Call for carers to have their say on services in West Yorkshire and Harrogate

Posted on: 4 April 2019

West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership held an event today (4 April) to discuss how the NHS Long Term Plan can support better outcomes for unpaid carers across the area. The workshop was held at Unity Works in Wakefield.

The event brought together over 70 people, carers and health and social care professionals to seek their views. This will help align the West Yorkshire and Harrogate carers’ strategy with the Long Term Plan.

It was a great opportunity to share the progress we have made in our work to support unpaid carers. There was also guest speaker from NHS England, Jen Kenward, who contributed towards the development of the NHS Long Term Plan. They shared information about what the plan means for carers nationally as well as for people in West Yorkshire and Harrogate.

The NHS Long Term Plan was published on 7 January 2019 and sets the direction of travel for the NHS over the next ten years.

We estimate that there are around 260,000 unpaid carers of all ages in West Yorkshire and Harrogate.  As public services continue to face financial pressures, increasing demand, the introduction of new legislation and approaches and the changing expectations of citizens, increasing numbers of unpaid carers are taking on responsibility for more intensive levels of care.  This, combined with changes to retirement age, means the demographic of unpaid carers across the country is changing too, and will become more complex as people work until much later than is currently the case, juggling work and caring for longer. West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership have been recognised by NHS England as an exemplar site for developing support for unpaid carers.  There are 12 exemplar sites in England.

Although caring can be rewarding, there is substantial evidence that carers have poorer physical and mental health than those who are not carers, and that the more care you provide the more likely you are to have poorer health.  For many carers, the biggest priority is the health and wellbeing of those they care for and as such they are more likely to neglect their own health and are known to put off treatment for themselves.

Over the coming months, alongside carers, workforce and communities in Bradford District & Craven, Calderdale, Harrogate, Leeds, Kirklees and Wakefield, we will work through what the NHS Long Term Plan means for all carers of all ages. This means identifying any gaps between what we have in place and the Long Term Plan. The five year strategy will build on the significant work the Partnership has already done in our local communities - as described in the ‘Next Steps to Better Health and Care for Everyone’ publication – to plan for ambitious improvements to health and care. The strategy will belong to us all. 

As a partnership we recognise that carers play a significant role in delivering and supporting health and care and that without them the health and care system would be overwhelmed.  Carers are recognised in a number of partnership work-streams and our next steps document.  We want to raise their profile and share the excellent work taking place across the area. In addition we also want to celebrate the difference this is making in our communities on a regional and national level – and most importantly ensure that this is applied for all carers no matter where they live in West Yorkshire and Harrogate.

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