dad, brother or sister or their grandparent.
They might be helping someone who has a physical or mental health condition, or supporting someone who has a drug or alcohol dependency.
We want to support our young carers and make sure they get the help they need too.
We have worked with our young carers to co-produce our under 25s strategy to make sure it meets their needs.
Our YAC service continues to be busy, providing both one to one work and drop-in groups and activities, and fund-raising to support its activities. During the past year YAC has raised more than £3000.
Torbay YAC and Young Carers Services also worked with The Children’s Society to create a film to promote awareness of young carers with health professionals, with a powerful plea for them to ‘see us, show us, support us’. This video has been shared with NHS professionals to raise awareness of the support young carers have told us they want.