Agenda item

To provide an update on the development of the Haringey Carers Strategy 2025-2028.

Jo Baty, Director for Adult Social Care, introduced the report for the Haringey Carers Strategy 2025-28 stating that this provided an update on the Council’s work with carers, voluntary and community sector partners, specialist services and networks that support carers in Haringey. Following a co-production and engagement process, some key priorities for the Strategy were developed:

• Improving access to timely, clear and accessible information and support.
• Strengthening carers’ rights, wellbeing and resilience.
• Creating inclusive, culturally responsive services that reflect the diversity of Haringey’s communities.

Providing further details to the Panel, Alexandra Domingue, Programme Manager – Adult Social Care Commissioning, explained that there were also six themes in the Strategy which were further developments of the key priorities. These were:

• Getting the Basics Right

o   Including a focus on continued identification of carers.

o   Acknowledging the importance of timely assessment and review.

• Information and Communication

o   Addressing the varied ways to engage with carers who have a range of different communications preferences.

o   Improving digital platforms and providing digital training for carers.

• Health and Wellbeing

o   Facilitating connections through peer support networks.

• Respite and Breaks

o   Ensuring access to a range of respite options.

o   Developing further innovative ways to meet respite needs.

• Financial Resilience and Employment

o   Empowering carers so that they are aware of the financial support that exists.

o   Supporting carers with future planning.

• Training

o   Including training for safe care practices

Alexandra Domingue emphasised that the key to delivering the overall strategy would be to join up all of these elements to ensure that carers were well informed of what was already available, what would become available and ways to engage with the Council to deliver the strategy.

Cllr Connor welcomed the strategy and acknowledged the work that had gone into its development. She also commented that the key performance indicators outlined in the report were particularly helpful.  Jo Baty (Director for Adult Social Care), Alexandra Domingue (Programme Manager – Adult Social Care Commissioning), Sujesh Sundarraj (Commissioning Manager - Adult Social Care), Sara Sutton (Corporate Director of Adults, Housing & Health) and Cllr Lucia das Neves (Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care & Wellbeing) then responded to questions from the Panel:

