Unpaid Adult Carers' Strategy

The strategy reaffirms the value we place on unpaid carers and the contribution they make to the wider community of Renfrewshire. It sets out our commitment to unpaid carers, by prioritising a preventive approach to supporting them.  Our aim is to help them to remain in their caring roles and to manage their own life alongside their caring responsibilities.

In developing the strategy for the next three years, we started by considering the priorities from our most recent strategy and tested them within the current environment to understand if they remain the most important priorities for unpaid carers.  We consulted with unpaid carers with lived experience, to ensure the strategy has undergone meaningful engagement with those who know what it is like to devote a significant proportion of their time to caring for a loved one or friend. We also worked with our staff, carer organisations and a range of delivery partners to make sure those who have responsibilities to support carers have had the chance to shape this strategy.

The consultation told us to focus our activity on the following priorities:

• Unpaid carers are identified early and offered the right support at the right time.
• Unpaid carers get a break from caring.
• Unpaid carers are recognised and valued as equal partners in care and involved in decision making relating to their caring role.
• Unpaid carers are supported on a consistent basis to allow them to continue caring, if that is their wish, in good health and wellbeing, allowing for a life of their own outside of caring.
• We live in unpaid carer-friendly communities, where unpaid carers' needs and rights are understood, and they are not excluded or discriminated against by virtue of their caring role.
• Unpaid carers have the information, skills, and resources they need to care.
• Staff who are unpaid carers are identified and supported within the workplace.