Useful Documents

• Working With Carers This guidance has been produced by the BMA’s Committee on Community Care to assist doctors in all settings in their work with carers

• Carers Employment and Services: time for a new social contract? The report highlights the implications of the study findings for the future public policy agenda on carers of working age, setting out the rationale for developing better support for this group of carers at both local and national levels. 

• Stages and Transitions in the Experience of Caring The report outline how carers access and experience the support and services they need to undertake their caring role and to maintain their own health and wellbeing at different stages of caring

•   Managing Caring and Employment The report highlights how services are used by carers to support them in managing along side paid employment

•   Diversity in Caring: towards equality for Carers The report highlights new evidence about carers in all their diversity and about how different groups of carers experience their caring situation, especially in relation to their ability to combine caring with paid employment

•   Carers, Employment and Services in their local Context This report explores some of the differences in the services and support available to working carers and other carers considering combining work and care, according to where they live in Great Britain

• Practice Guide -  The participation of adult service users including older people in developing social care This guide focuses on how practitioners and managers in social care can initiate and sustain the participation of adult service users, including older people, in developing social care. Although it has been designed mainly for practitioners and managers in social care, we hope that the guide will be useful to everyone involved in promoting service user participation, including people using services and family carers.

• Practice Guide - Community- based day activities and support for people with learning disabilities This guide is about what services can do to ensure that people with learning disabilities 'have a good day'. It is about: building community opportunities and support so that people can have ordinary daily lives, day service modernisation, community-based services,employment, lifelong learning, leisure, relationships . and more.

• Independence, choice and risk: A guide to best practice in supported decision making. The guide is for everyone supporting an adult. 

• The State of Social Care in England 2005 - 6 : This is the 2nd report from The Commission for Social Care Inspection about the state of social care in the UK.

• What are Direct Payments: (pdf document) A Surrey Independent Living Council and Surrey County Council publication explaining what direct payments are.

• More than a job: Working Carers, Evidence from the 2001 Census: (pdf document) in the future most people's lives will include one episode of unpaid caring. This is some of the evidence from the 2001 Census.

• Who Carers Wins  This statistical analysis accompanies the report ‘Who Cares Wins: The Social and Business Benefits of Supporting Working Carers’ – a research report into the bottom line benefits to employers of supporting working carers. This research was conducted for Carers
  UK by the Centre for Social Inclusion at Sheffield Hallam University and the work formed part of the Action for Carers and Employment (ACE National) Development Partnership.

• Caring For Sick and Disabled Children  This study has tracked parent carers of sick or disabled children over a four-year period, and gives voice to their experiences, attitudes and aspirations in relation to combining paid employment and unpaid caring.

• Managing More Than Most   Parents of sick or disabled children face significant challenges in entering or remaining in paid work which are often little understood by employers,
  service providers and policy makers. This report explores statistics about caring for a sick
  or disabled child and its impact on parental employment.

• Strong and prosperous communities - The Local Government White Paper (pdf document) The aim of this White Paper is to give local people and local communities more influence and power to improve their lives. It is about creating strong, prosperous communities and delivering better public services through a rebalancing of the relationship between central government, local government and local people

• Practice guide NICE /SCIE: Dementia supporting people with dementia and their carers in health and social care The guide was published in 2006 and is aimed towards health and social care staff who work with people with dementia and their Carers, and those who work with older people and people with a learning disability. This includes Gps, nurses, geriatricians, psychiatrists, social workers, care home managers and coordinators of health and social care. The guide covers a wide range of issues and below are the key points which relate to Carers. 

   

• Practice Guide 5: Implementing the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004 (pdf document) This is the practice guide for Implementing the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004. The Guide has been published by Social Care Institute for Excellence

  Our Health, Our Care, Our SayThis White Paper sets a new direction for the whole health and social care system. It confirms the vision set out in the Department of Health Green Paper, Independence, Well-being and Choice. There will be a radical and sustained shift in the way in which services are delivered, ensuring that they are more personalised and that they fit into people’s busy lives. We will give people a stronger voice so that they are the major drivers of service improvement

• Carers and their Rights - the law relating to Carers   produced by Luke Clements, in conjunction with Action for Carers and Employment National (ACE) and Carers UK outlines the principle rights of Carers to support from the health and social services authorities. Its publication coincides with the Government Guidance on the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004. The guide is updated on a quarterly basis and republished in pdf format. You may order a copy of the guide complete with other materials to support the publication by e mailing mark.murphy@carersuk.org

• Carers and Disabled Children's Act 2000 and Carers (Equal Opportunities Act 2004 Combined Policy Guidance (pdf document) Issued by the Department of Health August 2005

• The State of Social Care in England 2005 /6 - CSCI has a statutory duty to report annually on the state of social care services in England. In their first report to Parliament, they use the findings from their inspections and assessment activity to describe the state of social care in England

• Guide to Continuing NHS Health Care (pdf document) Issued by the Surrey and Sussex NHS this booklet provides important information for people who want to know if they, or a relative, or someone they care for, might be eligible for Continuing NHS Health Care.