• Cllr Mason raised the financial needs of unpaid carers including possible changes to Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Cllr das Neves referred to the Council’s recent response to the Government’s consultation on welfare reforms, expressing concerns about the potential impact on vulnerable residents in Haringey. She also emphasised the need to listen to residents on this issue and noted her recent engagement with organisations such as Disability Action Haringey. Sara Sutton added that the Council would model the impact of welfare changes and that carers would be considered as a part of that. Part of the feedback from carers had been that they didn’t always know what was available to them, including financial inclusion support, so advice and signposting was required as part of the strategy. Jo Baty emphasised that there had been powerful conversations during the workshops about trust and sharing information about personal circumstances. It was therefore recognised that there were multi-layered sensitivities and that peer support from people who had a similar lived experience could be beneficial.
• Asked by Cllr Brennan about the offer for respite care in Haringey, Alexandra Domingue explained that a respite package was offered to those with an assessed eligible need, though it was not always possible to offer as much respite in a timely fashion as would ideally be provided. In addition, some residents did not always use their full allocation of respite services. There was an aim to improve the cycle of reviews with carers and to use Direct Payments to improve the overall offer. Jo Baty emphasised that this linked to another cornerstone of the strategy about information and advice, including in accessible formats, so that carers were clear about the range of options available and the support available from the community and voluntary sector. This was particularly important because the needs of carers could be very varied. Asked by Cllr Brennan about the funding for these options, Jo Baty clarified that this was usually from the Adult Social Care budget but that this could depend on what the funding stream for the individual resident was.
• Cllr Iyngkaran said that there were some circumstances that he was aware of involving residents who really struggled to access respite support. Alexandra Domingue responded that this underlined the importance of the assessment and review stage as this determined eligibility. After that stage, the process would depend on what the Council was able to provide and the resident being able to reach the Council in a timely manner. Sujesh Sundarraj added that the recent feedback from the engagement process had shown that it could be difficult to get in touch with the Council, particularly in an emergency situation, so there were recommendations on how this process could be streamlined and responsive in future and these had been included in the action plan.
• Cllr O’Donovan asked for clarification on the type of respite that residents needed, given that some respite could be for a couple of hours while other types of respite could be for several days. Cllr das Neves acknowledged that there were a range of needs and that for some people having regular breaks to avoid burnout was important while others may prioritise an extended break to allow for a holiday. Alexandra Domingue added that the aim was to provide a menu of choices that works for a variety of people from different backgrounds and with different needs.
• Cllr Connor asked how the different types of carers were being recognised in the key performance indicators (KPIs). Alexandra Domingue said that an important aspect of the data gathered was to make sure that responses also included details about background so that a picture could be built of their carers assessment journey. The Commissioning Co-production Board had also engaged with various local groups including those working with young carers. Overall, this was a process that involved both a qualitative and quantitative approach.
• Noting the ‘increased/decreased’ column in the KPIs section of the report, Cllr Connor asked whether baseline figures would be established from which these indicators could be clearly measured and tracked. Jo Baty explained that there were national KPIs that all local authorities used for carers along with an annual survey to track progress each year. There was also qualitative data from the engagement with people on their lived experience and whether they felt their quality of life had improved. It was therefore necessary to try to triangulate that data and develop meaningful local KPIs with the help of the carers co-production group.
• Referring to the financial resilience and employment section of the KPIs, Cllr Connor suggested that training and employment offers to carers would be included in these measures. Cllr das Neves said that there were good examples of in Haringey of carers supported into employment and there had been discussions on specific needs of different cohorts in adult social care, including people with additional needs who wanted to seek employment opportunities.
• Cllr Connor asked about the frequency of carers assessments and health checks, including whether these were proactively arranged by the Council. Jo Baty explained that there had been a specific project the previous year on working with carers and that all of the carers known to the Council had now had a review. The issue was now to sustain that performance with new carers coming through. Sujesh Sundarraj added that the proactive approach included targeting young adult carers who did not traditionally interact with the Council and making people aware that they were eligible for a Care Act Assessment. It was also important to consider that not all carers necessarily want to receive a full statutory assessment and may be happy just to have peer support so there were various means of reaching out via faith groups and community networks.
• Asked by Cllr Brennan if ‘one-stop shops’ for carers support were available, Cllr das Neves responded that this was a suggestion that had emerged from the engagement process. This needed to be balanced on the overall needs of carers as some people may find it useful to have a place to go while for others this may not be an option at all. There were a range of good ideas emerging from the engagement process and the Council would be working closely with carers to help shape the right services.
• Cllr Opoku requested further details about the survey that would be used for the KPI on carers accessing digital support. Alexandra Domingue explained that there would be both digital and paper-based options to participate in the survey. Information about the survey would be cascaded to carers via various community groups.
• Cllr O’Donovan referred to training and highlighted the importance of funding for voluntary organisations to enable them to provide this. Jo Baty responded that there had been discussions around training with experts by experience and integrated training with carers and health and social care staff together but acknowledged that building on these opportunities was difficult without extra money.
• Cllr O’Donovan asked about support for carers after the person they were caring for had died, including housing and employment advice. Jo Baty said that the strategy included details about having difficult conversations as soon as possible in order to be able to future-proof arrangements and understand the Council’s role in such circumstances. Alexandra Domingue added that there were some examples of carers in Haringey whose formal role as a carer had come to an end, but they had chosen to become involved in the community afterwards to help to support carers in their current situation.
• Cllr Iyngkaran noted that 274 survey responses had been received and queried whether this was representative of the diverse population of the Borough. Sujesh Sundarraj said that the response rate to the postal survey was 11% which was relatively good but acknowledged that the survey responses were a small percentage of the population overall. There was a national challenge in obtaining data of this type and the Council was aware of the risk of underrepresentation from certain groups and so they had reached out via faith groups and community networks to ensure a more rounded view in the strategy overall.
• Cllr Iyngkaran asked how housing repairs and adaptations would be tracked through the KPIs as residents were often unhappy about delays, communications and the quality of work. Alexandra Domingue agreed that there was a need to set clear targets, for example on what ‘timely’ was defined as. She added that, for residents, having a clear understanding of the likely timescales was really important. The team was also trying to increase the amount of qualitative data that was gathered such as feedback from residents after an adaptation had been completed.
• Referring to employment opportunities for carers, Cllr Mason highlighted the importance of flexible employment practices to enable carers to manage their hours around their caring responsibilities. Cllr das Neves said that this was a fair point but also a national issue commenting that culturally the UK was not as good as it could be on flexibility. She added that this was not an easy thing to do but she felt that the Haringey Works team understood the challenges faced by the people they were working with and were committed to obtaining long-term sustainable work for them. Cllr Mason noted that the employment issue didn’t appear to have been tracked onto a KPI and suggested that this could be added. Alexandra Domingue agreed to look into this (ACTION) and Cllr das Neves commented that there was a national KPI on this.
• Cllr Mason queried whether some of the KPIs could have clearer numbers or percentage-based targets rather than just being measured on ‘increased/decreased’. Alexandra Domingue noted that the team was aiming to improve the action plan and to engage further on the action plan with carers so the KPIs would be developed and become smarter and more measurable.
• Noting that the engagement work was continuing and that the action plan and KPIs would be developed further, Cllr Connor asked when the Scrutiny Panel was likely to be able to see the outcomes from this. Sara Sutton said that the current intention was for the final version of the strategy to be formally adopted by the Cabinet in the Autumn and suggested that the Scrutiny Panel could look in more detail at the outcomes being achieved in around 12 months’ time. (ACTION) She also noted that this would be a three-year strategy and so the Scrutiny Panel may want to look at this on an annual basis during that period. Cllr das Neves suggested that the scrutiny item(s) could directly involve some of the carers involved in leading the process through the co-production group. (ACTION)
• Cllr Connor commented that details of the respite offer needed to be much clearer for residents as this was not well understood in the local community.