With more people than ever before caring for their relatives, friends and neighbours, the County Council and the Local NHS are working together to make West Sussex a county that values all carers.
Caring can be tough. This strategy sets out how carers, of all ages, will be supported to be more proactive about their own wellbeing. Together, working with partners and carers themselves, the aim is to build carer resilience and make the right interventions for carers when they are most in need.
The West Sussex joint commitment to family and friend carers is the strategy that sets out six priorities to guide the future development of carer support practice up to 2026, within the context of the new Adult Social Care Plan and the Long-Term Plan for the NHS.
The six priorities are:
- Carers will benefit from greater recognition and support.
- We will better target resources to support carers at each stage of the caring journey in order to prevent carer breakdown and enable best care.
- We will ensure that more adult carers understand the out-of-hours options that are available to them and have appropriate back-up support in place for when they need it.
- We will continue to identify and support carers from vulnerable communities.
- We will try and limit financial hardship as a result of caring.
- We will limit carer and young carer isolation.
The counties Health and Wellbeing Board approved the strategy in October 2021 and will oversee and champion progress on its implementation.