• The NHS and responsibilities under the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004 (pdf document) The document has been published by Carers UK and outlines what the NHS has to do do to meet the obligations within the Act.

• In Poor Health (pdf document) Carers who provide high levels of care for sick, or disabled relatives and friends, unpaid, are more than twice as likely to suffer from poor health. This new report from Carers UK investigates these statistics.

• Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995 Practice Guideance (pdf document)

• Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995 Policy Guidance (pdf document)

• The Community Care Assessment Directions (pdf document) This new Government guidance emphasizes the need to involve carers in care planning even where the  carer does not wish to have a carers assessment.

• Valuing Families (A toolkit for family friendly services)  (PDF Document) Valuing People said that the family carers of people with learning disabilities needed better and more support. The main objectives are: 1. Assessing the needs of carers and putting in place the services required.2. Establishing a complete picture of the number of older carers (i.e. those aged 70 and over) in the local area in order to plan services in partnership with them. 3. Providing services and support that meet the needs of carers from minority ethnic communities. 4. Making sure all agencies work in partnership with carers, recognising that carers themselves have needs which are considered. This toolkit is designed to help Partnership Boards do this work. Other people working with family carers will find useful ideas in it. Family carers could use it to check how well their local services are doing. The toolkit brings together what Valuing People said should be happening for family carers with information about the Government’s policy on carers: The Carers’ Strategy. It is not a new policy document but a summary of things that should be already happening for families. To help put policy into practice the toolkit is full of practical ‘tools’. These include guidelines for good practice and examples of work with family carers from around the country.

• Can We Afford Not To Care? - Produced by The Equal Opportunities Commission outlines the benefits of encouraging parents and carers back into the labour force with employers adopting parent and carer friendly employment practices.

• Caring For Older People And Employment   This Audit Commission  literature review is concerned with caring for older people and employment, with a particular focus on the public sector. The review has been commissioned from the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) by the Audit Commission. The emphasis of the review is on two main questions, the extent to which mainstream services and employers take into account the particular  circumstances and needs of carers of older people in their provision of services or employment practices and the question of the effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of carer-friendly services and employment practices.  The focus of the review is primarily on the role of public sector employers in offering carer-friendly employment policies.

• Support For Carers Of Older People - (PDF Document) This Audit Commission Report  looks at the nature and extent of the help that is currently available to carers and makes suggestions about how this can be improved

• Valuing People -  (PDF Document) This White Paper sets out this Government’s commitment to improving the life chances of people with learning disabilities. It shows how they will meet this commitment by working closely with local councils, the health service, voluntary organisations and most importantly with people with learning disabilities and their families to provide new opportunities for those with learning disabilities to lead full and active lives. Also available is the Valuing people support team website

• Young Carers Resource Pack For Schools - The pack contains materials for Key Stages 2 and 3. The materials are designed as a half term (6 weeks) module of lessons to be integrated into schools’ existing Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) programmes. In addition to the lesson materials the pack contains background information for teachers and suggestions for supporting known young carers within school. 

• Surrey Young Carers Schools Project (Information For teachers) - The document provides information about The Surrey Young Carers Project and The Surrey Young Carers Schools Project. The document also highlights some of the issues faced by some young carers when they are at school

• Surrey Children's Services Strategy for involving children, young people, their parents and carers - The document explains how children's Services will involve children, young people, their parents and Carers in services and the reason for doing this.

• Surrey County Councils Fair Access To Care Services Eligibility Policy For Adult Services - This detailed document gives details of this wide ranging policy (PDF)

• Discharge from Hospital: pathways, process and practice - A Department Of Health Document published in January 2003. The guidance implements the objective in the National Carers Strategy of ensuring Carers needs are acknowledged in Hospital Discharge procedures.

• Hospital Discharge A Carers Journey - The purpose of this pack is to provide a training tool on the key elements of involving Carers in the process of hospital discharge. The materials can be used flexibly to meet the differing learning needs of both professionals and Carers involved in the hospital discharge process.

• Developing Services for Carers and Families of People with Mental Illness - The aim of this document is to help local mental health services develop support services for carers of people with mental health problems.

• Carers & Disabled Children's Act - The act came into force in England and Wales in 2000.

• The Regulatory Reform (Carers Allowance) order 2002 - Change of name for Invalid Care Allowance

• Carers and Recognition and Services Act 1995 - Provided Carers for the first time the right of an assessment.

• Caring About Carers (A National Strategy for Carers) The Government national strategy for Carers.

• Moving And Handling Back Care For Carers An Action For Carers Publication