First group of volunteer Carer Ambassadors making good progress and more selected for next stage
The first group of 11 volunteer Carer Ambassadors are making good progress in their new roles, and have recently been joined by two new volunteers in Gloucestershire and one in Bedfordshire. These three new Carer Ambassadors agreed to begin their roles earlier than planned so that they can collaborate with the GP Champions (recruited by the Royal College of GPs) who are based close to where they live.
The initial activities of the Carer Ambassadors have focused on speaking with local carers’ centres and NHS/local authority staff to assess current support for carers by GP practices in their areas. Carers Trust (the new name for The Princess Royal Trust for Carers / Crossroads) have also recently appointed 20 Expert Practitioners who will be seeking to incorporate best practice in liaising with general practices in their own carers centres. During the coming months we will be facilitating joint action plans between Carer Ambassadors, GP Champions and Expert Practitioners in each of the nine English regions.
We are hopeful of securing further funding from the Department of Health to continue and expand the programme in 2012/13 and have already recruited another 20 volunteers to begin their roles in April/May. See Recruitment of Carer Ambassadors section below if you would like to apply for a Carer Ambassador role starting in May or beyond.
Background to the programme:
Carers UK, together with the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) and Carers Trust, has been awarded substantial funding from the Department of Health to improve GP support for carers during 2011/12.
Research shows that carers look to their GP as the first port of call for help and support. Much good work has taken place to improve support by GPs and allied healthcare professionals, but the overall picture is patchy. Carers UK is testing a ‘Carer Ambassador’ model of support (see below for recruitment process).
Three grants are funding related projects aimed at:
- increasing the awareness and understanding of carers’ health needs
- identifying more carers at an early stage
- improving support for carers in GP practices
- increasing the sharing of information and good practice between GP practices
- increasing the referral rate of carers to carer organisations such as Carers UK and Carers Trust
- establishing a low-cost, sustainable model that can be used in other locations around the UK
- in the medium-term, to improve health outcomes (such as reduced stress and reduced hospital admission) and quality of care for carers
How will we achieve this?
Carer Ambassadors – Carers UK has recruited 14 volunteer Carer Ambassadors who will work directly with 10 GP Champions (recruited by the RCGP. Together, the Ambassador and Champion will develop a programme to transform general practice carer support, producing tangible benefits for carers.
Briefing of Ambassadors – drawing on Carers UK’s training expertise, a training/briefing day equipped the selected Carer Ambassadors with the necessary skills, knowledge and resources to perform the role.
Development of Resources – Carers UK will provide a series of resources which will be adapted by ambassadors with local information, and will complement the RCGP delivered resources in order to achieve maximum benefit for carers.
Support and Expertise – an easy-to-use online forum encourages the Carer Ambassadors to share challenges, experiences and good practice that delivers effective support to carers, backed up with telephone support and access to Carers UK expertise.
Monitoring and Evaluation – Carers UK is leading and an external evaluation of all activities within the Supporting Carers in General Practice Programme in order to provide an objective assessment of outcomes. CIRCLE (based at the University of Leeds) have been an appointed as an external evaluation partner to gather and analyse data and to produce a final report for programme partners and the Department of Health.
Recruitment of Carer Ambassadors
If you are a carer living in England and have the skills and commitment to improve support for carers in general practice in your area, we would really like to hear from you. The first group of Carer Ambassadors began their roles in January 2012 and we are hopeful of securing further funding to continue the programme during 2012/13.
If you are interested in becoming a Carer Ambassador from May 2012, please read the Volunteer Role Description first. If you would then like to apply, please send a short Expression of Interest (200 to 300 words) by email to Michael Shann, Carer Ambassadors Project Manager (michael.shann@carersuk.org). This Expression of Interest should explain why you would like to undertake the role and what makes you a suitable candidate. If you have a CV, please attach this and provide your full address and contact details. Suitable candidates will be asked to have an informal telephone interview and will then be invited to a briefing session before they begin their roles.
Other Enquiries
If you would like to find out more about the programme, or would like to pass on your experiences of working with general practices, please contact Michael at michael.shann@carersuk.org
