Listening Support Service FAQs

At certain times, the service is busier and it can take us longer to get in touch. If you have filled out the form, we have your details and will match you with a volunteer as soon as there is availability. If you have any questions or still haven’t received any contact after two weeks, you can contact us at listeningsupport@carersuk.org

All of the data we store will be on secure systems and only accessed by those who need to see it. Volunteers are trained on data protection and confidentiality. The volunteer will use your name, number, and other information from your completed referral form in order to make the calls. They will also make some notes about what has been discussed on the call for our monitoring and evaluation purposes and this data will all be stored in accordance within our data protection and privacy policy. You can read this here: Privacy Notice

We understand that things come up and it’s not always possible to be available at an exact time. If you are unable to answer the first call, the volunteer will try you again within two hours. If you cannot take the call that day, the volunteer will reschedule the call for the same time frame/day in the following week/fortnight.

If you already know that you will not be able to receive the next scheduled call, you can let us know by emailing us at listeningsupport@carersuk.org and we can reschedule the call for the following week/fortnight.

You are able to miss/reschedule up to two calls without these being counted towards the four calls you can receive overall.

Our volunteer callers are trained to understand the issues that affect carers, provide emotional support and some signposting. They come from a variety of backgrounds, ages, genders, etc and many will have personal experience of being a carer.

If you wish to change the person calling you for whatever reason, you can contact us at listeningsupport@carersuk.org and let us know that you would like to change the volunteer who is calling you. We may ask the reasons for this when you contact us to ensure there are no issues that need to be addressed.

If you do not want to use the whole 30 minutes, that’s completely fine; the calls are there for you to use as you would like. However, the minutes do not get rolled over to future calls if you end the call early. We try to keep to around 30 minutes as a finish time to allow us to offer support to as many carers as possible. The volunteer will be able to share some alternative services you can contact for support if you would like further support after the 30 minutes.

After you have received all of the calls from the service, if you still feel you would like further support, the volunteer can discuss this with you and suggest some other services that could help. You are also able to refer back into the service in six months if you would like to receive the support again.

Our volunteers are not trained to offer mental health support or to support people in crisis, but we would suggest contacting Mind, Rethink Mental Illness or Samaritans (you can call the Samaritans 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 116 123). Carers with mental health issues are of course able to receive support as long as they are aware the focus of the calls will be around their caring responsibilities.

If you think you could benefit from some counselling, you can contact your GP and ask for some support. If you need some advice, you can contact our Helpline service by emailing advice@carersuk.org. The volunteers are not trained counsellors and are not able to provide advice about issues relating to caring nor able to support you to access services.

If you have the person’s permission, you can complete the form on their behalf (indicating you are doing so when asked on the form), or you can send the webpage as a link and they can complete the form themselves. We are not able to sign anyone up to the service without their consent.